Microsoft are warning all Dynamics 365 customers to expect large price increases as of 1st October 2024.

The surprising announcement came from Bryan Goode, Microsoft’s VP for Business Applications and Platform on Friday, who attempted to soften the blow by explaining that each year Microsoft “releases hundreds of new features and enhancements” to the product… which to be fair is absolutely true and a key benefit to D365.

He went on to explain that new “AI-powered, real-time customer insights for marketers, sellers, and service agents; as well as … optimising operations and mission-critical processes with data insights, supply chain visibility, and end-to-end automation of financial processes” actually made the price increases reasonable.

As you can see from the title, those price rises will be varying from between 9.26% and 16.67% depending on which Dynamics 365 products you use.

However, the saving grace for many will be that whilst a 10% price hike may be hard to swallow, a long, hard look at their Microsoft estate might now be in order as they ask themselves… do they need this particular license or that particular version, for what they’re currently doing?

As with all such price increases in the past, it’s a good opportunity to take stock with a trusted partner and make sure your Microsoft estate is as efficient as possible. We know from previous project rescues that many users have too many licenses, the wrong kind of license, or just aren’t subscribing to cheaper licensing options that would benefit them.

You can see the full scope of the price hike on the table below…

Bottom line is it could end up being a lot, and no one’s saying it isn’t (especially us), but it’s also worth pointing out that it’s Microsoft’s first price increase since pre-COVID and when you work it out, it’s still quite a bit less than the cumulative rate of inflation over the last five years.

A full audit of all licensing, with this as the trigger, could even end up saving some organisations money.

However, it isn’t happening yet!

The price changes aren’t coming into effect until later this year, on Oct 1^st, and we encourage anyone worried about their cloud estate to reach out to us for help with a full license review to see where they could actually save money… despite today’s news.