March 18, 2022 - Update

Microsoft announced the implementation of a new cancellation window duration for commercial seat-based offers in CSP new commerce that will go into effect at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on March 18, 2022 (12 a.m. UTC on March 19).

Starting then, any new commercial seat-based subscription orders in CSP new commerce will allow seven calendar days (168 hours) for cancellations and seat reductions instead of the previous 72-hour window.

Also, the seven-day window will apply retroactively to subscriptions purchased seven days prior to the implementation of the change (for example, starting at 12 a.m. UTC on March 12). Orders submitted prior to that date and time won't be available for retroactive cancellation. As a result, a partner that ordered a subscription during the prior seven-day period can cancel or reduce seats on that subscription for up to seven days, post-purchase. For example, a subscription that was purchased at 11 a.m. local time on March 15 can be canceled (or have seats reduced) up until the same time on March 22.

We are pleased to announce that on February 1, 2022, BEMO will launch the New Commerce Experience (NCE) on the BEMO Store. This realization follows 3-months of Software development efforts needed to repurpose our existing store application. A fair amount of time has also been required to understand the intricacies associated with the new licensing program announced by Microsoft earlier last year and to deliver it in a simple experience that both future and existing BEMO customers will appreciate. 

To see it in action when it goes live on Feb 1, please visit https://store.bemopro.com

Here are the highlights of what you will see and experience over the next 2 months.

 

Effective February 1st, 2022

NCE launch

BEMO Store will be offering NCE products along with new functionality needed to purchase and manage NCE subscriptions while still being able to manage previously purchased legacy offers. These changes will coincide with the retirement of the legacy offers known as Modern Workspace offers. These changes are per the Microsoft announcement made earlier last year which has been socialized in our blog article Microsoft's Office 365 price increase in 2022: What you need to know published in December 2021.

BEMO Special Offers

To help cope with the announced price increases to monthly plans, BEMO will temporarily discount the most popular monthly offers to match the yearly pricing. This discount for qualified customers is valid for initial purchases made in February 2022 and on incremental seat purchases. The promotional pricing will be applied to your invoice until June 30, 2022. On July 1^st, 2022, the new, regular pricing will apply.

Discounts will be offered on the most popular offers including:

Offer	New Regular Price	Discounted Price	Term	Valid until
Microsoft 365 Business Standard	$15	$12.50	monthly	June 30, 2022
Microsoft 365 Business Premium	$24	$20	monthly	June 30, 2022
Office365 E3	$24	$20	monthly	June 30, 2022
Microsoft 365 E3	$38.40	$32	monthly	June 30, 2022
Office 365 E5	$42	$35	monthly	June 30, 2022
Microsoft 365 E5	$68.40	$57	monthly	June 30, 2022

 

These special offers only apply to qualified customers, on NCE plans and not on legacy subscriptions. Your NCE 1^st purchase must be completed in February 2022.

New customers can simply purchase directly online from the BEMO Store. Existing customers wanting to upgrade their legacy plans to NCE plans should contact their BEMO Customer Success Manager or open a ticket here.

 

Here is an example of what you will see:

THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY 2022	ON MARCH 1, 2022, and onward

 

Adding seats on discounted subscription

New seats (under max seat count) added to a discounted subscription during or outside the promotion period will receive the same promotion price for the same discount period. New seats added outside the discount period will get the regular price.

Starting March 1, 2022

Price increases on legacy offers

On March 1, 2022, most of the legacy offers with a monthly term will be subject to a price increase of up to 20%. This will apply to all customers and on all their legacy subscriptions.

Additionally, if a customer does not take advantage of our Feb 2022 promo on NCE qualified offers, they will see the NCE pricing on monthly subscriptions going back to the new regular price.

Migration from legacy to NCE offers

Legacy subscriptions for seat-based offers (for example Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Exchange Online, etc) will be converted to NCE offers. The migration process will be handled by BEMO, is transparent to our customers, and will not impact your end-users.

As part of the conversion process:

• Whenever Microsoft offers a monthly term under the NCE program, your monthly subscription will be converted to a monthly subscription. This conversion may trigger a price increase of up to 20% as announced earlier. If you’d like to take advantage of discounts on annual pricing, please contact your respective BEMO customer success manager, or by opening a ticket at bemopro.com/sr and include “NCE” in your ticket subject line.

• If there are no monthly subscriptions available for your product under the NCE, your legacy subscription will be converted to an annual subscription and will be billed in full for 1 year at the conversion date.

