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.
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What’s already available through Cloud Solution Provider for public sector
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What’s coming through Cloud Solution Provider for public sector
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- Online services for government community cloud
- Online services education offers
- Online services nonprofit offers
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- Software licenses for government
- Software licenses for education
- Software licenses for nonprofit
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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.
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What’s already available through Open Value for public sector
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What’s coming through Open Value for public sector
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- Government licenses and subscriptions*
- License and Software Assurance
- Software Assurance renewal
- Online services
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- Education and Nonprofit licenses and subscriptions
- License and Software Assurance
- Software Assurance renewal
- Online services
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*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:
- 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.
- For alternatives, talk to your current licensing partner.
- If you have Software Assurance coverage through the Open License program:
- Your Software Assurance term, including benefits, will continue until its expiration, even if the expiration is after December 31, 2021.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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
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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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
- Entitlements per Tenant:
- Database Capacity
- Log Capacity
- File Capacity
Oct 2, 2020
This campaign program is available from September 2020 till 25 June 2021.
Customer Segment
The Dynamics SMB promotion will only be available to the following types of customers:
Net new customer tenant
An existing customer tenant which does not have an active Dynamics 365 subscription
SMB customers in trading, services, and other industries that have a customer service department and sales department
Eligible Products & Offer ID’s
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional
| Offer GUID |
Product SKU Description |
Product SKU Part # |
| 51f99b45-3f92-4ef0-9167-b04709a62106 |
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional |
DYN365_CUSTOMER_ SERVICE_PRO |
| a81010d7-7859-4f6b-9f29-2e79e2573904 |
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional for Faculty |
DYN365_CUSTOMER_ SERVICE_PRO |
| 69998fb3-b858-476e-99ba-0d7ba65fe8fb |
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional for Students |
DYN365_CUSTOMER_ SERVICE_PRO |
| f28514f0-6516-4ef9-8222-1c605a05d245 |
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional |
D365_SALES_PRO |
| 45cf3a0b-260f-45d9-ae91-b82217e03612 |
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional for Faculty |
D365_SALES_PRO |
| a22ef7a9-f2f6-48f0-9060-6463852f9edf |
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional for Government |
D365_SALES_PRO_GOV |
| 8bc28c55-52ea-474a-b732-968a1d6056c8 |
Dynamics 365 Sales Professional for Students |
D365_SALES_PRO |
Terms and Conditions of the Promo
- Orders can be placed on a monthly basis
- Promo is valid for orders placed before 25th of June 2021
- For monthly orders; prices will be maintained for 12 consecutive months
- Regions eligible: Gulf and MCC and Egypt
- Qualifying customers will receive a 100% discount in the first 4 months with a minimum 1-year commitment for Dynamics 365 Sales Professional or Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional:
- Customers must be purchasing a net new Dynamics 365 Sales Professional or Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional customer tenant.
- An existing customer with an inactive or recently canceled (within the last 30 days) subscription may also qualify.
FAQ
- Will the new customer eligibility be enforced?
Yes, the Dynamics SMB promotion will be technically enforced
- Is there a minimum purchase requirement?
There is no minimum user purchase requirement
- How many licenses can be purchased at the promotion discount?
There is no maximum of licenses that may be purchased. Customers may purchase as many licenses as they need.
- What if I don’t start the promotion when it first becomes available?
New customers may take advantage of the Dynamics SMB promotion at any time between September 3, 2020 and June 25, 2021. Customers subscriptions must begin before June 25, 2021
- What happens to the monthly subscription price of Dynamics 365 Sales Professional and/or Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional licenses when the promotion ends?
Microsoft will honor the September 2020 catalog prices of the licenses for the duration of the annual subscription commitment. This means if a customer starts the promotion on September 1, 2020, their price for months 5 to 12 will be the September 2020 license monthly price
- When does the 4-month Dynamics SMB promotion pricing end?
The promotion pricing expires 4 months from the subscription start date not 4 months from the CSP billing date. For example, a new customer who takes advantage of this promotion and purchases their license September 15, 2020 begins their subscription September 15. The promotion price will be honored September 15, 2020 through January 15, 2021.
- How should partners use these promotions?
Partners can include these promotions in current customer acquisition motions to enable new customers in need of digital selling or remote selling scenarios to sign up with a partner. Throughout the promotion partners have opportunity to showcase the value of Dynamics 365 Sales Professional and/or Dynamics Customer Service Professional to new customers.
- How do partners transact these promotion offers?
CSP partners can transact the Dynamics SMB promotion offers through BPS Market Place on behalf of the customer effective September 1, 2020.
- Can partners still sell the regularly priced offers without promotions to qualifying customers?
Partners who do not wish to offer promotional pricing to otherwise qualifying customers may choose to cancel the promotion applied to the subscription and rebuy the subscription on the same day to void the promotion. Partners can always sell the regularly priced offers to non-qualifying customers.
- Does the promotion apply if my customer wants to cancel existing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Professional or Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional subscriptions?
Based on the new customer definition, the promotion will not be applied because the customer has an active Dynamics 365 Sales Professional and/or Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional or cancelled one within 30 days.
- What if my customer does not align to one of the eligible customer types?
Your customer may be eligible for the current products without the Dynamics SMB promotion or another offer. Please refer to additional details and the full list of Teams trials and offers.
