Are you prepared for the updated Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA)?
Time doesn't wait for anyone, and it's time to move on. Recently, Microsoft announced that from January 2024 onwards, all renewing commercial customers will be migrated upon renewal to an updated Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) set to an annual term with the same billing plan and seat counts.
Are you ready for an annual commitment?
As a trusted direct Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner of Microsoft, we're here to help and guide you.
Microsoft has managed its license-based services through the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) since 2015. However, this program had its limitations in the form of complex billing and subscription models. To deal with these issues, Microsoft has updated the MCA.
So, what is MCA, and why rush to migrate to it? The answer lies in the demand of the modern marketplace and to cater to it. Microsoft has updated legacy license-based services to this new MCA. This streamlines how partners purchase, manage, and get billed for their selected services. Some of the new aspects introduced with MCA are:
The option to upgrade partial seats when moving to new SKUs.
Making billing dates consistent by basing them on months instead of mid-month dates that can vary across partner tenants.
Offers defined as product, SKU, or availability as opposed to an offer ID.
Monthly Package
MCA provides the flexibility to make changes on a month-to-month basis according to your seats and plans without any annual commitments. However, this subscription model of MCA does incur an uplift of 20% across all online service plans.
12-month subscription
| Monthly | 12-Month | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Options/Billing Terms | Per month | Annual |
| Seat Changes | Decrease within adjustment windows, increase as needed | Increase as needed |
| Pricing | 20% increase over 12-month subscription – Monthly billed | 1 Year |
| Commitment | Flexible – Monthly | Yearly |
| Midterm Upgrade | Allowed | Allowed |
Are You Ready to Take Your Business to the Next Level? Zones Has Got You!
Leaping from old and familiar to something new always creates questions such as "What will my learning curve be?" But you have nothing to be concerned about. With Zones backing you up every step of the way with its library of services like license allocation, service entitlement report, and cost accountability, you will be comfortable in no time.
As a direct CSP partner of Microsoft, Zones will assess the best way to use the updated MCA for your business by looking at the history of your team size and product usage and providing a strategy that is best for your business.
Rest easy knowing that you've placed trust in an organization that adheres to the highest standards set by Microsoft. So, you'll get nothing but the best from start to finish – making your transition as seamless as possible.
