Microsoft UK volume licensing prices to rise significantly

[HEXUS]

Effective from the new year, "enterprise cloud prices in British pounds will increase by 22%".

Read more.

[1stRaven]

That is not a small increase. We are going to be looking at an additional £50k per year to cover this. Ouch.

[DanceswithUnix]

I presume this balances the price reduction they gave us during the currency rise from 2013 to 2015?

Hopefully Centos and Debian will pick up some users from this. Their license fees are still zero, support tends to be easier as well.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So basically more or less the value by which the pound has dropped then?? Microsoft can't be blamed for the currency markets.

[LSG501]

It's all very well increasing prices when the value against the dollar drops but we don't seem to get the same reduction when it increases....
I can see quite a large shift away from MS in the UK business sector, 22% is almost a quarter of the cost again and in larger businesses I'm sure they could be looking at the price analysis of changing to linux etc and working out it would cost less than the increase to change.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's all very well increasing prices when the value against the dollar drops but we don't seem to get the same reduction when it increases....
I can see quite a large shift away from MS in the UK business sector, 22% is almost a quarter of the cost again and in larger businesses I'm sure they could be looking at the price analysis of changing to linux etc and working out it would cost less than the increase to change.

The problem is even the paid for support commercial versions of Linux will probably increase in price too. The same for any software or hardware services and products which are paid for in dollars. ATM,people are not realising the extent of this and unless the pound rebounds I expect a lot of computing related services and products will go up massively in price next year.

You only need to look at the cost of something like a Core i3 - prices are now hitting £110 to £120 for the lowest end SKU(as opposed to closer to £90 to £95 last year) as more and more retailers refresh stocks. Intel has not increased the USD price at all. Now retailers could cut margins but that means they probably will have to pay less to their staff,etc.

We can all moan at companies trying a fast one(I certainly have),but I can't really blame companies for the latest ones. Look at people whining at Unilever trying to increase prices when they probably have to import raw materials to make their products and those imports now cost more money.

Then if companies like Unilever didn't do that and froze pay due to lower margins,people would be moaning at them for not increasing pay,exploiting workers,etc.

Remember,when the pound was worth nearly $2,lots of electronics was quite cheap here so we can't really complain if it goes the other way if it is worth 40% less can we??

[DanceswithUnix]

Look at people whining at Unilever trying to increase prices when they probably have to import raw materials to make their products and those imports now cost more money.

AIUI the dispute was over Marmite, which is made from yeast products from brewing beer. No imports necessary.


Edit: Perhaps Microsoft feel that after Brexit, binary numbers are now made up of 0's and 0.8's instead of 0's and 1's which means that you need more of them to make up a complete copy of Windows. Yes that was a joke, before someone tries to correct me.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AIUI the dispute was over Marmite, which is made from yeast products from brewing beer. No imports necessary.

Actually it was over a whole load of products,which actually do rely on imported chemicals too and regarding Marmite it is actually not only made from "yeast extracts" it actually has other additives(including spice extracts and additional vitamins) which are probably imported. Plus we don't actually know how much of the "yeast extract" they use is actually from the UK brewing industry anymore. They might even supplant it with imports from abroad. Even things like the glass bottles they use,the plastic caps,paper,ink for printing labels,etc - if any of that is imported or relies on imported bits,those would have gone up in price. In fact the price increase they wanted was less than the drop in the value of the pound.

Plus we also don't know whether even if they used 100% UK sourced yeast,whether the companies they are buying from have hiked up the price either?? Maybe they have had increased costs too??

Edit!!

Unilever wanted a 10% price increase when the pound has slumped by at least 20% - that indicates they have increased costs in their supply change and that has been negated by components sourced locally.

[TheAnimus]

I presume this balances the price reduction they gave us during the currency rise from 2013 to 2015?

Hopefully Centos and Debian will pick up some users from this. Their license fees are still zero, support tends to be easier as well.

Most of the IT marked is quanto'd in USD. So nope.

Also, the change in 2013 to 2015 is small compared to the change from 2000-2016. The Brexit drop was sudden and drastic.

[DanceswithUnix]

Actually it was over a whole load of products,which actually do rely on imported chemicals too and regarding Marmite it is actually not only made from "yeast extracts" it actually has other additives(including spice extracts and additional vitamins) which are probably imported. Plus we don't actually know how much of the "yeast extract" they use is actually from the UK brewing industry anymore. Even things like the glass bottles they use,the plastic caps,paper,ink for printing labels,etc - if any of that is imported or relies on imported bits,those would have gone up in price. In fact the price increase they wanted was less than the drop in the value of the pound.

