Microsoft Workshop: Elevate Your Microsoft 365 Admin Skills and Knowledge

Editor's Notes

• #1: Welcome everyone to the Microsoft Townhall. Introduce yourself and your co-presenters: Tony Phipps from TechSoup Customer Success, Matika Angkatavanich – Senior Director of Microsoft Partnerships, and Gary Acheson – Operations Manager. Mention the date and the purpose of the session.
• #2: Briefly go over the agenda for today's session. Highlight the key topics: What is New Commerce Experience (NCE), how it will impact organizations, and the Q&A session.
• #3: Explain that NCE is a new initiative by Microsoft aimed at streamlining back-end management and purchasing platforms for Microsoft products. Mention that it was initially launched in January 2022 for commercial licenses and is now impacting government, education, and nonprofit licensing. Highlight the benefits of NCE, such as cost savings for long-term commitments. Microsoft is encouraging moving away from monthly agreements to 1-year agreements for seat-based offers. Although monthly agreements are still available, they will cost an additional 20%. 
• #4: July 2024: Nonprofits SKUs were made available on NCE for new and renewing customers. September 1, 2024: Microsoft began automatically migrating eligible licenses in Legacy to NCE on the subscription term renewal date.
• #5: Explain that Microsoft is encouraging organizations to move away from monthly agreements to 1-year agreements for seat-based offers. Mention that while monthly agreements are still available, they will cost an additional 20%.
• #6: List the cloud subscriptions that are not migratable to NCE and will be renewed in legacy CSP with the same term/billing preference as before.
• #7: Emphasize that the features and functionalities of Microsoft subscription products will remain the same.
• #8: Highlight the changes in product name, cancellation window, payment policy, and available terms offered by TechSoup. Discuss the pricing differential between monthly and annual subscription terms.
• #9: Go into detail about the key changes for nonprofit organizations, including product name, payment policy, and cancellation policy... Annual subscriptions: Alternatively, organizations can commit to a 12-month subscription, with prices fixed for this entire term. Monthly subscriptions: These do not require an annual commitment and can be changed month to month. However, they are being priced at a 16-20% premium to Annual subscription which took effect on December 31, 2024. Monthly subscription is also subjected to potential price increases from one month to the next.
• #25: Thank the audience for their time and attention. Open the floor for questions. Canned Questions Can you explain the main benefits of moving to the New Commerce Experience (NCE)? How will the changes in payment and cancellation policies affect our organization? What are the key differences between annual and monthly subscription options? Are there any specific steps we need to take to prepare for the migration to NCE? How can we get support if we encounter issues during the transition to NCE?