April 1st 2024 (no joke) marks the day that Microsoft expands its policy of unbundling Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Enterprise suites from EEA/Switzerland to a global scale.
What has changed?
Starting October 1st 2023, Microsoft unbundled Teams from Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Office 365 E1/E3/E5 for customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. This policy change was a result of an investigation of the EU Commission following a complaint from Salesforce owned Slack, that Microsoft is bringing disadvantages to its competitors by bundling Teams with Office 365.
We’ve brought that news and the changes in this article.
Starting April 1st 2024, Microsoft expands this policy to a global scale, no exceptions. Existing customers can still add licenses to an existing Agreement or subscription and renew their Agreements or subscriptions. Customers can also choose to migrate to the new products, if they like.
Net new subscribers, including customers changing their purchasing model, can now only buy the new ‘without Teams’ product and add Teams Enterprise separately (priced US$ 5,25 user/month) if the need or want Teams.
Not for SMBs
As far as we can see today, the Microsoft Frontline Worker and Business products are excluded, same as for EEA/Switzerland region. Customers buying those products have the choice: with or without Teams, which is somewhat good news for SMB customers.
When you want to learn what the impact on your situation is, please contact one of our experienced licensing consultants.