By Richard Smith
General Manager, Microsoft Worldwide Licensing & Pricing (WWLP)
Today, we’re announcing a new way to buy, marking yet another step in our licensing transformation to make it easier for customers and partners to do business with Microsoft:
Enterprise Advantage on MPSA
In 2017, we will introduce Enterprise Advantage as a new way for commercial customers to buy organization-wide on the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA). Enterprise Advantage brings traditional Enterprise Agreement benefits to the MPSA and provides the best value for a three-year, organization-wide and optional platform-wide purchase:
- Mix perpetual and subscription software with cloud services like Office 365, Azure, and CRM Online, organization-wide
- Purchase any time, whatever you need, with no additional enrollments
- Enjoy budget predictability and price protection
- Buy how you want, taking advantage of your combined purchases across the organization to maximize value
- More easily manage your assets, including true-up and true-down of subscriptions and services, to meet ever-changing business needs
Enterprise Advantage on MPSA will offer the same business bargain, including products, pricing, and coverage, as the Enterprise Agreement, plus the added flexibility of the MPSA to align to your purchasing structure and needs. At launch, Enterprise Advantage on MPSA will be available for all commercial customers in markets where the MPSA is available, but will be the optimal choice for most customers with up to 2,400 users or devices. We anticipate introducing similar offerings called Government Advantage and Education Advantage later in 2017, and will continue to build additional functionality over time to support all of our customers with modern licensing choices.
In addition to this new way to buy coming in 2017, remember two policy changes we previously announced become effective today to help customers and partners more easily find and choose the licensing option that best suits their needs:
- Retirement of Select Plus. Existing commercial Select Plus customers will no longer be able to place orders through their Select Plus agreement beginning at their next anniversary date.* Instead, the MPSA offers a more modern licensing option that enables customers to buy licenses for online services, software, and Software Assurance through a simpler and more flexible agreement.
- Increase in the minimum Enterprise Agreement (EA) commitment. For commercial customers signing new Enterprise Enrollments or Enterprise Subscription Enrollments, the minimum commitment increases today to 500 from 250 users or devices*. For new commercial customers with 250 to 499 users or devices, we recommend the MPSA, or the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program for those looking for partner-managed services. MPSA and CSP are the fastest and most flexible ways to buy from Microsoft.
Microsoft customers and partners have contributed to the development of Enterprise Advantage coming in 2017. Together with the policy changes taking effect today, this brings us closer to our goal of providing simpler, more flexible modern licensing. Revisit this blog for more news and information about the transformation of Microsoft volume licensing.
*Both Select Plus retirement and the increase in the minimum Enterprise Agreement commitment policy changes effective today apply only to commercial customers in markets where the MPSA is available. Select Plus will continue to be offered in People’s Republic of China, India, and other markets where the MPSA is not yet available, and the contractual minimum for the Enterprise Agreement will not be raised in those areas.