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The Microsoft Open License program changes

Jan 7, 2021

Learn about how we’re simplifying licensing through the new commerce experience for public sector customers.

In September 2020, we announced another step toward our new commerce experience to support your digital transformation with new offers through the Microsoft new commerce experience and removal of purchasing options that no longer meet customer needs. This was announced for commercial customers only. Today we’re sharing several related changes that impact public sector—education, government, and nonprofit—customers.

Key changes

1. Perpetual software licenses

Microsoft is taking a significant step to simplify licensing by introducing perpetual software license purchases through the new commerce experience, as part of our Cloud Solution Provider program for partners. Targeting July 2021, all partners enrolled in the Cloud Solution Provider program will be able to sell perpetual software licenses (without Software Assurance) to government, education, and nonprofit organizations for on-premises deployment. Software licenses will be available to commercial customers in January 2021.

	What’s already available through Cloud Solution Provider for public sector	What’s coming through Cloud Solution Provider for public sector
	Online services for government community cloud Online services education offers Online services nonprofit offers	Software licenses for government Software licenses for education Software licenses for nonprofit

2. Open License program change

Starting on January 1, 2022, commercial, government, education, and nonprofit organizations won’t be able to buy new or renew software licenses, Software Assurance, or online services through the Open License program. New license-only purchases should be transacted through partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program. You can continue to renew and purchase new software licenses, Software Assurance, and online services through the Open License program until December 31, 2021.

3. Open Value for education and nonprofit organizations

To support the change to the Open License program, we’re adding software licenses and Software Assurance offers to the Open Value program for eligible education and nonprofit customers. This will provide like offers with the Open License program. Education and nonprofit customers that want to continue buying new licenses with Software Assurance and online services can buy through the Open Value program starting in March 2021. Open Value is already an option for government customers.

	What’s already available through Open Value for public sector	What’s coming through Open Value for public sector
	Government licenses and subscriptions* License and Software Assurance Software Assurance renewal Online services	Education and Nonprofit licenses and subscriptions License and Software Assurance Software Assurance renewal Online services

^{*Open Value for Government available in Canada and Denmark on January 1, 2021}

Options for software licenses and online services

Your options for existing and new purchases after January 1, 2022 are outlined below.

If you’re buying perpetual software licenses only (without Software Assurance) and want to continue doing so:
1. Buy perpetual software licenses from qualified partners participating in the Cloud Solution Provider program. These partners also offer guidance if you’re evaluating online services and looking for value-added solutions, and offer the flexibility needed to address your hybrid use needs with both software licenses and cloud offers. Talk to your software reseller to find out if they are a Cloud Solution Provider or find a partner.
2. For alternatives, talk to your current licensing partner.
If you have Software Assurance coverage through the Open License program:
1. Your Software Assurance term, including benefits, will continue until its expiration, even if the expiration is after December 31, 2021.
2. The Microsoft Open Value program is recommended for future purchases that include Software Assurance. Available for government organizations now and in March 2021 for education and nonprofit organizations.
3. The Microsoft Open Value Subscription* program doesn’t offer perpetual software licenses but is a lower-cost subscription that gives you rights to use the software during the agreement’s term and also includes Software Assurance.
If you have online services through the Open License program:
1. Any unused online services tokens can still be assigned and used, even after December 31, 2021, provided it occurs within the five-year term of token purchase.
2. If you want to purchase additional online services subscriptions, you can work with a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider program to purchase online services subscriptions or you can buy additional online services tokens through the Open Value program or Open Value Subscription* program or from the Microsoft Store. Purchasing through the Open Value program is available for government organizations now and in March 2021 for education and nonprofit organizations.

^{*Nonprofit pricing isn’t available through Open Value Subscription.}

Key Dates

	Software licenses available through Open Value	Software licenses available through Cloud Solution Provider	Last day to buy/renew through Open License
Government	Available now	July 2021	December 31, 2021
Education	March 2021	July 2021	December 31, 2021
Nonprofit	March 2021	July 2021	December 31, 2021

If you’re evaluating cloud services and looking for value-added solutions, you can get guidance from your qualified and trusted partner. If you want to continue with Software Assurance on your licenses, the Open Value program is an established way to get it. Talk with your partner about which option is best for your organization.

