Since October 2021, Microsoft cloud solution providers (CSPs) have been gradually transitioning their commercial legacy customers to Microsoft NCE. However, the management of customers’ businesses on two platforms has proven to be a burdensome task.
In response to partner requests for assistance, Microsoft has decided to commence the migration of commercial legacy seat-based subscriptions to new commerce from January 2024 onwards. The migration process will involve setting all legacy subscriptions to an annual term, and maintaining the same billing plan and seat counts that the customers had in the legacy system.
Microsoft has further revealed that for multi-year offers, including the six-year education stock-keeping units (SKUs), solution providers now have the option to independently initiate the migration of legacy offers once they become available in the legacy offer matrix. Microsoft has committed to performing the migration of multi-year legacy offers itself on the subscription renewal dates in 2024, 2025, and beyond.
Upcoming Microsoft NCE dates to remember
This Microsoft-led migration of the public sector offers and commercial offers including Microsoft 365, Security, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 will take place on the date of subscription renewal, starting with all subscriptions renewing in January 2024, and continuing throughout the 2024 calendar year. After the migration is complete, partners will have a seven-day window to make any necessary changes to the subscription term, quantity, or even cancel the subscription if required.
Microsoft recommends that partners proactively manage their customers’ migrations as this will enable them to take advantage of benefits such as amending terms and conditions and communicating this change effectively with indirect resellers and others in the partner’s ecosystem.
Partners can now start migrating legacy commercial offers for customers. If customers prefer monthly subscription terms in the new commerce system instead of annual terms, partners should perform the migration before their legacy subscriptions reach their end of term in 2024.
Partners can find the list of CSP legacy offers eligible for new commerce migration in the Partner Center Pricing workspace.
Currently, only legacy commercial offers are listed. The public sector offers are scheduled to be added in November 2023.
Read more about Microsoft NCE here.
Support for CSP partners
To aid partners in the manual migration process, Microsoft will provide resources and support. Partners can already start migrating subscriptions by referencing the Migrate subscriptions to new commerce page and following the outlined steps in the Partner Center.
Furthermore, Microsoft will organize technical training sessions and CSP Spotlight online webinars in October, November, and December to assist partners with the migration effort. These learning sessions will offer partners a comprehensive understanding of the migration process. An update featuring the schedule of migration-focused events will be available in September 2023.
Featured image credits: Pixabay
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