Microsoft has announced changes to its Microsoft Dynamics licensing model, moving from multi-application, one-size-fits all to a new focus on licensing of individual applications.
Effective from 1 October, 2019 the existing CE Plan, UO Plan and Dynamics Plans will be replaced with individual applications. Finance and Operations will also be split into two applications: Supply Chain Management and Finance. Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Service, Marketing, Retail and Talent will continue to be offered as standalone applications.
New and renewing customers will be able to purchase induvial applications as Base and Attach licences. The Base licence is the first application purchased for an individual user within a customer’s organisation. Attach licences are additional applications that may be purchased after the Base licence is acquired. The only exception is for the Marketing module which is on a per tenant basis.
Customers first purchase a base licence for each Dynamics 365 user within their organisation. Then they may add Attach licenses to each Base license. For example, if a customer has an individual user that requires both Sales and Customer Service Enterprise application functionality, they may purchase the Sales Enterprise Base licence and then add the Customer Service Enterprise Attach licence.
Customers on an existing licence agreement from CSP or EA can continue to use the existing pricing until they are up for renewal. At that point, all customer will be transitioned.
At their recent Inspire conference for Partners Microsoft acknowledged that the new licensing model will result in a price increase for many customers. They estimate that about 95 percent of users can expect at a ten percent or less impact in licence fees. Netted out over all the users, a typical customer is likely to see a “single digit impact” according to Ken Tracy of Microsoft.
Nevertheless, a long-term investment in Dynamics 365 will help organisations drive the digital transformation agenda with functionality and a product roadmap that promises:
- AI functionality that help sellers to deliver more personalised messages to the right buyers.
- Out-of-the-box AI models that help customer service agents determines next-best-actions.
- Easy-to-create, intelligent virtual agents.
- Multi-channel communication capabilities, such as Facebook Messenger, SMS, and chat.
Crimson will continue to keep a close eye on announcements. If you’d like to discuss your current Microsoft licencing concerns, we invite you to call the Crimson sales team who will be happy to look into the most efficient options for your circumstances.
