Written by Natasha Morgan| Senior Marketing Communications and Events Executive
This week we held our NCE Renewal and Marketplace Demo webinar. The session was ran by Victoria Barnard, Head of Microsoft Product & Licensing and her team members Charlie Jenkins and James Dunbar, Microsoft Solution Specialists. See an overview of the webinar below and the resources we can provide you.
The purpose of the webinar was to introduce the team, discuss the changing Microsoft landscape, and provide an overview of what Cisilion can offer from a partnership perspective.
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- Introduction: The team introduced themselves, discussed the changing Microsoft landscape, and provided an overview of Cisilion’s partnership offerings.
- Microsoft Changes: We highlighted the recent changes in the Microsoft landscape, including commercial changes and pricing adjustments.
- Cisilion’s Offerings: We emphasised Cisilion’s ability to help navigate the Microsoft landscape and provide value beyond licensing procurement.
- Microsoft Global Pricing Alignment: Victoria discussed the recent changes in Microsoft global pricing alignment, which resulted in a pricing decrease and how this would impact customers depending on their current NCE commitment and renewal dates.
- Pricing Decrease: Victoria explained that the Microsoft global pricing alignment resulted in a pricing decrease for the first time in years.
- Impact on Customers: Victoria detailed how the pricing decrease would impact customers based on their NCE commitment, with immediate effects for monthly subscriptions and at renewal for annual subscriptions.
- Strategic Pricing: Victoria mentioned the importance of renewing before April 1st to benefit from the pricing decrease and offered to help customers lock in strategic pricing.
- Upcoming Changes in Microsoft CSP and C Landscape: Victoria mentioned the upcoming changes in April related to the purchase of annual licenses with monthly billing, which will be subject to an extra 5% charge from Microsoft.
- April Changes: Victoria informed that from April, purchasing annual licenses with monthly billing will incur an additional 5% charge from Microsoft.
- Customer Awareness: Charlie noted that many customers are unaware of this upcoming 5% levy and emphasized Sicilian’s role in keeping customers informed.
- Cisilion’s Approach to Evaluating Customer Consumption: Charlie explained Cisilion’s two standard approaches to evaluating customer consumption: reviewing unassigned licenses in the admin console and deploying a tool called Lens for deep analysis and cost optimization.
- Standard Approach: Charlie described the standard approach of reviewing unassigned licenses in the admin console to clear up any overspend or wastage.
- Lens Tool: Charlie introduced the Lens tool, which performs deep analysis on the tenant using machine learning to provide recommendations based on license consumption.
- Cost Optimization: Charlie emphasized that cost optimisation is integral to Sicilian’s market approach, with success stories of saving customers money.
- Cisilion’s New Platform: James discussed Sicilian’s new platform, which allows customers to self-service, co-terminate licenses, schedule orders, and monitor their environment with built-in reporting functionality.
- Platform Features: James highlighted the platform’s features, including self-service capabilities, co-termination of licenses, and scheduling orders.
- User-Friendly: James described the platform as user-friendly, providing access to the entire Microsoft catalog and enabling customers to monitor their environment.
- Reporting Functionality: James mentioned the built-in reporting functionality, which offers insights into license usage and visibility of licenses from different providers.
- Demo Overview: The team provided a demo of the platform, showcasing its navigation, account information, and Power BI dashboard for tracking licensing spend and identifying wastage.
- Cisilion’s Consultancy-Led Approach: Victoria highlighted Cisilion’s consultancy-led approach, emphasizing their focus on products and licensing, as well as their capabilities in security, modern desktops, telephony, AI, and Azure.
- Consultancy Focus: Victoria emphasised Cisilion’s focus on providing consultancy-led services, ensuring regular contact with specialists.
- Value Addition: Victoria discussed how Cisilion adds value through partnerships with Microsoft, offering incentives, workshops, and technical advice.
- Service Areas: Victoria highlighted Cisilion’s capabilities in security, modern desktops, telephony, AI, and Azure, mentioning specific services like health checks and cloud architecture reviews.
Resources:
- Customer Testimonials and Case Studies: Visit our case studies page to see how Cisilion has helped transform and optimise our client’s Microsoft procurement and subscription usage.
- Get in Contact: Get in contact for assistance with your Microsoft environments. Cisilion have the ability to help make environments cleaner, slicker, and more cost efficient.
- Platform Access: If you are an existing customer you will have login access to the new Cisilion platform. Reach out to your Account Manager to get the details or feel free to email nmorgan@cisilion.com if you are unsure on who your contact is.
- Workshops: Cisilion provide various workshops for Copilot customers. Get in touch to find out more