Microsoft adjust the Product Terms removing the option to combine Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, and Project Operations licences to meet the 20 licence minimum, requiring all customers to now meet the minimum with a single product.
Check out the Product Terms here: https://bit.ly/3aAQVsy.
Microsoft announce the public preview of auto-claim for Power Apps licences. This feature enables IT administrators to set up policies that automatically assign Power Apps Premium licences to users when they launch an app that needs them.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3EEfjs8.
There’s an updated (September 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. The biggest amendment is for the changes to the licensing of Marketing and Customer Insights, and you can find the details of that on our blog here: https://bit.ly/3sEPkOq. Viva Sales is rebranded Sales Copilot, and there are some new Business Central Essentials Attach licences for Customer Service Enterprise, Sales Enterprise and Field Service Base licences, details of which you can find in the table on page 4.
Get this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3PzAtOj.
Microsoft announce that from 1 September, 2023 Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights will be sold together as a single product called Customer Insights. The original products retain their existing functionality but are renamed Customer Insights – Journeys and Customer Insights – Data respectively. There’s no change for existing customers and they can choose to renew their separate licences until 31 August, 2024.
New customers will be able to choose an Attach licence at $1,000 per month if they have qualifying Dynamics licences, or a standalone licence costing $1,700 per month if they don’t. Both Customer Insights licences include capacity for 10,000 Interacted People (the new Marketing Contacts) and 100,000 Unified People (the new Customer Insights Profiles), with additional capacity packs for both Interacted People and Unified People being available in three tiers of pricing. You can find pricing information, qualifying licences, and definitions here: https://bit.ly/3YZifJb.
Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/44EerhE, with a useful general FAQ here: https://bit.ly/3PoqSJS, and one specific to transitioning to Customer Insights – Journeys here: https://bit.ly/3R6oKHW.
Microsoft announce the retirement of the Visual Studio for Mac IDE, with end of support starting 31 August, 2024. Find the announcement and some suggested alternatives to using Visual Studio for Mac here: https://bit.ly/3Z4kdbe.
Microsoft introduced us to the Entra family in May 2022 and it’s grown steadily since then; this is a good diagram showing the current portfolio – find the source diagram in Microsoft’s blog post here: https://bit.ly/3qB3EXu.
However, it’s not immediately obvious what’s available, how much it costs, and how it’s licensed, so here’s the summary:
For further detail, find Microsoft’s Entra plans and pricing page here: https://bit.ly/3skNulo.
Here’s the licensing summary of the latest AI-ification that Microsoft is enabling in products.
First, Windows Copilot will be included in Windows 11 and available in preview this year – find out more about that here: https://bit.ly/45BkJzz.
Next, Bing Chat Enterprise is currently in preview and will be included in Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium licences. On release it’ll also be available as a standalone offering for $5 per user per month, and will be accessible from Windows Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot is also in preview and will be a $30 per user per month Add-on for Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium licensed users. Find out more about Bing Chat Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Copilot here: https://bit.ly/457xWQC.
And finally, Sales Copilot includes the Viva Sales capabilities and is generally available both as a standalone licence and included for users licensed for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise/Premium. Find out more about that here: https://bit.ly/3DWd0jL.
There’s an updated (August 2023) version of the popular Microsoft 365 plan comparison document showing you the different components in all of the Enterprise and Frontline Worker plans and the Add-on licences that are available. This latest refresh is updated for the name change of Azure Active Directory to Entra ID, includes more detail on the Defender Vulnerability Management SKUs, and updates the Viva section with Viva Glint and Viva Goals.
Find this useful document here: https://bit.ly/3sdixQj.
Azure Savings Plans are a great way of saving money in Azure – you commit to a fixed hourly Azure spend for 1 or 3 years, and then you’re eligible for special rates for compute resources. Working out the right amount to commit can be hard work and so Azure makes recommendations for you.
If you want to understand how it comes up with those recommendations, then this article is a good read: https://bit.ly/45phn2f, and if you want to get to grips with Azure Savings Plans all-up, then our Azure book is a great read: https://bit.ly/BOK22Azure.
There’s an updated (August 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide with two main additions.
Firstly, an allowance of 100 invoice capture transactions is added to Commerce, Finance, Project Operations, Supply Chain Management, and the Electronic Invoicing Add-on Capacity licences. This capability automates the Accounts Payable invoice-to-pay process – find out more in this article: https://bit.ly/3qunZ0D.
Secondly, Business Central Premium licences are added as eligible Base licences for Field Service Attach licences.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/441pot6.