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Deadline 3/1/22: Microsoft 365 Price Increase

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Microsoft 365

On March 1, 2022, the pricing for Microsoft 365 will increase.  Depending on your current subscription and licensing, you will see a Microsoft 365 price increase ranging between 10% and 25%. You can, however, minimize or avoid the increase.

Details

Monthly per user pricing with an annual commitment* will increase as follows:

  • Subscription
  • M365 Business Basic
  • M365 Business Standard
  • M365 Business Premium
  • O365 E1
  • O365 E3
  • M365 E3
  • Current Fee / User / Month
  • $5
  • $12.50
  • $20
  • $8
  • $20
  • $32
  • New Fee / User / Month
  • $6
  • $12.50
  • $22
  • $10
  • $23
  • $36

*Pricing for monthly commitment (no annual commitment) will include a 20% surcharge.

What is the Impact?

Historically, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions were sold with an annual commitment.  Within the annual commitment, you could adjust the number of licenses up or down on a monthly basis. Microsoft now classifies these types of subscriptions as “Monthly Subscriptions”.

Going forward, you can choose an “Annual Subscription”. With an “Annual Subscription”, your current license count becomes your minimum purchase commitment for the next 12 months. You may add licenses during the year, but you cannot remove any licenses until your annual renewal.

A “Monthly Subscription” allows you to increase or decrease you licenses monthly.

Annual Subscription pricing will increase as noted in the table, above.  If you are a monthly subscription, you will pay an additional 20% per license.

Minimize the Impact

You can minimize, or completely avoid, the Microsoft 365 Price Increase by assessing your subscription licenses and usage, and:

  • Transition to an Annual Commitment before February 28, 2022.
    • Continue with monthly or annual invoicing
  • Remove past employee accounts by either:
    • Exporting and deleting

Act Now!

Schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors.  We will assess your current subscription, the impact of your transition, discuss subscription and licensing options, and determine if you qualify for incentive discounts.

 


Deadline 1/31/22: Google Workspace Transition

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Google Workspace

The deadline for managing your Google Workspace transition:
Jan. 31, 2022.

As we have noted in past posts and communications, the transition to Google Workspace may significantly impact your subscription fees, with increases that can double or triple your cost.

Limited incentive discounts are available; you must act now!

What Does the Jan. 31, 2022 Deadline Mean?

If you do not manage your transition from G Suite to Google Workspace, Google will automatically change your subscription as early as February 1, 2022.

  • For customers on a month-to-month (“Flex”) subscription, Google will automatically change your subscription from G Suite to Google Workspace beginning February 1, 2022.
  • For customers on a subscription with an annual or multi-year commitment, Google will automatically transition your subscription at your next renewal date.

What is the Impact?

Your G Suite subscription will transition to the Google Workspace subscription that matches your features and utilization.  Google will move all of your licenses to the subscription level that ensures no loss of features or functionality.

Examples:

  • G Suite Basic with one or more users with Additional Storage
    • You will transition to Workspace Business Standard or Business Plus
    • Your fees will go from $6/user/month plus the added storage to $12/user/month or $18/user/month.
  • G Suite Basic and have users with Vault
    • You will transition to Workspace Business Plus
    • Your fees will go from $11/user/month to $18/user/month.
  • G Suite Business users
    • You will transition to Workspace Business Plus to maintain your Vault service
    • Your fees will go from $12 to $18 per user per month.

Minimize the Impact

You can minimize the financial impact by assessing your subscription licenses and usage, and:

  • Mix and match licenses:
    • Within the Business or Enterprise tiers
    • Avoid paying for capabilities not needed or used by everyone.
  • Take advantage of incentive discounts by managing your transition to Google Workspace before the January 31, 2022 deadline:
    • Transition from monthly flex to an annual commitment
    • Transition your existing annual or promotional commitment early
    • Consider a multi-year commitment for greater savings
  • Remove past employee accounts by either:
    • Transitioning them to Archived User Accounts
    • Exporting and deleting

Act Now!

Schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors.  We will assess your current subscription, the impact of your transition, discuss subscription and licensing options, and determine if you qualify for incentive discounts.

 


Technology Solutions for Solopreneurs and VSBs

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Technology Solutions for Solopreneurs

Entrepreneurs are a unique breed.  Solo entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, even more so.

If you are a solopreneur, or lead a very small business, you face some unique business and IT challenges. One of these challenges is balancing your business and your personal lives.  To do this, you want and need your technology solutions to save you time and energy.

