Following on from the additional limitations placed on Team Member licences in October 2018, Microsoft have announced that in 2020’s Wave 1 release due in April, Team Member functionality will be further restricted to ensure compliance with the licence scope. We take a look at the potential impact on your organisation.
What were the changes made in October 2018?
- Instead of being able to create, edit and delete records from all custom entities, Team Member Licence users were now limited to a few core entities and only up to 15 custom entities
- The ability to create, edit or delete Accounts was removed
- The ability to create, edit or delete Knowledge records was removed
However, these restrictions were implemented on a trust basis – the platform was unable to automatically restrict users from performing actions that went against their licence. This is where the new changes come in.
What will happen in April?
When the Wave 1 release is rolled out to customers, the most obvious change that Team Member users will notice is the number of apps within Dynamics 365 will be reduced. Instead of seeing all apps (or apps they’d been granted access to previously), they will now only see Sales Team Member, Customer Service Team Member and Project Resource Hub apps. These new apps are simplified versions of their full-licence equivalents and will automatically enforce the restrictions brought in in October 2018 so that you can ensure your organisation is compliant with the terms of the licence.
Are all Team Member licences affected?
No. Only Team Member licences purchased after October 2018 will be immediately affected. However, for licences purchased before this date, any that are renewed after June 30th 2020, will be migrated to the new Team Member licence SKU and will be subject to the new restrictions.
How can I prepare for this change?
As we covered in our recent post about the upcoming Wave 1 release, companies can opt in to receive a preview of some of the Wave 1 features. This also includes access to the new Team Member apps so you can get your users accustomed to them and ensure that they have the functionality that they require. If your Dynamics 365 instance has custom entities that these users access, they will need to be added to the Team Member apps. We encourage all existing Strategy 365 clients to get in touch so we can assist and ensure there is no downtime experienced in April when the Wave 1 release starts to roll out.
UPDATE – 25/02/2020
Microsoft have today announced that organisations affected by this change have been granted an additional grace period until June 30th, 2020. Although this now gives businesses more time to assess the impact of the enforcement and ensure that the new Team Member apps provide all the required functionality, we would recommend this task is approached soon, rather than leaving it until close to the end of the grace period.
