14 DAY TRIAL // It was just a matter of time until more companies increased pricing in the United Kingdom following the Brexit vote, and now software giant Microsoft has confirmed that it would be doing the same thing on January 1, 2017.
In an announcement today, Microsoft said that British pound pricing would be increased by 13 percent for on-premises enterprise software and by 22 percent for enterprise cloud products, in an attempt to “harmonize prices for enterprise software and cloud services within the EU/EFTA region.”
The company explained that existing contracts wouldn’t be affected and that it would continue assessing the impact of local pricing to always keep it in line with region prices.
“Customers with Enterprise Agreements have price protection on previously ordered enterprise software and cloud services, and will not experience a price change during the term of their agreement. Similarly, business customers with cloud commitment subscriptions such as Office 365 also receive price protection during their subscription term, which is normally twelve months from the start of paid subscription,” Microsoft said.
No price increase for consumer products
What’s very important to note is that this price hike only concerns enterprise products, and consumers are not in any way impacted. Consumer software and consumer cloud services will be available at the same price, the software giant guarantees.
Furthermore, Microsoft solutions will continue to be available at pretty good prices as compared to rivals, even when this price increase comes into effect.
“Even after this adjustment, customers across the region buying in British pound will still find our cloud offerings highly competitive. For indirect sales where Microsoft products are sold through resellers, final prices and currency of sale will continue to be determined by them. In the EU/EFTA region, partners will continue to have access to prevailing prices in euro, Norwegian krone, Swiss franc, Swedish krona, and Danish krone, along with revised prices in British pounds,” it said.
Microsoft was one of the companies that wanted the United Kingdom to remain part of the European Union, so today's announcement doesn't come as a big surprise. Unfortunately, however, more price increases are very likely in the coming months, and not only from Microsoft and the tech industry.