Microsoft have announced that from September 1st, 2022, a number of key nonprofit Microsoft 365 products will see a price increase.
Which nonprofit products are seeing a price increase?
There are five Office 365 and Microsoft 365 products that are affected:
- Office 365 E1 (from $2 to $2.50)
- Office 365 E3 (from $4.50 to $5.75)
- Office 365 E5 (from $14 to $15.20)
- Microsoft 365 E3 (from $8 to $9)
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $5 to $5.50)
UK pricing has yet to be announced, but is expected to match the above increases.
Which customers are affected by these increases?
The price changes will affect both annual and monthly billing options and will be effective from September 1st, 2022 for new customers and at the next renewal after September 1, 2022 for existing customers. The increases will not affect any nonprofit offers available as a grant, including 10 licences of Microsoft 365 Business Premium, 300 licences of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and 2000 licences of Office 365 E1 via the Enterprise Agreement.
What is the reasoning behind the price increases?
Since Office 365’s initial release in June 2011, Microsoft have continued to evolve the platform, adding 24 new apps and over 1,400 new features. More recently, they have introduced Microsoft Teams as the only solution with meetings, chats, calls, collaboration, and the ability to automate business processes. Also, Data Leak Prevention for documents and emails, conditional access for Office 365, Office messaging encryption, and attack surface reduction capabilities help to keep customer data safe. New AI-supported capabilities that help automate tasks, improve information retrieval and enhance communication can also add tremendous value for customers. These innovations do come at a cost, however, so periodic price increases are to be expected; although still at very significant discounts for non-profit organisations.
Summary
Although any product price increases are unfortunate for customers, the nonprofit Microsoft 365 licences still remain great value, and enable non-profit and charity organisations to benefit from Microsoft’s ever-growing technology platform at affordable price. If you wish to discuss Microsoft’s new pricing with one of our experts, please get in touch.