Plus we also don't know whether even if they used 100% UK sourced yeast,whether the companies they are buying from have hiked up the price either?? Maybe they have had increased costs too??

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...-says-despite/

Why the heck would you source brewing waste products from another continent?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Actually it was over a whole load of products,which actually do rely on imported chemicals too and regarding Marmite it is actually not only made from "yeast extracts" it actually has other additives(including spice extracts and additional vitamins) which are probably imported. Plus we don't actually know how much of the "yeast extract" they use is actually from the UK brewing industry anymore. Even things like the glass bottles they use,the plastic caps,paper,ink for printing labels,etc - if any of that is imported or relies on imported bits,those would have gone up in price. In fact the price increase they wanted was less than the drop in the value of the pound.

Plus we also don't know whether even if they used 100% UK sourced yeast,whether the companies they are buying from have hiked up the price either?? Maybe they have had increased costs too??

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...-says-despite/

Why the heck would you source brewing waste products from another continent?

So you quote something from the Torygraph - so tell me how politicians know the recipe for Marmite which is actually meant to a trade secret. Just plonking an article for home made yeast extract proves nothing.

If that is the case,some other company would have made a perfect knockoff and sold it half the price and the store own brands look and taste different.

So I am going to ask you again,can you list 100% of the actual recipe for Unilever produced Marmite,and exactly which companies they buy all the ingredients too. Do you know the whole supply chain and what agreements they have in place??

Plus,hilariously you don't see realise companies do import addtional supplies of things if demand exceed supply. So again show me from Unilever's import records,whether they import additional quantities of yeast products to supplant locally sourced production or not.

Then the same goes with all the packaging and all the other things that go into marmite.

Then regarding those companies they buy yeast from in the UK,show to me none of them have increased prices for what they sell to Unilever. How do you know whether they have increased costs along their chain?

Then on top of that,have you not even considered that Unilever might be balancing costs increases across their range too - some products might have gone up more than others,so they might be trying to reduce overall price increases for their entire product range.

Edit!!

We import a lot of gas from other countries.



NG is one of the main starting materials for fertilizer which is used for things like growing barley which is a key component of beer production.

So what happens when the pound drops,fertilizer costs more. You can see where this goes - more costly barley which means beer pricing will be impacted. Now selling that "waste yeast" at a higher price would be a good way to negate price increases as I doubt WD Weatherspoon likes paying higher rates for beer.

The large supermarkets and pub chains are pushing beer makers pricing,and you can see the impact of non chain pubs which have to pay higher rates for their beer(to offset the lower pricing to these bigger companies) - people don't want to pay the extra so this is why pubs are disappearing.

So unless we can elucidate the entire supply change,I don't think I can have a go at Unilever just because they decided they do not want to absorb all the price increases.

Edit!!

This is why various governments have been trying to push frakking.

[LSG501]

We can all moan at companies trying a fast one(I certainly have),but I can't really blame companies for the latest ones. Look at people whining at Unilever trying to increase prices when they probably have to import raw materials to make their products and those imports now cost more money.

Then if companies like Unilever didn't do that and froze pay due to lower margins,people would be moaning at them for not increasing pay,exploiting workers,etc.

Remember,when the pound was worth nearly $2,lots of electronics was quite cheap here so we can't really complain if it goes the other way if it is worth 40% less can we??

It's not the increase so to speak, thats kind of expected to be honest as computer tech in general seems to be on an upwards trend, it's the fact that it very rarely comes down as quickly as it goes up, if at all. I've already brought forward an upgrade on my pc due to the cost increases in the last month alone....let alone how much my rams gone up in the last 6 months, new I should have bought it back then but didn't feel it was needed...

You can use the food prices in supermarkets for example, the prices haven't come down even after their excuse of transportation costs due petrol prices has gone out the window when that cost came down due to cheaper fuel. And companies like unilever are already improving 'profits' by gradually shrinking items while increasing prices gradually too.

Like I said above I still think that some companies will be doing cost analysis to see if it's viable and many will see it as a long term cost saving.

