Laura Hyde |
Microsoft is helping its customers and partners to adopt artificial intelligence technologies by providing payment flexibility and discounts.
In a Microsoft blog post titled 'Accelerating growth through partners in the era of AI', Nicole Dezen, chief partner officer and corporate vice president of global partner solutions at Microsoft, shared a number of commitments to help partners better meet customer needs.
Eligible partners can get a 15 per cent discount on the net price of Microsoft 365 E5 from 1 January 2025. This discount will be available worldwide for new-to-offer customers, for subscriptions between one and 2,400 licenses, and is valid until 30 June 2025.
Additionally, Microsoft will also introduce a new monthly billing plan for annual subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Services from 1 December 2024. This option will be priced five per cent higher than the upfront annual payment plan. A pricing update will be introduced on 1 April 2025 which will standardise Microsoft’s billing structure for all other products with per-user monthly billing plans for annual subscriptions.
“Today we announced several updates to our commerce strategy, incentive offerings, billing options, and promotions to empower our partners to deliver customer value across our entire platform,” said Dezen. “These updates come on the heels of new data from IDC [which] estimates that the total addressable market for small and midsize customers in Fiscal Year 2025 is $661 billion. This gives Cloud Solution Providers an incredible opportunity to capture market growth by delivering transformational customer solutions.”