If you are like most solopreneurs and very small business owners, you are probably

  • Paying for duplicate services
  • Unware of features that can improve your productivity
  • Not taking time to explore ways to work more efficiently
  • Missing security and data protections
  • Not getting the guidance and support you need

At the same time, you most likely lack the time, energy, or expertise to research, select, deploy, and learn the right IT services. As a part of our managed cloud services, we offer technology solutions, tools, and apps for solopreneurs that are tailored to meet your specific business needs.

Managed Services are a Technology Solutions for Small Businesses

Often used by larger businesses, managed services provide your information technologies, support, and services as a comprehensive bundle for a set monthly or annual fee. By definition, managed services are designed to offload your IT responsibilities and place them in the hands of experts. These managed service providers should start with guidance, get your systems up and running, administer your services, and provide you with support.  If they are performing their services well, these technology solutions for small business and solopreneurs should also help you identify features and functions that improve your work processes — make you more efficient.

5 Ways How to Move Towards Managed Services as a Technology Solution

Before moving forward with managed services, we recommend taking a step back and assessing how you want your IT services to help you and your business.

1. Start with A Goal and Objectives

  • Your technology and services need to empower you and enable your business.  Regardless of the devices, applications, and tools they use, your IT should:
    • Be easy to use
    • Save you time
    • Secure your data, and that of your customers
    • Keep your business data private
    • Support any compliance requirements you may have
    • Fit within your budget.

2. Focus on the Benefits

  • Discuss which capabilities will help you work more efficiently, more productively
  • Avoid the technology trap. Instead of thinking, for example, about email, calendars, and file sharing, think about automating appointment scheduling, protections for confidential information, and one-click video conferencing.

3. Define Your Baseline Services

  • Map your benefits to technologies
  • Base your IT decisions on your prioritized needs and wants
  • Define the minimum set communications, collaboration, and security tools to run your business
  • Explore and leverage ways to work more efficiently

4. Add / Enhance as Needed

  • If your business must be compliant with legal or industry regulation, add the technologies and services you need to meet these requirements.
  • If you find ways that technology can improve productivity, determine if the gains are worth the investment.

5. Managed Cloud Services

As the name implies, Managed Cloud Services are managed service that, whenever practical, leverage cloud services and solutions. Cumulus Global has the expertise and experience to move your business to managed cloud services. By leveraging cloud solutions, baseline services and foundational security are affordable and can easily be tailored to meet specific business needs.

Learn More About Our Technology Solutions, Tools, and Apps for Solopreneurs and Small Business

To learn more about our IT solutions that are tailored to meet your specific business needs, get in touch or view our additional resources below.


Google Workspace Transition Update

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Google WorkspaceWhen Google announced the transition from G Suite to Google Workspace in October 2020, the deadline for transitioning was left open. This is no longer the case.

The deadline for transitioning to Google Workspace from G Suite is January 31, 2022.

As we have noted in past posts and communications, the transition to Google Workspace may significantly impact your subscription fees, with increases that can double or triple your cost. You may qualify for incentive discounts by transitioning before the end of the year.

What Does the Jan. 31, 2022 Deadline Mean?

If you do not manage your transition from G Suite to Google Workspace, Google will automatically change your subscription as early as February 1, 2022.

  • For customers on a month-to-month (“Flex”) subscription, Google will automatically change your subscription from G Suite to Google Workspace beginning February 1, 2022.
  • For customers on a subscription with an annual or multi-year commitment, Google will automatically transition your subscription at your next renewal date.

What is the Financial Impact?

Your G Suite subscription will transition to the Google Workspace subscription that matches your features and utilization.  Here are some examples:

  • G Suite Basic subscribers that also have Google Vault will change to Google Workspace Business Plus; subscription fees will increase from $11/user/month ($6 + $5) to $18/per/user/month.
  • G Suite Basic subscribers that use extra storage will change to Google Workspace Business Standard or Business Plus, based on their storage requirements; fees will increase from $6/user/month to $12 or $18 per user per month.
  • G Suite Business subscribers will change to Google Workspace Business Plus in order to maintain their Vault service; fees will increase from $12 to $18 per user per month.
  • G Suite Business subscribers using advanced security and mobile device management features included in the Google Workspace Enterprise tier licenses will most likely transition to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard; fees will increase form $12 to $20 per user per month.
  • Any G Suite Basic or Business subscription with more than 300 users will change to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard or Plus; fees will increase from $6 or $12 per user per month to $20 or $30 per user per month.
  • G Suite Enterprise subscriptions using certain security, mobile device management, and data loss prevention features will change to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus; fees will increase from $25 to $30 per user per month.

While you can mix and match licenses as needed within the Business and Enterprise tiers, our understanding is that automatic change to Google Workspace will place all users on the same license.

Next Step?

Your next step is to schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors.  We will assess your current subscription, the impact of your transition, discuss subscription and licensing options, and determine if you qualify for incentive discounts.