Microsoft Channel Chief Rodney Clark brought up the 14-day delay during his talk today at CRN parent The Channel Company’s XChange 2022 event as an example of ways he works as an intermediary between channel partners and Microsoft.

“It’s my job to say, ‘OK, what’s in the best interest of our channel, and at the same time, the best interest of the broader industry. And then the third, in the best interest of Microsoft,’” Clark said today at XChange. “We had modern work price increases that were going to happen on March 1. We have NCE, a new way of engaging from a licensing perspective. We had 10x the volume of orders in the last week of February than any partner – this is a general statement – was accustomed to managing.”

He continued: “It caused a considerable amount of concern because they were like, ‘Hey, if I don’t get this thing in on March 1, it was going to add expense because they’re having to process it.’ So I made a decision with three other leaders across the company to extend that 14 days to give the partners an opportunity to transact and engage.”

Michael Goldstein, CEO of LAN Infotech – a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Microsoft partner and member of CRN’s 2022 Managed Service Provider 500 – told CRN in an interview that he’s glad Microsoft acknowledged the challenges around NCE and created a way to extend the deadline.

Some customers waited until “the last minute” to approve license changes, which left partners such as LAN Infotech pushing up against the original deadline, Goldstein said.

“Our company had been filing NCE changes until 11:59 last night and the system was running slow,” Goldstein said. “The extra time is much appreciated.”

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Microsoft 365 Price Change Deadline Extended