What is the change?
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that they are aligning prices of Microsoft Cloud products globally. This means that customers will have consistent pricing which reflects the exchange rate of the local currency to the US dollar (USD).
When is this happening?
Starting April 1, 2023, pricing for Microsoft Cloud products will be adjusted in the following currencies:
- GBP: +9%
- DKK, EUR and NOK: +11%
- SEK: +15%
In the future, Microsoft will assess pricing in local currency as part of a regular twice a year cadence, taking into consideration currency fluctuations relative to the USD.
What is the reason for this?
Microsoft believe this change will provide increased transparency and predictability for customers across the globe and align to other industry pricing models.
Microsoft said: “We have deferred pricing adjustments based on currency fluctuations thus far. However, after a sustained period of lower local currency Microsoft cloud pricing in many regions of the world, we’re now beginning a process to realign our prices globally.”
What does this mean for you?
This announcement means that your cloud costs will increase, however Microsoft Cloud continues to be priced competitively, and Microsoft will continue to invest to enable customers to innovate, consolidate and eliminate operating costs and optimise business performance to make the most out of their investment.
What Microsoft services are affected?
Microsoft have yet to confirm a full list of Microsoft services that will experience the prise rise, however it is likely to influence all online services (e.g Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform), excluding Microsoft Azure.
This latest price change doesn't directly impact Microsoft Azure NCE, as pricing is already converted from the US Dollar each month to the local currency.
How can you reduce the impact of these rises?
With the increased cost, you will no doubt be under pressure to cut budgets elsewhere or prove the ROI. This is where we can help – we often find that businesses layer on numerous technologies to their IT stack without realising that many of these features are actually available for free through existing licensing, such as security deployments and telephony. There are also several key optimisation actions you can take to ensure you’re on the best-suited licensing subscriptions and making the most of them.
In light of this, we’re running a webinar in partnership with Microsoft on Wednesday 25th January which will show you how you can do more with less and realise cost savings through consolidating your IT stack. This is free to attend and is being hosted as part of our IT Pioneer Summit – simply add the Do More With Less session to your personal agenda. (If you can’t make it live, sign-up and you’ll be sent the on-demand recording).