[Xlucine]

...The large supermarkets and pub chains are pushing beer makers pricing,and you can see the impact of non chain pubs which have to pay higher rates for their beer(to offset the lower pricing to these bigger companies) - people don't want to pay the extra so this is why pubs are disappearing...

There's also substantially lighter tax burdens on beer sold in supermarkets, for no good reason

[Wh00pS]

Actually it was over a whole load of products,which actually do rely on imported chemicals too and regarding Marmite it is actually not only made from "yeast extracts" it actually has other additives(including spice extracts and additional vitamins) which are probably imported. Plus we don't actually know how much of the "yeast extract" they use is actually from the UK brewing industry anymore. Even things like the glass bottles they use,the plastic caps,paper,ink for printing labels,etc - if any of that is imported or relies on imported bits,those would have gone up in price. In fact the price increase they wanted was less than the drop in the value of the pound.

Plus we also don't know whether even if they used 100% UK sourced yeast,whether the companies they are buying from have hiked up the price either?? Maybe they have had increased costs too??

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...-says-despite/

Why the heck would you source brewing waste products from another continent?

So you quote something from the Torygraph - so tell me how politicians know the recipe for Marmite which is actually meant to a trade secret. Just plonking an article for home made yeast extract proves nothing.

If that is the case,some other company would have made a perfect knockoff and sold it half the price and the store own brands look and taste different.

So I am going to ask you again,can you list 100% of the actual recipe for Unilever produced Marmite,and exactly which companies they buy all the ingredients too. Do you know the whole supply chain and what agreements they have in place??

Plus,hilariously you don't see realise companies do import addtional supplies of things if demand exceed supply. So again show me from Unilever's import records,whether they import additional quantities of yeast products to supplant locally sourced production or not.

Then the same goes with all the packaging and all the other things that go into marmite.

Then regarding those companies they buy yeast from in the UK,show to me none of them have increased prices for what they sell to Unilever. How do you know whether they have increased costs along their chain?

Then on top of that,have you not even considered that Unilever might be balancing costs increases across their range too - some products might have gone up more than others,so they might be trying to reduce overall price increases for their entire product range.

Edit!!

We import a lot of gas from other countries.



NG is one of the main starting materials for fertilizer which is used for things like growing barley which is a key component of beer production.

So what happens when the pound drops,fertilizer costs more. You can see where this goes - more costly barley which means beer pricing will be impacted. Now selling that "waste yeast" at a higher price would be a good way to negate price increases as I doubt WD Weatherspoon likes paying higher rates for beer.

The large supermarkets and pub chains are pushing beer makers pricing,and you can see the impact of non chain pubs which have to pay higher rates for their beer(to offset the lower pricing to these bigger companies) - people don't want to pay the extra so this is why pubs are disappearing.

So unless we can elucidate the entire supply change,I don't think I can have a go at Unilever just because they decided they do not want to absorb all the price increases.

Edit!!

This is why various governments have been trying to push frakking.

You can't really use gas in this though as the gas companies buy our gas 12 months in advance. So gas prices wont be affected by the nosedive in sterling for at least another 6 months.

[aidanjt]

You can't really use gas in this though as the gas companies buy our gas 12 months in advance. So gas prices wont be affected by the nosedive in sterling for at least another 6 months.

It's never too early to start gouging.

[DanceswithUnix]

Plus,hilariously you don't see realise companies do import addtional supplies of things if demand exceed supply. So again show me from Unilever's import records,whether they import additional quantities of yeast products to supplant locally sourced production or not.

Actually, I used to work in the engineering arm of a factory. They have buyers, people whose sole job is to source materials for whatever the factory is making next at the best possible prices. It is a cutthroat business, and engineering spent a lot of time approving second, third etc sources for components to give lots of flexibility. That is kind of the point, they will already have a plan b and a plan c at the very least for every ingredient that makes up their product. You don't have to know the product, just understand the process.

If unilever have signed long term contracts to import yeast extract from Australia (I have no idea, just choosing a worst case) paying in USD because it was 1% cheaper and stuff the carbon footprint? Well hopefully they can find another grey market buyer for it in Australia, or if not perhaps they paid over the odds in the first place?

Don't get me wrong, I expect prices to go up in the current environment. Just some of the increases reek of excuse making to try and milk the UK market and I don't see why we should just hand over our wallets to anyone that cries brexit.

As for a perfect knockoff of Marmite? I'm afraid I'm one of the people that thinks it tastes vile, so that would be easy here