New licensing model for Dynamics products

Business Central/NAV General Discussions
1

Hi, I just read a news report, that a new licensing model will be available from August 1st on with thre different editions (Dynamics Business Essentials, Dynamics Advanced Management und Dynamics Advanced Management Enterprise), and found this on Partnersource (UK):

Business Ready Licensing and Business Ready Enhancement Plan

Business Ready Licensing model and the Business Ready Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics introduces simplification and improvement to the licensing and maintenance programs for Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics SL.

Business Ready Licensing is the result of over two years of research, including interviews with Microsoft sales personnel and our partners. It is going to drive greater value, increase productivity and ensure confidence in choice for our customers. The combination of the new licensing program and enhancements in the maintenance plan are designed to enable our customers to realise the full potential of their Microsoft Dynamics solution from the moment they make their purchase decision through their lifetime as a Microsoft Dynamics customer.

Business Ready Licensing will simplify the customers’ purchasing decision, enabling them to gain more functionality from their software at a lower entry price.

The Business Ready Enhancement Plan offers customers the value they are looking for in their maintenance investment. This new value will help customers get the most from their Microsoft Dynamics solution and meet the changing needs of their business.

We believe Business Ready Licensing and Enhancement Plan will benefit you in three key ways:

Value for Your Customers

  • Providing customers with more solution value at a lower entry point
  • Addressing “11th user” and multi-site barriers
  • Concurrent user structure extends value to more employees
  • Increased Enhancement Plan value

Simplicity

  • Simplified packaging, pricing and enhancement terms and conditions
  • No user count restrictions
  • Greater transparency
  • Consistent and global Enhancement Plan and Policies

Expanded Business Opportunity

  • More competitive for <15 users, multi-site and divisional implementations
  • Increased opportunity for follow-up services and user sales
  • Greater annuity predictability due to increased value of Enhancement Plan

Business Ready Licensing will simplify the customers’ purchasing decision, enabling them to gain more functionality from their software at a lower entry price. Editions under the new plan include:

  • Business Essentials - an integrated, powerful financial and supply chain management solution, streamlined for ease of installation, rapid user adoption, and affordability that gives smaller and mid-market companies an effective way to record, manage, and access the information they need to manage the essential functions of their organization.
  • Advanced Management - Advanced Management is the preferred solution for growing mid-sized customers who are looking for an adaptive solution with a broad set of functionality. It offers extended capabilities across all business needs and delivers the extended business intelligence and reporting functionality required by midsized organizations and corporations.

Additionally, customers with complex needs who select the Advanced Management edition can select from a rich set of advanced supply chain management, field service, configuration, and development capabilities on a flat fee basis. This advanced functionality is available from the Advanced Management Enterprise component list.

The Business Ready Enhancement Plan offers customers the value they are looking for in their maintenance investment. This new value will help customers get the most from their Microsoft Dynamics solution and meet the changing needs of their business. These new enhancements include but are not limited to the following:

  • Transition Investment Credit - Provides the ability for the customer to apply 100% of their Microsoft Dynamics license investment towards a transition.
  • Extensive Training - Provides greater productivity by enabling customers to get the most from their solution and work more efficiently.
  • CustomerSource, Community and Tools - Microsoft Dynamics will extend its award-winning web site to all Microsoft Dynamics customers globally who enroll in the Enhancement Plan, with additional focuses on localized content and languages.
2

What is the PRICE???

3

It depends upon what you want, but essentially it is cheaper with higher maintenance charges. Ping me outside this and I will give you an example, not sure what is allowed to be published and what is not!

4

The thing that concerns me the most, is the definitions of the three business levels. I can see them leaving out just one or two crucial granules so that really most clients will need the enterprice version. What is the price difference between the versions?

5

Hi David

I will send you a breakdown when I am in the office next.

6

Thanks.

If its not NDA, could you upload it to the download area, I am suer everyone is interested.

7

Hi David,

I uploaded a list with the different modules that are contained in the two editions “Business Essentials” & “Advanced Management”.

Price is around 1500 Euro (BE) and 2700 Euro (AM) for first user.

8

Hi Daniel

Thanks for saving me the task, but I cannot find it [*-)]

9

Hi Steven,

no problem, I put it under NAV - Documentation and whitepapers" (direct Link).

10

Daniel, in the edit window, there is this icon if you click here it links back to the Download section, and you can then place a link in the current post back to the download…

like this

MS Dynamics NAV - BRL Packaging

Hmm the ico doesn’t show up for some reason.

11

Steven and Daniel, thanks for the information. Some notes

1/ SQL
Firstly the Advanced Management version will not run on MSDE, “Why would you run it on MSDE” I hear you ask. Well If I am installing Navision for a new client, then I will want at least all the Power users (and maybe many of the standard users) to have Navision installed locally for testing training etc. This now means that for playing and training, either a/ they are going to have to use Cronus (ain’t gonna happen), b/ they will need to install full SQL on their lap tops (Hmm I can see the fear in the eyes of the Sys admins out there) or they will only be able to access via a server, which has more than enough problems.

So what will probably happen is that even in SQL implementations it will be necessary to install a C/SIDE database for testing and training. Why not just set a limit on say 10 uesrs on MSDE ont eh Enterprise edition.

