Short answer
NCE (New Commerce Experience) is Microsoft's platform for buying through a Cloud Solution Provider such as FirstNet, offering monthly, annual and three-year terms. Monthly suits pilots, contractors and seasonal staff, annual is the default for production, and three-year terms lock the unit price for stable estates.
In detail
The terms in more detail:
- Monthly: flexible for short-term needs, but cancellation is only possible within the initial 7-day window, and it costs more per seat
- Annual: the usual choice for steady production use, balancing commitment and flexibility
- Three-year: fixes the unit price for organisations with a long-term Microsoft strategy
- Azure pay-as-you-go: billed on actual consumption, with Reservations or Savings Plans once usage is steady
You can mix terms across your licences, for example annual for permanent staff and monthly for contractors, all on one rand invoice from FirstNet.
The right mix depends on how stable your headcount is and how much change you expect. FirstNet reviews your licences against actual usage at onboarding and every 90 days, and plans renewals 90 days ahead, so you can rebalance between monthly and annual terms as your organisation changes.
Source: FirstNet Microsoft Licensing service page →
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