The last couple of months, Microsoft has invested heavily in simplifying their Dynamics 365 Licensing model. Today I want to take the time to discuss an upcoming change regarding the Team Member License. In general, the team member license is nothing new. It’s been around a while and is a great way to give people basic access on a budget. Microsoft explains this as follows:

“Many organizations have a large percentage of users who might consume data or reports from line-of-business systems—or perform simple tasks like entering time sheets or updating HR records—but don’t require full user capabilities. The Dynamics 365 Team Members license is meant for these users.” – Microsoft Docs

So, what changes?

Well the enforcement part! Until now there where rules on how and when you could use a team member license. At least on paper. These rules were never really validated or checked by Microsoft. But from April 1(it’s not a joke) those rules will be enforced by means of the new “team members” app for new licenses. Existing team member licenses will have a 90-day grace period to comply to these rules. 

Up until now a team member license could access every app they wanted, after enforcement they will only be able to access the new team member app. Which means this app can be modified regarding your system customizations according your company’s needs. Which brings us to the next step of this enforcement. Step one will enforce the app and basic entity restrictions. The second step will enforce all the entity and action rules accompanying them. Microsoft has not yet officially released a date on when this will happen. Our guess is that this will be in the months following the first enforcement.

If you want to have a closer look at all the do’s and don’t according to the Dynamics 365 licensing guide 👇 is a quick link. 

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=866544 

Do I need to take action?

For customers enrolled in our Stay Aware program which had a recent audit by us, they will be informed if any change is needed on their environments.  

If you’re not a Stay Aware customer and would like to get better insights in your licenses and understand potential violations, we have a solution that offers In Depth licensing analysis on your environment. Get in touch with us through the contact page and we’ll provide you more information on the tool.