2/ Limits on business essentials:
Actually this does not look to bad. Though maybe Returns and transfers should have been left in there.

All in all, I don’t see it as being too bad, especially the fact that existing clients have the option, I think that is a great move. When they gave away database and increased user cost, they handled that very baddly, and it left a lot of users with a bad taste, but so far (fingers crossed) it looks like they got it right this time. Of course there are still some issues not addressed, For instance as Erik says, the high end user pricing one hopes applies company wide, and not server based. By that I mean that 10 Servers with 50 users each, should cost the same as 1 server with 500 users for a Parent company and its daughter companies.

One thing that is really good though, is that you can basically buy a full blown single user Navision licence now for about $3,000

12

Hi

In Daniels spreadsheet there are 2 columns, in my soft copy I have four [:D] There is a column for Advanced Management Enterprise (for AM) and A La cARTE (for AM or BE). Essentially these are the additional granules where you need, I believe, to pay for them individually.

You will see that certain granules are missing from the list and these fall into these columns, as examples:

Responsibility Centres
Put Away
Pick
Warehouse Receipt
Warehouse Shipment
ADCS
Version Management
Machine Centres
Web Users
Employee Portal Users
Business Notification
Business Analytics
Service Order Management
…

13

Yes I did notice the Web and Emplyee users missing. I was thinking that with a one user ($3k) licence available, there could be a ice market for a backend to a home web shop type environment where someone needs to be able to buy and sell stuff on a small scale, and then do all the accounting.

I really do see that a lot of single user options could now exist for Navsion that never did before.

14

I think I said it in Erik’s Blog but this was one of the aims of the restructuring where Microsoft felt products like SAPOne were pushing them out of the lower end, and if you get a small company, they can grow with Navision, and you keep them!

15

I am an end user, and from the looks of the document, it appears that you will have access to the eqivilant of the application designer graule in the advance managment version, it list acess to 100 codeunits which means you would need to have access to cal code in forms and tables also. Is this your interpretation also?

Second, it states you would have 100% price protection for your current investment in Navision, so if I have spent $100000 on licensing what we currectly have, and I want to take my currently licensed 34 users to the advance model, it would cost 34 * 3950 = 134300 less 100000 net cost to switch $34300, to the new license.

If this is the case, it seems pretty expensive. The only things on the list I don’t already license is the application designer and the manufacturing items. I still would not need the manufacturing. and I would still need to pay ala cart for the responsibility centers not on the list. But if I needed Manufacturing, it is missing most of the manufacturing granuls, which must be on he ala cart list. So you probably would not be saving much if you are a manufacturing company.

I also noticed that it doesn’t have much payroll, which we use, so I am thinking I would have to ala cart many of the payroll granules also. It is looking to be a pretty expense switch, It doesn’t appear to be targeted at the small company with anything but basic needs.

16

Absolutely Not.

I read this as exactly in a normal licence that you have access to run 100 Codeunits. You still have to get your NSC to develop those Codeunits.

Some how $3k for a full developers licence seems unreasonable.

By the way, what are the US prices, if (as you suggest) its $3,950 in the 26-50 user group, then how expensive is it for one user?

17

I don’t have access to any prices, was taking the $3950, from the original blog post on the front page, I guess the 26-50 price would be slightly less, under the current pricing a single professional user is 2100, and a use in the 26-50 catagory is 1950, so a 7% discount, you could apply that to the $3950 and guess that the per user price would be $3675.

But like I said, I am an end user and as such have no access to any information that is not posted here or other forumns, kinda sad I know, spend a few hunderd thousand over the years on the software and the annual maintence, you can’t even get timely information on the program, but that is a whole different post.

On the 3k for a full developer license, I wasn’t impling that at all, as you know even the current application disigner granual, does not get you the full developer license, it just gets you access to cal/code in forms and table and access to code units, it still have many restirctions that the full developer license doesn’t have. such as

This granule gives you the access necessary to change or create any object type, and gives you access to the Merge Tool and Upgrade Tool.

This granule also enables you to use the menu options Translate/Export and Translate/Import in the Object Designer. These options are not available with the Application Builder granule.

So, in re-reading it I also think as you do that is doesn’t give you the application designer features.

Which makes it even a less appealing option, who do you see as this being an advantage for. just very small companies or very large companies, but not the mid size company that appears to be the bulk of the current Navision customer base. It seems that it is ignoring the current installed base in persuit of new markets. Kinda of a risky strategy in my opinion.

Make all the new features require SQL to get the most advantage, charge more, and limit upgrade options, by making it cost prohibitive to actually upgrade. Now as I write that out, I see the strategy a little better, they are assuming the the current user base won’t upgrade and if they do it will cost a bundle, so why not target everything at new customers and just assume your installed base probably will stay where they are at anyways becuase it is too expense to switch to a competing product. And if it looks like they may switch you can then throw a bone there way to get them to stay with Microsoft.

18

Hello,

the Information about licensing is helpfull for me, but beside the € / License there is also the question about Support. Has it changed too? How much Percent of License Cost has to be paid for Support, or is there also another model existing?

Franz

19

Currently it is 10% of the license cost. Under BRL it will be 16%. There will be no alternative in 2 years, and all new sales go this way.