Transacting Subscriptions Through an MCA Compared with an EA

The Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) is a purchasing agreement for small to large-sized organizations that governs purchases through three distinct channels:

• web direct purchases
• Microsoft partners designated as Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs)
• Microsoft directly managed through the MCA Enterprise channel (MCA-E).

Also referred to as Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE), transacting via the web, with a CSP, or Microsoft requires customers to sign a Microsoft Customer Agreement. The MCA is a simplified agreement that is evergreen (in effect until terminated by either party) and signed and stored digitally as a single agreement. Most products (but not all) can be purchased through an MCA including subscriptions for online services, server subscription licenses, and perpetual software licenses. (In addition, Azure consumption services can be purchased through an MCA although not covered in this report.)

An Enterprise Agreement (EA) is a purchasing program for large organizations that allows customers to purchase products and services from Microsoft with the most favourable pricing, widest variety of license SKUs, and broadest use rights. The EA purchasing program records a collection of terms and conditions across a contract stack of related documents including but not limited to a Microsoft Business and Services Agreement, Enterprise Agreement, Enterprise Enrollment, and the Product Terms. EA contracts anchor an organization to a commitment of three years with committed or minimum purchase obligations, and they offer three-year price protection, programmatic volume discounts, scope for negotiating custom terms, subscription reductions annually at each anniversary, and Software Assurance (SA) for perpetual licenses.