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New Commerce Experience (NCE)

Microsoft introduced the New Commerce Experience (NCE) for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Windows 365. NCE simplifies and streamlines how customers buy from Microsoft and offers them more options for tailoring these purchases to their business needs and goals. It makes the selling process, requirements, and capabilities much more consistent across the Microsoft product ecosystem. Due to changes made by Microsoft, you must transition your legacy Microsoft products on the AppDirect platform to New Commerce Experience products.

To add Microsoft NCE products to your marketplace using one of the following options:

  • Syndicate Microsoft NCE products from the AppDirect Network Catalog. For more information, see Add network products to the staging catalog.
  • Zip file. Contact AppDirect support and request a zip of Microsoft NCE products.

The NCE products in the AppDirect Network Catalog and zip contain some basic product edition settings such as Name, Edition Code and edition restrictions. The edition can be upgraded and downgraded. The edition cannot be canceled.

Seat changes​

When the purchase of an NCE product is complete, the Subscription Owner, Sales Agent (if allowed), or a Marketplace Manager can increase or decrease the number of licenses/ seats within Microsoft's enforced parameters. Seat count can be adjusted through Manage Apps.

Note the following:

  • Seat increases are allowed on any eligible product at any point during the contract period.
  • Immediate seat decreases are only allowed within the first 168 hours (equivalent to 7 days) after purchase, for both monthly and annual NCE products.
  • After the initial 168 hours any reduction to the seat count would create a scheduled change at the end of the contract period.

Cancellation​

See:

Assigning licenses​

To assign users to an NCE application purchased and managed by your company, see Assign applications to users.

Cross product upgrade supported​

❗ Important This enhancement is currently in Early Availability status. Features in Early Availability status are only available in production to a limited number of customers based on fit with specific use cases. For more information about Early Availability status, see Product lifecycle phases. If you would like to use the product capabilities described here during the Early Availability phase, contact your AppDirect technical representative.

End users who purchased a Microsoft NCE product subscription can update it with an edition of a different Microsoft NCE product, following the conversion paths provided by Microsoft in the NCE Offer Matrix.

On marketplaces configured for assisted sales, Marketplace Managers, Sales Support Representatives (SSRs), Reseller Managers, and Resellers can purchase products on behalf of end users. They can also update end user subscriptions to an edition of a different Microsoft NCE product, following the conversion paths provided by Microsoft in the NCE Offer Matrix.

When users click Update Subscription, a drop-down list displays available Microsoft product options that contain at least one edition that is compatible with the list of targets defined by Microsoft in the NCE Offer Matrix.

Note: It is only possible to upgrade to Microsoft approved products with conversion paths provided by Microsoft in the NCE Offer Matrix.

The NCE Offer Matrix is a document available on the Microsoft Partner Center. It is maintained by Microsoft and they issue updates each month. The conversion path is a list of Microsoft products in Column L of the NCE Offer Matrix.

Dual Commerce feature​

📝 Note: The Dual Commerce feature is currently in Preview status. It is in development, only available in test environments, and only available to a limited number of customers. If you would like to use the Dual Commerce feature during the Preview phase, contact your AppDirect technical representative.

With Dual Commerce, Marketplace Managers can configure billing terms and frequencies beyond those supported by Microsoft. This can result in a competitive advantage and improved cash flow. Dual Commerce offers greater flexibility for marketplaces, but it does not change the user interface (UI), user experience, or platform behavior.

Dual Commerce - Additional contract term options

With Dual Commerce, Marketplace Managers configure the billing terms and frequencies that they want to offer customers, customers purchase and pay for subscriptions accordingly, and the marketplaces maintain and pay comparable Microsoft subscriptions for the customers. For example:

  • Microsoft only supports monthly NCE subscriptions
  • a Marketplace Manager configures a one year NCE contract with an annual billing frequency
  • a customer purchases a one year NCE contract with an annual billing frequency
  • the marketplace establishes a subscription with an annual contract and monthly billing frequency for the customer through the Microsoft Partner Center
  • the marketplace pays Microsoft monthly for the subscription for one year, through the AppDirect platform

Dual Commerce - Automatic renewals

When the Marketplace Manager configures, and a customer purchases, a longer contract term than Microsoft supports, the contract with Microsoft is automatically renewed to maintain the customer’s subscription. For example:

  • Microsoft only supports one-year subscriptions
  • the Marketplace Manager configures a two-year subscription
  • the customer purchases a two-year contract
  • the marketplace establishes a one-year subscription with monthly billing frequency for the customer with Microsoft
  • the marketplace automatically renews the subscription after one year

Differences between the customer’s contract terms and the contract terms with Microsoft, are invisible to the customer.

Limitation

If Microsoft increases the NCE product price during the marketplace’s contract, Marketplace Managers will need to decide how to deal with the price increase.

Transition legacy Microsoft product subscriptions to New Commerce Experience (NCE) product subscriptions​

Due to changes made by Microsoft, you must transition your legacy Microsoft products on the AppDirect platform to New Commerce Experience (NCE) products.

You can transition your legacy Microsoft product subscriptions to NCE product subscriptions using one of the following:

You can exclude—blacklist—some subscriptions from being transitioned from legacy to NCE subscriptions. To blacklist subscriptions from being transitioned, send your AppDirect technical representative the list of subscriptionsIds to be excluded and they will blacklist them for you.

The following Microsoft legacy product subscriptions cannot be transitioned to NCE:

  • Education SKUs
  • Governmental SKUs
  • Nonprofit SKUs
  • Syndication Transition SKUs
  • Excluded (Blacklisted) SKUs

Transitioning invisible NCE products

Marketplace Managers can choose whether an invisible NCE product is eligible for transition.

📝 Note: This feature is not enabled by default. Contact your AppDirect technical representative to request this feature.

📝 Note: If you request this feature then you must check all your NCE product settings. If you have two products on your marketplace with the same edition code, billing cycle and duration term and if one product is configured visible and the other is configured invisible, then the transition will fail.

When the feature is enabled:

  • Invisible NCE products are eligible targets for transition.
  • If two or more NCE products are eligible for transition, the transition will fail. The Transition API will not know which eligible NCE product to select.
  • If a single NCE product is eligible for transition, then the transition will succeed.

When the feature is disabled:

  • Invisible NCE products are not eligible targets for transition.
  • If two or more NCE products are eligible for transition, the transition will succeed if ONLY one of the eligible NCE products is visible.
  • If a single NCE product is eligible for transition, and that product is hidden then the transition will fail.

Marketplace Managers can override product visibility on their marketplaces for NCE products that they add from the AppDirect network or from a zip file. For information about availability settings, see section Edit the General tab in Edit product marketplace settings.

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