Using Activity Data To Improve Opportunity Scoring Predictions in Dynamics 365 Sales

Dec 11, 2020

Microsoft has developed new capabilities in Dynamics 365 to discover email messages, meetings, and

phone call activities related to an opportunity, and then to factor these signals into the score.

Capturing activities to determine opportunity health

A healthy opportunity will usually have activities happening in it like email messages, meetings, and phone

calls.

Many of our predictive opportunity scoring customers were gathering these signals manually to determine

opportunity health.

Microsoft has replaced the need for customers to manually track activities by using AI to gather activities,

approving prediction accuracy, and compensating for cases where sellers do not diligently update the

opportunity fields.

This can help the seller make more educated choices about what the best next action might be.

For example, a high level of activity may indicate that the opportunity is heating up and is worth attention.

Likewise, an opportunity with where the activity level is low may need immediate attention.

Here’s an example showing the opportunity score improving

Here's an example showing the opportunity score declining:

Connecting opportunities with activities

In addition to activities that are explicitly connected to opportunities, an algorithm is developed to infer

indirect connections between activities and opportunities, using Contact and Account activity timelines.

Since these are not trivial connections (for example, an account may have multiple opportunities), AI is

assigning them appropriate predictive weights.

How the predictive opportunity scoring model is trained

First, we make sure, automatically, that the data we have is meaningful and contributing to the prediction.

Then we look at each recent activity level of every opportunity and try to find a correlation between this

signal and the likelihood of winning the opportunity.

After the model is trained, we can view the open opportunities in the system and give them a score based

on past examples.

What the AI does is learn how recent activity level affects the likelihood to win an opportunity in your

organization.

What is coming in Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation?

Nov 24, 2020

On November 1, 2020, Microsoft released Dynamics 365 Project Operations offers and removed Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation (PSA) for commercial customers.

What is changing?

DYNAMICS 365 PROJECT OPERATIONS

New application came on October 1, 2020. Going forward, all roadmap investments for the PSA software market will be done through this application.

DYNAMICS 365 PROJECT SERVICE AUTOMATION

There will not be any immediate disruption. Microsoft will work to transition you to at your pace. This service will continue running for customers on CSP until October 1, 2022 and EA until October 1, 2024, or until current contract ends, whichever comes first. Contract renewals will continue until October 1, 2021. Microsoft will offer a migration path to Project Operations. Current customers will be grandfathered into the new SKU and pricing.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING (PMA)

There will not be any immediate disruption. Microsoft will work to transition customers. SKU adjustments and entitlements for new customers will go into effect on October 1, 2020, moving from Finance to Project Operations. Microsoft will offer a migration path to Project Operations. Current customers will be grandfathered into the new SKU and pricing.

MICROSOFT PROJECT

Will be continued to be sold as PM and PPM solutions and common core capabilities Project for the web will incorporated natively into Dynamics 365 Project Operations.

Microsoft Forms Pro is now Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice

Oct 15, 2020

Customer Voice offers a comprehensive means to capture, analyze, and act on customer insights. Easily integrate Customer Voice into your everyday applications or workflow using the built-in integration. Capture feedback instantly with ready-to-use templates, and respond quickly using real-time update and text analytics.

Dynamics 365 Customer Voice is an enterprise feedback management solution that empowers everyone in the organization to develop enterprise-grade surveys to collect timely feedback from the customers and employees. With point-and-click simplicity and AI-assisted features everyone has the tools to create, send, and analyze custom surveys that integrate directly into the workflows and the organization’s business system.

Customer Voice License:

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Oct 2, 2020

A new Application is currently available starting October 1, 2020.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations connects sales, resourcing, project management and finance teams with a single application to win more deals, accelerate project delivery and maximize profitability.

The Project Operation New License offer:

The Base License Cost:
- 120 USD Per User Per Month
The Attach License Cost:
- 30 USD Per User Per Month
Purchase Requirement:
- 20 User Minimum
Entitlements per Tenant:
- Database Capacity
- Log Capacity
- File Capacity

Microsoft Dynamics Professional Bundle