Microsoft is set to increase its UK volume license prices by an average of 29 percent in two months time.
The move is intended to bring the company’s product pricing in line with the rest of Europe, and will take effect from 1 July.
“Because of sustained currency differences between European countries, Microsoft is taking action to establish and maintain price consistency in the region for our volume licensing programs,” Scott Dodds, UK general manager of marketing and operations at Microsoft told TechWeekEurope.
“From 1 July in the UK, these adjustments will result in price list rises for new volume licensing contracts of between 7.5 percent and 33.5 percent, to ensure greater consistency with the equivalent Euro price list.”
“The pricing changes affect volume licensing programs only, and do not apply to Windows, Office, or other products sold to consumers through retailers or pre-installed on PCs,” he added. “Academic on-premise pricing continues to be deeply discounted and is unaffected by this price change.“
“The 29 percent average price increase may take some by surprise, but it is just the net effect of a number of years’ exchange rate fluctuations,” explained Richard Lamacraft, a Microsoft specialist working for IT provider and volume license reseller Softcat. “Microsoft adjusts its pricing less often than other vendors, which is why people will notice this increase.”
Softcat said that organisations which want to get around the planned increases have a number of options, including purchasing products before 1 July, or entering agreements that freeze their prices for three years.
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With some Microsoft licensing fees going up in July, companies would be wise to investigate whether savings could be made by renewing certain software licences earlier than planned. To do this they will need to have a thorough understanding of their existing licencing stock and their expected needs over the next few years. With the deadline looming, companies should ask their LARS to conduct an analysis of their software agreements in order to determine whether any licence renewals should be brought forward. With effective software asset management in place, companies should be able to determine the cost-effectiveness of such a strategy relatively quickly.