Important volume licensing pricing update

By Dave Jennings

Microsoft have announced some planned price increases to all open licensing programmes, coming into effect from January 1st 2017. This is designed to bring the UK pricing in line with the rest of EU/EFTA. Even after this price adjustment, the pricing will still remain highly competitive.

What programmes are affected?

The below programmes sold by Westcoast will be affected:

• Open Licensing
• Open Value
• Open Value Subscription
• SPLA
• CSP

Other programs such as the MPSA and Enterprise Agreement (not sold through the distribution channel) will also be affected.

Why is Microsoft making this change?

Microsoft periodically assess pricing across all regions to ensure they are aligned, and the price change will realign British Pound prices close to Euro levels

• Prices for on premise software will increase by 13%.

• Prices for most cloud software will increase by 22%

How can I avoid the price increases?

Any agreements with price protection (such as Open Value, OVS, and OVS-ES), taken before January 2017, will be protected for three years, for all products previously ordered. Buying software through the OEM channel will also avoid these price increases, as these prices are reviewed independently to open licensing.

Place as much open licensing and CSP business well in time before the end of 2016 before the price increases!

More info can be found here on the Microsoft Blog

Please contact Emma, Shiraz or Dave on the Licensing Team on 0118 912 6088 or email software@westcoast.co.uk for further help, advice, or quotes.