Subscription management scenarios

NCE Behaviour & Subscription Management in TAM

Action	Legacy experience	NCE annual term	Commencing date	NCE 12mth term	Commencing date	NCE monthly term	Commencing date	Details
Suspend subscription	Yes	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Billing continues after suspension in NCE
Resume subscription	Yes	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	No change from legacy
Cancel within first seven days	Yes	Yes, within first 7 days of purchase (with a prorated refund)	Immediate	Yes, within first 7 days after term begins (with a prorated refund)	Immediate	Yes, within first 7 days after term begins (with a prorated refund)	Immediate	After seven days, cancellation is no longer available, and the customer will be billed for the full term, even if they stop paying for or using the subscription (applicable to any billing plan).
Cancel after initial seven days	Yes	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	When cancelled after seven days, cancellation will be scheduled to occur at the end of the contract term.
Prorated refund	No	Yes, in first 7 days of term (proration calculated daily)	NA	Yes, in first 7 days of term (proration calculated daily)	NA	Yes, in first 7 days of term (proration calculated daily))	NA	Refunds are not automated within TAM. A request needs to be made.
Pause/Suspend subscription (as performed by CSP Partner)	Yes	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	When a subscription is suspended in Partner Centre, MS will continue to bill Telstra. When a subscription is Suspended in TAM, MS will continue to bill Telstra

Message shown when suspending your NCE subscription in Partner Centre

Action	Legacy experience	NCE annual term	Commencing date	NCE 12mth term	Commencing date	NCE monthly term	Commencing date	Details
Increase seats	Yes	Yes, at any time of term	Immediate	Yes, at any time of term	Immediate	Yes, at any time of term	Immediate	TBA
Decrease seats midterm	Yes	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	Yes, but will be scheduled	End of contract term	All licence reductions will take affect from the end of the current contract term.
Decrease seats at renewal	Yes	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Seat reduction is allowed within the first 7 days after contract renewal.
Midterm SKU upgrade within same product (eg: E3 à E5)	Yes	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Refer to example notes in next section*
Midterm SKU upgrade within same product + increase seats + billing plan change	No	NA	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM
Midterm SKU upgrade within same product + billing plan change	No	NA	NA	Yes	SKU change is immediate. Billing plan changes at end of current contract.	Yes	SKU change is immediate. Billing plan changes at end of current contract.	NOTE: You cannot move from Annual to 12 Monthly or Annual to Monthly. Billing plan changes take effect at end of current contract
Midterm SKU upgrade within same product + seat decrease	Yes	Yes	End of contract term	Yes	End of contract term	Yes	End of contract term	As there is a licence reduction included, the changes will take affect from the end of the current contract term.
Full upgrade (at higher seat quantity) with auto seat assignment	Yes, for SMB SKUs	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	NOTE: This requires a second step in NCE to increase seat count after upgrade.
Full upgrade (at same seat quantity) with auto seat assignment	Yes, for SMB SKUs	Yes, for SMB and Enterprise SKUs	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes, for SMB and Enterprise SKUs	Immediate
Partial upgrade (at lower seat quantity)	No	Not currently applicable in TAM	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM
Free trial auto convert to paid equivalent SKU by default	No	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Trials not currently available in TAM
Free trial auto convert to paid equivalent SKU by default	No	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Trials not currently available in TAM
Free trial midterm conversion to paid SKU with same seat count	Yes	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Trials not currently available in TAM
Free trial midterm conversion to paid SKU with different seat count	Yes	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Trials not currently available in TAM
Free trial cancellation or seat count change	No	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Trials not currently available in TAM

Action	Legacy experience	NCE annual term	Commencing date	NCE 12mth term	Commencing date	NCE monthly term	Commencing date	Details
Moving from Monthly to 12 Monthly billing	NA	NA	NA	Yes	At end of contract	Yes	New billing will commence from end of current contract period (not monthly billing cycle). No change to payment amount or prorate credit applied.	See screenshot below.

When you select the 12 month contract option, you'll see the following message.

