G-Suite Pricing in 2019: Deals, EA Promotions and More

In January 2019, Google announced an upcoming change to its pricing structure, set to take place from the 2nd of April 2019. The decision to increase the prices of the Business and Basic Editions of G-Suite was a huge shock to the community, but for many experts and enterprise partners, it was also an update that should have been made years ago.

For more than 10 years, G-Suite Pricing had remained the same. Google strived to provide its customers with the same consistent deals, even as they added more valuable tools and capabilities to the G-Suite productivity portfolio.

When the old prices for G-Suite were first established, Google had very little to offer besides a cloud-native email app. Since then, the service available has grown to include everything from Google Calendar scheduling, to Docs, Drive, Hangouts, and more. Google has even brought artificial intelligence services on-board to improve the performance of their applications.

It's no wonder that G-Suite pricing needed to change.

The question is, how do Google partners and value-added resellers offering the G-Suite solution to their customers continue to appeal to the marketplace with this new price structure?

Why Did Google Introduce EA Pricing Deals?

Several years ago, Google created their EA G-Suite Pricing promotions to make it easier for businesses and mid-sized enterprises to switch to Google G-Suite and productivity suites for free - until their existing contracts expired. Today, in 2019, Google is still offering the same benefits to ensure that partners and resellers can seamlessly move their clients into the G-Suite environment without any added expense.

Mid-sized enterprises now have more reasons than ever before to consider moving to Google even if their prior enterprise agreements with other productivity suite providers haven't come to an end yet. As long as you're a new customer of the G-Suite or Cloud Identity solution, then you can switch to Google with as little stress as possible. However, you must be willing to commit to a paid period that's equal or greater to the number of free months you receive.

For partners, the deal is an excellent way to drive people over into the G-Suite environment. For mid-sized companies, the EA Pricing plan means that anyone who wants to get involved with the benefits of G-Suite can now discover the benefits for themselves through the help of Google partners.

Ultimately, the EA G-Suite Pricing plan deals available from Google are evidence of how confident Google is that it can serve its customers.

The G-Suite Pricing Plan for Enterprise Agreements Online/ Offline

For the most part, the G-Suite deals available for resellers and Google partners are separated into two categories: Online, and Offline EA pricing plans. The online promotional offer is only available for new customers with over 100 seats online. Because the deal is "Online," all of the deals in this category need to be booked through the partner's reseller console, and no customers may have any existing G-Suite licenses.

The "Online" G-Suite Pricing plan for Enterprise Agreement customers means that users can continue to access the "Basic" G-Suite experience for $5 per user per month, what's more, partners can offer a deal of 12 months for only 10 months of payment. What's more, for the Business-level users, it's possible to access G-Suite for $10 per month per user, at a deal of 12 months for only 10 months of payment, or 24 months for 18 months of salary. To be eligible for the EA G-Suite pricing deal, each customer involved in the package will need to commit to a full 12 or 24-month period.

On the other hand, the "Offline" pricing promotion for G-Suite EA customers is only available to new clients with more than 500 seats to support. With the online pricing promotion, businesses can get up to 18 months of G-Suite for free while they're locked into their agreements with other productivity vendors if they have a business account. They can also access 6 months of G-Suite Basic for free when handling other EA contracts. There's also up to 18 months of free use available for Cloud Identity Premium users, and 24 months for users of the eSKU.

A G-Suite Pricing plan with EA promotions is also available for Drive Enterprise SKUs. The maximum free period is 18 months, However, as with the other offers available as part of the EA G-Suite pricing deal, the new customer must be willing to commit to a paid period that matches or exceeds the length of their free usage period.

Getting the Best Deal with Google

For mid-sized companies looking to upgrade their productivity suite experience to Google, and partners who want to move their customers into G-Suite, there are plenty of options available. The EA pricing deals for Google 2019 make it easier than ever for customers to start testing out their G-Suite experience long before their contracts with other productivity companies have ended.

Unfortunately, for the time being, the EA offers aren't available for customers who are already using the standard free edition of Google. Customers need to be engaged in a contract with another productivity suite provider to be applicable for the G-Suite EA pricing plan. To prove this, they will need to provide written evidence of their Enterprise Agreement, complete with a start and finishing date for the contract.

A few things to keep in mind:

• All partners need to re-enroll in the G Suite EA pricing plan for 2019

• Pricing plan benefits vary depending on whether customers use the Offline or Online Pricing structure.

• The G-Suite Pricing plan for EA customers is exclusively available to new customers with certified productivity suite agreements.

• The promotion isn't available to Educational, Government or Non-profit groups at this time.

• All SKUs that aren't explicitly outlined for the EA pricing plan will not be included in the promotion.

• Deployment vouchers are capped at a maximum of USD 150,000

• To take advantage of the G-Suite EA pricing plan, you'll need to be working with new Cloud Identity, Drive Enterprise, or G-Suite users.

• The EA G-Suite pricing plan can't be combined with other rebates and promotions.

Crucial Points to Know about EA Pricing Plans

The G-Suite deals available as part of the EA Pricing plan for 2019 will help customers of all shapes and sizes to move forward with Cloud Identity, G-Suite and Drive Enterprise strategies while still in their EA. Most importantly, the end-user doesn't need to spend anything on their new service solution until their EA expires. Once the Enterprise Agreement expires, the mid-sized enterprise customer will get the standard price provided on the list price of the solutions available from Google. This means that you can expect to spend $5 per user per month for the G-Suite Basic Edition, or $12 per user per month for the G-Suite Business Edition.

For an EA Pricing plan order to be placed, it needs to be submitted by the Partner in their Sales Tool for the paid portion of the service only. This means that if a customer signs up for 60 months, with 30 months for free, the partner would only submit the order as 30 months. In all cases, the EA pricing deals demand that customers must be willing to commit to the same number of paid months on G-Suite as they get for free. The minimum number of paid months that is required for any deal is 12.

Perhaps most interestingly of all, companies that sign up for their EA deal today may even be able to access the lower price for G-Suite for longer. For instance, they could agree to a thirty-month deal with G-Suite Business for $10 per user per month after their free period runs out, instead of paying for the $12 per month per user price increase. Of course, this deal will only last until the initial deal period has expired. After this time, Businesses will need to go back to paying the full price of the G-Suite software.

As Google reminds its partners, the initial EA pricing deal is only a one-time benefit intended to help customers who are making the transition to G-Suite for the first time. The solution is part of Google's overall strategy to get more enterprise users inside the G-Suite portfolio, discovering the benefits that tools like Docs, Hangouts and Google Drive has to offer.

Crucially, if a customer with a G-Suite Pricing plan established through the EA promotion decides that they want to add more seats to their G-Suite experience later, those seats will be co-termed with the existing contract. However, the new seats will not get any channel rebate or deployment voucher benefits.

If you want to learn how you can get the best possible deal for your mid-enterprise customer, or you're a Google partner looking for help setting up a new deal for your end-users, contact Coolhead Tech today. We'll help you understand everything you need to know about G-Suite pricing.