The Business Ready Licensing Model, which will kick in on August 1, comprises three price tiers based on different levels of functionality.
Business Essentials is the base-level licensing plan and includes financial management modules such as general ledger, accounts receivable and payable and fixed assets, some basic supply chain management capability, and low-end business intelligence functionality. Prices start from $2,250 per user.
Advanced Management Edition is the mid-range offering and includes all the functionality includes in Business Essentials, plus project management, manufacturing functionality such as master production scheduling, and analytics. It will start at $3,980 per user.
At the top end, buyers can opt for Advanced Management Enterprise which adds vertical industry modules to the stack provided as part of Advanced Management Edition. Customers can choose the modules they need from Microsoft’s
The company is also taking steps to unify the annual maintanace fees paid across its various Dynamics applications, which currently range from 10% to 20% of the original licensing fee. Under the new program it will charge a flat 16% of the original licensing fee.
The adjustments to licensing and maintenance will mean some customers will benefit from reduced costs but others will end up paying more. Microsoft believes customers with 15 users or less will pay less overall, but those with 50 or more users could end up paying more. Existing customers will be able to maintain their current per-module based licensing program if they want to.
