Moving from Microsoft Enterprise Agreements to CSP
The upcoming Microsoft EA renewal changes are forcing businesses to rethink how CSP partners can help them stay ahead.
Microsoft licensing and renewals have become more and more complex over the years. It’s harder to manage with the constant changes and updates to licensing product capabilities and pricing updates. What was once a routine renewal conversation is now tied to broader questions around cost control, security, productivity, and long-term strategy – all things that can greatly impact a company’s innovation roadmap. Recent changes to the M365 pricing SKUs and their partner model is amplifying that reality. For business leaders, the real question isn’t what has changed, it’s how to respond without disruption, overspending, or missed opportunities.
Leveraging the right Microsoft Partner to support all these goals is more important than ever.
Why Move to CSP?
Licensing Model changes are being driven internally within Microsoft to move most Enterprise Agreements to the “New Commerce Experience” or CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) over the next couple of years to drive better client engagement and speed to adopt the technologies.
Moving to CSP Provides Greater Flexibility for Dynamic, Growing Organizations
- The EA’s structure is rigid: you can add licenses anytime but cannot reduce until renewal.
- No “true-up” surprises — billing reflects real usage in real time.
- The CSP model offers monthly, Annual, or 3-year agreements for maximum flexibility to fit your organization use cases and growth patterns.
- CSP allows scaling up or down, ideal for:
- M&A activity
- Seasonal workforce changes
- Cloud-first modernization
- Microsoft announced price increases coming July 1st to most of their Enterprise, Frontline, and Business Suite SKUs. There is a narrow window for clients to lock their pricing into the current pricing structure for the next three years.*
- ivision offers our clients the opportunity to right-size into the best targeted suites and SKUs to potentially save thousands of dollars through a FinOps Health-Check leveraging our partnership with Surveil and TD SYNNEX. This provides our clients with details about license usage, use case mapping, efficiency reporting, and recommendations for how Clients can best plan their renewal.
- ivision CSP provides clients with a Tiered 24×7 support coverage that rivals expensive and complex Unified Support agreements. Driving clients’ need for support coverage based on maturity, historical usage, and ongoing Risk Avoidance when critical and complex support requests require escalation. ivision meets each client where they are with support built to fit their needs.
- ivision can help you drive “speed-to-innovation” by developing clients’ strategic technology initiatives, such as adoption of advanced security capacities like Microsoft Defender Suite solutions or improving the initial Copilot adoption and readiness.
- In-line with helping clients gain momentum with key innovation objectives, as a Managed Microsoft Partner, ivision can leverage a number of investment programs for our clients that want to prove our technology capabilities or that are leveraging best-of-breed solutions and want to better understand the value of what they own in their E5 licenses or Security add-on SKUs. ivision can help you maximize the available Microsoft investments through a number of partner-led or Microsoft nominated programs. We do the work on your behalf to secure these funds and help apply them where they provide the most value to your organization or business goals.
*Microsoft pricing is increasing on July 1, 2026. Locking into a new agreement before that could lead to substantial savings.
Times Moving to CSP is Especially Advantageous for your Business
- You are in M&A mode and need to scale licenses frequently
- You want predictable monthly billing instead of annual commitment
- You want to maximize governance over licenses by mapping to employee use cases
- You want a partner to help with security, governance, and AI readiness
- You are shifting workloads to the cloud and want greater agility
Why Work With ivision?
As a Microsoft Managed Partner, we offer clients both consulting and managed services. Our team knows not only how to navigate these licensing and program changes, but how to capitalize on them. Here’s how we can help your business navigate this move to CSP shift:
- Strategic License Optimization: We’ll analyze your current Microsoft footprint, identify cost efficiencies, and align licensing with your long-term business goals.
- Seamless CSP Transition & Support: Whether you are migrating licenses into CSP or optimizing existing deployments, we handle the complexity so you can focus on your business.
- Managed Services & Value-Added Solutions: From security and compliance to AI adoption through M365 Copilot, we deliver the right services at the right time to help your team do more.
- Proactive Partner Guidance & Readiness: With deep expertise in Microsoft’s partner ecosystem, ivision advises you on best practices and growth strategies that align to the goals of your unique business.
Your business deserves more than just technology enablement. It deserves a partner that understands how to translate your Microsoft investments into measurable business outcomes. Get in touch with our Microsoft experts today to achieve this.
