Optimising Microsoft Dynamics 365 Licensing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 licensing can be challenging to navigate. It can sprawl, it can add cost to a company if not managed optimally, and it can be an expensive investment if it isn’t customised to suit the business and its unique requirements. There are also multiple types of Dynamics 365 licensing models and each of these requires that the licensing be managed to ensure the costs are accurate and relevant. 

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Platform 

The platform provides the organisation with a variety of functions that span anything from finance and operations through to customer service, sales and marketing. It’s diverse. This is one of its biggest benefits, it’s diversity, but when it comes to licensing, this is where things get tricky. 

The platform has two different licensing models – per app and per user. The former is designed to provide the business with licensing for applications within the ecosystem that bet suit the business. Users can only use those apps but the benefit is that you can allocate app licensing based on actual usage and relevance. The per user licensing model is slightly more challenging as it is broken down across full users, team members and application users with each license type providing a different level of access. 

The full user is, of course has access to all applications within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem while the team member license is slightly more restricted. The application user license only allows users to sit within a specific application. The difference between the per app licensing model versus the application user model is that the latter allows for the application to be used throughout the business while the former is allocated to a specific user.  

But Wait, There’s More 

In addition to the above licensing models there are Dynamics 365 licensing suites that are designed to fit specific niches within the business. Across Customer Service, Finance and Operations, Marketing, and Sales, each of these licensing suites is designed to provide these teams with a bouquet of apps that fit their specific needs.  

This means that your organisation’s licensing strategy needs to sit back with each of these options and plan out each license and use case to ensure you aren’t spending more on licenses than you need to. And this isn’t a once-off process either. People will leave, departments will merge, needs will change and with them your licenses. It’s very easy for an organisation to end up with under-used licenses that are costing money and delivering little value. 

It’s also easy to put off managing and refining licenses and spend because the task is admin intensive. After all, these different layers of licensing are just within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem – you also have to manage your Microsoft 365 licensing and any other third-party solutions. 

To resolve this challenge and ease the burden on the business, Mint has developed a License Optimisation tool powered by our ProActive Discover platform to provide you with an advanced evaluation methodology designed to optimise your costs. Spanning Business Central, Finance and Supply Chain Management and CRM, the tool is designed to highlight under-used licenses so you can assess your solution requirements and improve both operational efficiencies and costs. 

Our optimising tool provides you with a report that summarises licensing usage across the business along with key recommendations you can use to maximise your investment and reduce your reliance on under-used licenses. Partnering with Mint means you get fast and simple license management without the admin or the stress.