• The billing renewal date for a monthly subscription will remain on the 1^st day of the month. The billing renewal date for an annual subscription will the date when the migration was made.

How NCE offers work

Mixing monthly and annual term subscriptions

If you have a seasonal business in which you need more seats for Microsoft 365 during certain times of the year when you have more employees on staff, you could have both monthly term and an annual term subscription for the same seat-based offer at the same time with the appropriate number of seats in each term to accommodate your permanent and seasonal employees.

Once a legacy subscription has been converted to NCE, it cannot be reversed.

Making changes to your NCE subscriptions

As per the NCE program and restrictions imposed by Microsoft, the following policies will apply when canceling, adding or removing seats, downgrading or upgrading, and toggling auto-renewal.

Auto-renewal

By default, all subscriptions will automatically renew unless the customer toggles off the auto-renew control on any given subscription.

When a subscription has its auto-renewal status set to OFF, the subscription status will change to expired at the end of the term and the grace period will apply (See Subscription Lifecycle below). At the end of the grace period, the subscription will enter the disabled status and the users will no longer have access to the services or files. Data will be purged from the Microsoft backend within the next 30 to 90 according to the  Microsoft Data Retention policies.

Cancellation

If you wish to CANCEL a subscription, you will be able to do that within 168 hours following your original purchase date or within 168 hours following your subscription renewal date. For example,

• If you purchased an annual or monthly subscription at 1 PM on March 4, 2022, you would have until 12:59 PM on March 11, 2022, to cancel it.
• If your renewal date for either an annual or monthly subscription is at midnight on May 15, you will have until 11:59 PM on May 21 to cancel your subscription.

If you cancel within the 168-hour window, BEMO will provide you with a prorated credit. If you cancel outside that time window, no credit or refund will be awarded.

BEMO highly recommends our customers cancel within the first 48 hours of the cancellation window to avoid confusion with time zone and processing time.

Increasing the number of seats

BEMO Customers can add seats at any time, simply visit the Store Admin Center and click on ‘Change’. Your account will be billed on a prorated basis until the end of the term of your subscription.

Decreasing the number of seats

Like the cancellation window, you will be able to decrease the number of seats within 168 hours following your initial purchase or renewal date. To do so, simply visit the Store Admin Center and click on ‘Change’. ,

• If you purchased an annual or monthly subscription at 1 PM on March 4, 2022, you will be able to decrease the number of seats for that subscription until 12:59 PM on March 11, 2022.
• If your renewal date for either an annual or monthly subscription is at midnight on May 15, you will be able to decrease the number of seats for that subscription until 11:59 PM on May 21.

If you were to decrease the number of seats outside those 168-hour windows, no credit or refund will be awarded.

BEMO highly recommends our customers who need to decrease seats do so within the first 48 hours of the cancellation window to avoid confusion with time zone and processing time.

Downgrades and upgrades

• Customers who wish to upgrade a subscription, for example moving from Microsoft 365 Business Basic to Microsoft 365 Business premium or vice versa for a downgrade, could do so by contacting their respective BEMO customer success manager, or by opening a ticket at bemopro.com/sr and include “NCE” in your ticket subject line.
• Upgrades can be done at any time during the term of the subscription.
• Upon upgrade, customers will be billed on a prorated basis for the upgrade cost.
• Upon upgrade, customers will be credited on a prorated basis for their former subscriptions being upgraded.
• No credit or refund will be awarded on downgrades.

Where to find renewal date and auto-renew status

To help our customers plan for cancellation or downgrade, the BEMO Store displays the renewal date and auto-renew status as illustrated in this screen capture:

 

Subscription lifecycle

The following diagram shows a depiction of the subscription lifecycle:

Active

Active is the default state following an initial purchase or renewal.

Suspended (New with NCE)

Typically triggered when a customer fails their payment obligation with BEMO.

Expired (New with NCE): Grace period on subscription expiration 

When an annual or a multi-year term subscription expires, customers have a 30-day grace period after the expiration date in which they can still access the subscription. 

When a monthly term subscription expires, customers have a 7-day grace period after the expiration date in which they can still access the subscription.

Beyond the grace period, the data cannot be easily recovered and may require Microsoft Support intervention.

Disabled

The state that follows the grace period and where data is managed as per Microsoft Data Retention policies.

Data recovery is onerous. This is not a backup or archive service.

Deleted

The state that follows Disabled whereas data is permanently deleted and services not in use are removed permanently.

NEED HELP OR WANT TO KNOW MORE

New customers can reach out to BEMO Sales and existing customers can reach out to their respective Customer Success Manager.