Upgrading NCE Subscriptions
This page explains the differences in upgrading NCE products and provides an analysis of how the Storefront portal supports both full and partial upgrades—either to a completely new NCE subscription, or from one existing NCE subscription (source subscription) to another existing NCE subscription (destination subscription) that resides on the upgrade path of the source.
Rules for Upgrading NCE Products
For the general rules on upgrading subscriptions, please see the page Upgrade/Downgrade a Subscription in BSS. Please note the following points when upgrading NCE subscriptions:
NCE subscriptions can only be upgraded. It is not possible to downgrade NCE subscriptions.
The upgrade paths for NCE products are created automatically when the Get Services Definition process runs.
Whether seat reassignment will happen automatically depends on the customer's eligibility. Please check for any notifications (explained in the section Upgrading NCE Subscriptions | The Upgrade Process) or the Online Information tab, to ensure that seat reassignment has been successful or whether it must be done manually.
It is not possible to increase the quantity when upgrading. As a workaround, you may perform a full upgrade and increase the quantity afterward.
The promotion of the original product will be lost. If the target product has a promotion, the promotion will be applied after the upgrade.
It is not possible to set the upgrade to occur at a future date, it is only possible to upgrade on the current date.
The cancellation window of the upgraded subscription is the same as that of the original subscription.
It is possible to upgrade a subscription at any time, even while it is in its cancellation window.
Upgrading a Specialized Offer NCE subscription from a Specialized to a Standard is currently available. The reverse or any other upgrade combination is not yet available.
Rules for Upgrading to an Existing NCE Subscription
When Storefront users select an existing active (source) NCE subscription to upgrade, they are provided with a list of eligible (destination) NCE subscriptions to upgrade the source NCE subscription. A destination NCE subscription is considered eligible for an upgrade when it meets the aforementioned rules as well as the following, “Upgrade to an Existing Subscription”-specific rules:
It must:
Be active
Be non-trial
Have a product on the upgrade path of the source subscription’s product
Be out of the cancellation window period (meaning that the cancellation window has passed)
Have the same or larger term duration than the source subscription
Have an end date later than the end date of the source subscription’s
Exist in our platform
Exist under the same account with the source subscription
Follow certain MPNID rules depending on the account’s role
The billing frequency does not affect the eligibility for upgrading a source NCE subscription to a destination NCE subscription.
When fully upgrading an NCE subscription, the external ID provided by Microsoft remains the same as the external ID of the original subscription.
Upgraded subscriptions receive a new protected price reflecting their updated cost and sell price, with the price protection taking effect based on the original subscription’s billing cycle and effective date.
To enable the “Upgrade to Existing” option, you must run the Get Services Definition process following the releases listed below:
After the 3.28.159 release: To enable this option for existing Microsoft instances in Storefront.
After the 3.28.189 release: To enable this option for Microsoft Public Sector products.
Upgrade Paths
The upgrade paths for NCE products are created automatically when the Get Services Definition process runs. The following figure is an example of possible upgrade paths for M365 - Office 365 E3 (New Commerce), retrieved by the Get Services Definition:
The Upgrade Process
Users of our portals (Storefront & BSS) can upgrade their NCE subscriptions by selecting the dedicated upgrade button from the respective portal, inside each existing active NCE subscription. Below is a list of three links that analyze all the available upgrade options of NCE subscriptions from both the Storefront and the BSS portals, addressing full and partial upgrades.
End customers of Standard Resellers also have the capacity to directly upgrade their NCE subscriptions via Storefront.
However, their upgrade pricing is determined based on the following factors:
Pricing: The price is determined by the product’s markup and any special pricing the Standard Reseller applies to the end customer.
Billing Period: The billing cycle follows the configurations set for the Standard Reseller and the product.
Tax: End customer upgrade orders are always tax-free.
First Payment Option: Unlike resellers, end customers do not have a First Payment option.
Monitoring NCE Subscription Upgrade Activity
During or after an NCE subscription upgrade, you can view its activity from within the BSS portal. On the Viewing the Activity of NCE Upgrades page you can find an analysis of this monitoring feature.
Notifications
During an NCE upgrade, two types of notification messages can be dispatched, depending on the case upgrade case. On the https://interworkscloud.atlassian.net/wiki/x/JgBpUQ page you can find an analysis of both messages and their use case.
Possible Error Scenarios
During the NCE upgrade process, it is possible to encounter one or more error messages which are analyzed on the https://interworkscloud.atlassian.net/wiki/x/IIBlUQ page.