Microsoft to raise prices by up to 22% for UK customers after post-brexit fall in the value of the pound

Microsoft post-referendum price hike for UK businesses - MF Communications

Due to a fall in the value of the pound, Microsoft is to increase its prices by as much as 22% in the UK.

This rise is set to affect thousands of businesses, including the Government, whose IT spend on Microsoft contracts could increase by tens of millions of pounds.

There has been an 18% drop in the value of sterling against the dollar since the EU referendum on June 23 and Microsoft is one of a number of global operators to pass on a post-referendum price rise. Others include Unilver, who attempted a 10% price increase on the products it supplies to British supermarkets. This lead to a standoff with Tesco after it removed Unilever’s products from its online store.

With a suite of Office programs including Word, Powerpoint and Outlook, as well as Azure, a cloud service used by customers including the Ministry of Defence, Microsoft is one of the biggest sellers of business software in the UK.

Costs for Microsoft enterprise customers are set to increase by 13% for computer software products and 22% for online cloud services, i.e. where the company hosts a customer’s data in a virtual storage centre.

However, Microsoft said it would not increase prices for existing consumers and ongoing contracts, but rather to new purchases. Regardless of this, many businesses will likely need to raise their IT budgets or sacrifice other projects in order to pay for these increased charges.

Cloud telephony solutions for businesses

Cloud telephony is changing the way businesses communicate using voice. Cloud-based telephone systems allow organisations to manage their own services, as well as providing them with critical information about their consumers.

Call log and analytical data gathering is possible on a much deeper level via cloud telephony. This enables businesses to monitor call activity, trends and transactions. Cloud solutions can be implemented alongside existing legacy systems, meaning organisations can benefit from cloud telephony with minimal disruption. Organisations are beginning to benefit by utilising the power of voice communications to stay connected to and in touch with their customers.

MF Communications is a full-service communications provider offering a range of competitively priced business communications solutions. This includes cloud-based systems and business mobile contracts. Find solutions for keeping your business in touch with customers and allowing employees to benefit from remote working solutions.

Contact one of our experienced telecoms advisers now.