SharePoint integration for P2 Plan users

Before you read this post, here is the disclaimer: whatever I write below is my own interpretation which you may want to confirm with Microsoft.

Why is there a disclaimer? Well, I’m going to talk licensing below…

So, you know there are two different types of CDS (Dynamics CDS and regular CDS). I am not exactly sure what the technical difference is between those two, but, when you are creating a Dynamics 365 instance, you are getting Dynamics CDS. When you are creating a PowerApps environment, you are getting a regular CDS.

In the Dynamics CDS, you can deploy various Dynamics first-party applications. In the regular CDS, you can’t do that.

However, Sharepoint integration is not considered a first-party application. It’s a functionality included into the Dynamics CDS and not exposed in the regular CDS.

Outlook integration is slightly different, since there is a first-party application now. However, with the Outlook integration coming in Wave 2, it seems PowerApps Plan 2 users are going to be able to use it in the regular CDS as well.

In other words, from the licensing standpoint, it seems nothing should be stopping P2 Plan users from utilizing either of those features. Of course, that would only be possible if either of them were available in the corresponding CDS environment.

But is there anything that’s stopping a P2 user from working in the Dynamics environment? Not really, it seems. Moreover, if you look at some of the diagrams in the licensing guide, you’ll see that P2 license is fine in that sense:

https://www.itaintboring.com/dynamics-crm/wrapping-my-head-around-the-licensing-for-dynamics-powerapps/

Well, of course, normally Dynamics environments are supposed to have all those first-party apps. But they don’t have to, and, even if they do, P2 users don’t have to work with those applications or with the restricted entities introduced through them.

How about Sharepoint, then? The question that came up recently was, literally, how do we get Sharepoint in the regular CDS instance for a P2 user. Well, there seem to be no way, and it’s not even scheduled for Wave 2.

But, then, we can get a Dynamics CDS instance, add P2 user to that instance, and voila – here goes Sharepoint integration:

Well… How about server-side email integration? Here it is:

And, if you thought that would be enough, we are not done yet. Once that user is given “Outlook App” role:

We can add a Dynamics 365 App for Outlook to that user:

Just to summarize: there is a P2 plan user who now has access to the Sharepoint integration and who can use Dynamics App for Outlook.

I suspect there might be an extra cost per month since you may need at least one full Dynamics 365 license to get Dynamics CDS instance, but, it seems, the rest of your users can be licensed with P2 if they are not planning to use any of the Dynamics first-party apps, and they will still have access to Sharepoint/Outlook.

Btw, if I were writing this half a year ago, I would have to mention per-instance cost, too. Don’t have to do it this time, though, since Dynamics instance pricing is storage-based now.