Microsoft “just changed the game” with its move to standardise pricing on Enterprise Agreements (EAs), the MD of one of its largest UK partners has asserted.
In a LinkedIn post, Bytes Software Services MD Jack Watson gave his spin on what Microsoft’s latest pricing and programme-related change will mean for its customers.
Microsoft last night announced it will be expanding the set of products that have a single consistent price across Price Levels A-D to include all Online Services for EAs and Microsoft Products and Services Agreements (MPSA).
The change applies at the customer’s next agreement renewal or when customers purchase new Online Services not already listed on their Customer Price Sheet, starting 1 November, 2025.
It represents just the latest in a series of sweeping programme and pricing-related changes Microsoft has made this year.
Microsoft aggressively cut the fees available to partners on larger EA deals at the start of the year, and is in the process of moving more of the ‘cheese’ into the midmarket and SMB space.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Watson said the latest announcement means “the days of steep volume discounts for large enterprises are winding down”.
But he also emphasised that, for Microsoft customers, “discounts don’t deliver outcomes”.
“The real return on Microsoft technology comes from Adoption, Optimisation, Build and Innovate,” he said.
Taken together, Microsoft’s recent changes will push more customers to buy via its Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) programme or Microsoft’s customer agreements, Watson said.
“The net effect of these changes is a more standardised pricing approach and a nudge for certain customers to switch how they buy Microsoft products,” he said.
“This is great for Bytes.
“The clear signal is that Microsoft wants to own the customer relationship and pricing conversation more directly long-term for its biggest clients. It places a higher emphasis now on value-added services rather than relying on partner-driven discounting.
“CSP partners stand to gain significantly with this recent news as new customers and smaller EAs migrate to the CSP model. CSP is demonstrably the fastest time-to-customer-value for adopting Azure and Microsoft technologies like Copilot and their advanced Security solutions.
“Transactional partners are being pushed to help customers with digital transformation projects – think AI implementations, cloud migrations, security enhancements and support. Microsoft is backing this up with significant investment in the channel.”
