To help support businesses that use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Dynamics NAV) – and other products – who are struggling in the current lockdown situation, Microsoft have created a new promotion.
The aim of these is to help customers stay on their Enhancement Plan (EP) – formerly called the Business Ready Enhancement Plan (BREP) – and ready them for an upgrade to the Cloud based solution (if desired).
These promotions are in response to partner feedback and aim to:
- Help Customers through the COVID Crisis
- Increase the value of the EP (BREP)
- Enable a path to migrate licenses to the Cloud
The duration of the offer is from 1 Jun 20 to 30 Jun 21. Terms and conditions apply.
Enhancement Plan (EP) to Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) renewal offer
Customers that are on BREP can, on renewal, choose to effectively pay for their Enhancement Plan via a CSP (Cloud Solution Provider). The benefit is that the customer can spread their BREP amount over 12 months, with no additional charges. Easing the cash flow burden of a large up-front payment.
Note that this is not BREP as a monthly subscription, but an annual plan that needs to be paid in full over 12 months. If payments stop, then the customer will be off BREP, and that incurs the same penalties and conditions that are imposed now.
As new versions are licensed by named users, upgrading will support a typical 1:3 offer (up from 1:2) for concurrent to named users. However, for customers with a high ratio of concurrent users, this could be up to 1:4 users
Doing this via CSP gives the customer “Dual Use Rights”. This means they can remain as they are with their on-premise solution and start experimenting and transitioning over to the Cloud with their own license for Business Central (on Microsoft’s fully hosted SaaS model).
Don’t want to move to the Cloud?
This is not a ‘back door’ approach to force customers onto their Cloud (SaaS) setup. The customer can choose to ‘downgrade’ their CSP back to BREP as well after the initial 12 months or extend the offer for an additional two years (before fully transitioning to the Cloud).
Amnesty on lapsed BREP contracts
Some Customers would have had to make the difficult choice to stop their Enhancement Plan due to other priorities on spend or due to the lack of expected sales.
As such, Microsoft is allowing customers that lapsed on EP between 1 Jan 20 to 31 May 20 to re-join their EP (on CSP) with no penalties, if they renew by 31 Jul 20.
Discounts on upgrading to Business Central Cloud
If a customer – on an active Enhancement Plan – does choose to migrate/upgrade to the Cloud solution, then a series of promotional “SKU”s are being created to provide 60% discounts with the SaaS price (from 1 Jun 20 to 30 Jun 20).
Note that the discounted price will last for the life of the SKU; it does not seem to end after a year automatically. Note SKUs have terms and conditions, so this may not be a ‘lifetime’ promotion.
