Microsoft has announced a price rise for many volume license customers using one of their time-honored stealth tactics.
For as long as anyone can remember, Microsoft changes their pricing plans by a repeating cycle of “customizing” plans then later “simplifying”, “consistent” or “standardizing” the same plans. All of those changes inevitably mean more money for Microsoft.
We’re at the “simplifying” part of the cycle with the latest announcement which, as usual, is both accurate and impenetrable to most people.
Change to volume licensing agreement price levels coming November 2025 says that Microsoft is “standardizing its pricing approach for Online Service” because of “our ongoing commitment to greater transparency and alignment“.
“Microsoft will expand the set of products that have a single consistent price across Price Levels A-D to include all online services, for the following agreements:
- Enterprise Agreement (EA)
- Including Online Services Premium Agreement (OSPA) unique to China
- Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) “
The MPSA is the main agreement which applies to most volume license customers with small or medium sized businesses.
Add to that the complex and changing mix of acronyms and terminology, it’s no wonder volume license customers have a full time job keeping up.
