TT-Exchange & Microsoft Donation Programme Changes
Microsoft and TT-Exchange (Tech Trust) have announced in the last few days, that some changes to the Donation Programme ran by the partners will be coming into force on 1st April 2018 – just 3 weeks away!
TT-Exchange (A registered UK Charity in its own right) is the only place where registered UK charities can access donated products from the Microsoft Product Catalogue (it also provides donated and discounted products from many other software and hardware vendors)
What are the changes?
Essentially, Microsoft are moving their more commercial products over to a Discount Programme, rather than the current Donation Programme. Microsoft has not set out exactly which products will change at this time.
Whilst, not every product will change, the main difference here for most of our charity customers is that Office 2016 Professional Plus will no longer be available via the Donation Programme after 1st April 2018. The cost of each individual license is likely to more than double in cost – in fact almost treble despite the “discount programme”.
Microsoft are softening the blow, by allowing more of their less used products to be available by the Donation Programme at once. Each product that is available falls into a “Title Group”, for example, Microsoft Office Pro Plus comes into the “Microsoft Office” title group. Windows 10 Pro falls into the “Windows” title group. Up until 1st April, Charities have only been able to purchase from 10 title groups in any given 2-year period. Microsoft are increasing this to 25 title groups, although in practice, this won’t appeal to many smaller charities as they only buy from 3 or 4 title groups anyway.
Other Microsoft on-premises products affected
Products affected include Windows Server, Windows 10, SQL Server and Skype for Business Server.
While ‘Standard’ versions of these on-premises products will continue to be available to eligible charities and libraries as donations through Tech Trust’s TT-exchange programme, ‘Premium’ versions of these products will transition to the new, discounted model.
Microsoft has stated that the discounted products will be available to charities under the current eligibility criteria in place for their donation programme, and will constitute a 75% reduction from commercial pricing in most cases, or 60% off for Enterprise-class products.
The full Donation Programme announcement by Microsoft can be found at their website and information from TT-Exchange.
What can we do about them?
Essentially, not a great deal, aside from one workaround – buy as many as you might need over the coming year before 1st April 2018!
Try to think about how many extra staff & computers you might require over the coming months/years and deal with it as quickly as possible! Get in touch with us via our Contact page if you need further assistance and guidance.
ESP has provided IT Support for Charities for over 16 years and continues to be committed to charities and the third sector more generally. If you think we might be able to help your charity, do get in touch.