Once the order update is complete, they will see the following contract details:

Action	Legacy experience	NCE annual term	Commencing date	NCE 12mth term	Commencing date	NCE monthly term	Commencing date	Details
Moving from Monthly to Annual billing	NA	Yes	Immediate	NA	NA	Yes	NA	Billing change is immediate.
Moving from Annual to Monthly billing	NA	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Not allowed. Option is to cancel the existing subscription and re-purchase on a different billing term.
Deceasing licences midterm	Yes - Immediate	Yes	At end of contract	Yes	At end of contract	Yes	At end of contract	Decreasing units will not take effect until the end of the current contract. The license count on a subscription can be decreased only within the first 7 days of when the subscription order was first placed or renewed, or for the number of seats added at midterm
Increasing licences midterm for Annual subscription	NA	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Increasing licences will update the current subscription immediately.
Renewing a cancelled subscription	NA	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Yes	Immediate	Where a customer has cancelled their subscription in error, they can re-enable the subscription via TAM. Steps below.

Click the ‘Re-enable auto-renew’ button to re-activate a subscription.

Once re-enabled the following screen appears.

Action	Legacy experience	NCE annual term	Commencing date	NCE 12mth term	Commencing date	NCE monthly term	Commencing date	Details
Downgrade the subscription (Eg: Moving from Enterprise E3 à Enterprise E1)	Yes	No	NA	No	NA	NA	NA	Subscription downgrades are NOT supported. The alternative to downgrading a subscription is to either cancel, then purchase a new ‘lower’ priced plan.
Partial upgrade (going from a paid SKU to a different paid SKU where only ‘some’ of the licences are being upgraded)	NA	No	NA	No	NA	No	NA	Not currently applicable in TAM.

Additional Notes:

1. When a cancellation takes place midterm, the order will still show as ‘Active’ until the end of the contract term.
2. When a subscription is cancelled during the 7-day grace period, it cannot be re-activated in TAM or MS.
   If the cancellation takes place midterm, a marketplace Admin can re-enable the subscription in TAM using the steps below.

 

Withdrawing a cancellation.

When a subscription cancellation has been made in error, the cancellation can be ‘withdrawn’.

Open the order details page and click ‘Withdraw cancellation’. A message advising the withdrawal has been actioned will appear.

 

Billing results from mid-term billing upgrade

Customer buys Business Basic on 5^th July 2022, monthly plan.
On 15^th July 2022, customer moves to the 12mthly plan for the same offer.
What is the expected charge the customer will be invoiced for, on Aug 1st?

When will the customer move to the 12mthly plan?

Customer will have 3 invoices generated:

• Monthly bill for July (monthly contract - monthly payment)
• Cancellation credit for 5^th July onwards until 31^st July 
• Invoice for 15^th July to 31^st July based on 12monthly plan

Customers will be charged according to the monthly plan from 5^th to 15^th July and then 12montly plan from 15^th July to 31^st July. 
Customers will be moved to 12monthly plan on 15th July.

In the same scenario where the customer instead moves from monthly to Annual:
What is the expected charge the customer will be invoiced for, on Aug 1^st?
When will the customer move to the Annual plan?

Customer will have 3 invoices generated:

• Monthly plan bill for July (monthly contract - monthly payment)
• Cancellation credit for 5^th July onwards until 31^st July
• Moving to Annual contract, invoice for annual payment

Customer will be charged according to the monthly plan from 5^th to 15^th July and one-time annual payment which is effective from 15^th July.

MS Subscription states and impact

In the Active state:

• The default (normal) state
• Users can access files and services and make changes to their subscription at any time.
• Admins can also access data.

In the Expired state:

• If autorenew is turned off and the term ends, the subscription will expire.
• The subscription will stay in this state for 30 days, and users can access files and services.
• Admins can also access data.

In the Disabled or Suspended state:

• After 30 days in the expired state, the subscription moves to the disabled state.
• If the subscription was suspended by the partner and not reactivated during the term, it will move to the disabled state directly after the end of the term, skipping the expired state altogether.

The subscription can stay suspended for the duration of the term and becomes disabled after the end of the term.

• Data is retained for 90 days after the end of the term.
• Users can’t access files and services, and only admins can access the data.