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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ... / Licensing Terms for Ve...
Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
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Licensing Terms for Vendors

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Posted on by bprashant644 20

Hello,

My query is regarding Licensing of vendors (typically E-Commerce vendors, Store owners or Franchise owners) who can use the MS Dynamics functionality via web based application. 

These owners interact with MS Dynamics but are external users and neither employees, contractors or agents. Since, external users require no CAL's how do we define this relationship and it is applicable for license. These vendors will fetch details from the server and give order as required. Similarly, B2B vendors who interact with MS Dynamics are they to be licensed.

Another issue, in case SAP is fetching some data directly from MS Dynamics, does this require the SAP user to be MS dynamics licensed.

I have read the license documentation as well, it would be really helpful if someone can explain -

What constitutes performing business processes on behalf of the Organization  (this will clarify the external and internal user issue.)

Thanks in advance.

  • nmaenpaa Profile Picture
    nmaenpaa 101,156 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    Well, I wouldn't say it's safe to assume :) You should ask from your local Microsoft representative to (hopefully) get a solid answer.

  • bprashant644 Profile Picture
    bprashant644 20 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    I get your point. I guess everything narrows down to the menu items then. What menu items are being used by individuals and which CALs are assigned to that particular Menu item.

    In the example given by you none of the menu items are being accessed by the Customer hence, it is safe to assume that he/she doesn't require a CAL, right?

  • Verified answer
    nmaenpaa Profile Picture
    nmaenpaa 101,156 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    That's a really open ended statement, like license terms often are.

    Imagine that you send an invoice to a customer, using automated process. Now your customer receives the invoice and uses the data (invoice amount, bank account, payment reference, due date) in it to pay the invoice. But definetely the customer doesn't require AX license.

    Also banks can use payment data generated by AX etc.

  • bprashant644 Profile Picture
    bprashant644 20 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    Sure Nikolaos, will check.

    But duplicating/linking the AX data to external database and users accessing the external database would require CAL according to these clause, right? since, these users don't own the data and are external users.

    ï‚· Users and devices are required to have the appropriate license regardless of their direct or indirect connect to the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 server.

    ï‚· Any user or device that accesses the server, files, data or content provided by the server that is made available through an automated process requires a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CAL.

    ï‚· The number of tiers of hardware or software between the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Server and the user or devices that ultimately use its data, services or functionality does not affect the number of CALs required.

    External DB is just another software tier therefore, the licensing requirements still hold true. right? 

  • Verified answer
    nmaenpaa Profile Picture
    nmaenpaa 101,156 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    It's best to check your questions directly with Microsoft. They are the ones that can cause you trouble if you break the licensing terms, so their opinion is quite valuable.

    But as a rule of thumb users require an AX license if they use AX directly, or perform business processes in AX indirectly. Just integrating service requests from another system doesn't mean that all users of the other system need an AX license. On the other hand if you would develop an external application that is just a new UI for some AX processes, those users would need AX license.

    For customer/vendor self service the licensing requirements are a bit different and are described in the licensing terms.

    Reading from AX database should not require AX license - you are basically just reading data that you own, and of course SQL Server license is required to read data from SQL Server databases.

  • bprashant644 Profile Picture
    bprashant644 20 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    Yes, I share the same opinion.

    Does this opinion hold true, if the data flows back in the same manner??

    any thoughts on that...

    Also, in case third party application DB is linked with AX DB will their be any impact on licensing of application users? do they require CAL to access their own DB since the linking may provide data transferred from AX DB to application DB.

    Thanks 

  • Verified answer
    Martin Dráb Profile Picture
    Martin Dráb 231,305 Most Valuable Professional on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    In my opinion, the other users don't need AX CAL.

  • bprashant644 Profile Picture
    bprashant644 20 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    Hi Martin,

    Thanks for all your help...

    We need to understand one other scenario in multiplexing, in case you can answer that will be helpful or would request someone else to provide some info...

    Scenario -

    Service request data from hundreds of 3rd party application users is being transferred to SFTP folder from here a user with appropriate CAL picks up data and put its into another SFTP folder. The AOS server then fetches data from this SFTP folder and send it to AX.

    In this scenario, the 3rd party application users do not require CAL's right ?

    Thanks again

    Regards

    Prashant

  • Martin Dráb Profile Picture
    Martin Dráb 231,305 Most Valuable Professional on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    It was meant as a reaction to your first point, about external users. I'm sorry, but I can't give any definite answer. I don't know your situation in detail, and I'm also not a specialist in licensing.

    I'm not sure what you're now asking about multiplexing. If you mean that a user reads data from AX and manually puts it into SAP, then this user needs an AX license but others accessing the information in SAP don't.

  • bprashant644 Profile Picture
    bprashant644 20 on at
    RE: Licensing Terms for Vendors

    Hey Martin,

    Your answers have helped us get some clarity, thank you!

    Also, when you say 'Must meet all conditions, not just this one'. You mean to say that all the Multiplexing conditions provided in the guide (mentioned below) must be met and if even one condition is not met or to say their is a break in data flow (manually passed) then the licensing doesn't apply, right?

    Multiplexing does not reduce the number of licenses required to access the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 solution. Any user or device that accesses the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012—whether directly or indirectly—must be properly licensed.

    ï‚· Users and devices are required to have the appropriate license regardless of their direct or indirect connect to the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 server.

    ï‚· Any user or device that accesses the server, files, data or content provided by the server that is made available through an automated process requires a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CAL.

    ï‚· The number of tiers of hardware or software between the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Server and the user or devices that ultimately use its data, services or functionality does not affect the number of CALs required.

    Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CALs are required for users or devices that directly input, query or view data from a Microsoft Dynamics AX R3 Server. Similarity, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CALs are required for users or devices that input data into, query or view data from a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Server through a poling device. This includes users or devices who view data through web-based applications or enter information into a database through an intermediary product.

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