How to optimise your Dynamics 365 licenses.
To start with software optimization, we start with the standard principles.
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- 3 to 5 year Outlook (Roadmap)
- Optimization / software license Advisory
- Negotiations
- Software Management
Dynamics 365 data Collection
Collecting data from Dynamics 365 is not as straightforward as it is with M365 licenses. The usage reports are more complex and do not provide out-of-the-box results. You need to combine different data sets and have substantial CPU power.
Microsoft stores audit log data when this feature is enabled on your tenant.
Start or stop auditing for an organisation
This task requires the system administrator or customiser security role or equivalent permissions.
- Go to Settings > Administration.
- Choose System Settings.
- On the Auditing tab, select the Start Auditing check box to start auditing. Clear the Start Auditing check box to stop all auditing.
- Select the entities you want to track. To start or stop auditing on specific entities, select or clear the following check boxes:
- Audit user access. Tracks when a user accesses Customer Engagement (on-premises)including the user name and time.
- Common Entities. Tracks common entities like Account, Contact, Goal, Product, and User.
- Sales Entities. Tracks sales-related entities like Competitor, Opportunity, Invoice, Order, and Quote.
- Marketing Entities. Tracks Campaign entity activity.
- Customer Service Entities. Tracks Case, Contract, Queue, and Service entity activity.
- Click OK.
Last Login Data
Once enabled, you can export these results to find out when a user last logged in.
- https://purview.microsoft.com/audit
- Set the time period
- At activities, friendly names could you search for Dynamics. You choose for the Dynamics Activity App and the second export you choose Signed in or out.
These data exports are quite heavy, generating over a million rows, which will require substantial CPU power to process.
How to analyze the data
You have successfully downloaded the CSV file, and now what? We need to work with the data to get the outcomes we are looking for. Initially, Microsoft reports the last login date in one cell with the date and exact time. We want to remove the time to have clean data. You can do this by adding a new column and using the formula below:
=ALS(ISGETAL([@CreationDate]);[@CreationDate];DATUM(LINKS([@CreationDate];4);DEEL([@CreationDate];6;2);DEEL([@CreationDate];9;2)))
This will give you the exact date “28-08-2024” instead of “2024-08-28T17:15:53.0000000Z”.
The next step is to show only the last login date. Microsoft reports every login within the set time period, which means you get multiple rows for one user/account. By using this formula, you will get the last login date and can filter out the duplicates:
=ALS(ISGETAL([@CreationDate]);[@CreationDate];DATUM(LINKS([@CreationDate];4);DEEL([@CreationDate];6;2);DEEL([@CreationDate];9;2)))
The final step is to filter out the duplicates in the UserID column.
Based on the last login dates you can optimise the licenses.
Dynamics 365 User Profiling
The next step is user profiling. Do all my users need a full base license? Do they need usage rights across multiple apps, and if so, what kind of actions will they perform? These are the questions you need to answer in user profiling to optimize your license portfolio.
Microsoft offers four principal license types:
- Team Member: A Dynamics 365 license with access, read, create, update, and delete rights. This is a light version that provides access to all apps.
- Activity License for Finance and Operations: Like the Team Member license but with additional usage rights:
- Create or edit items related to warehousing, receiving, shipping, orders, vendor maintenance, and all budgets.
- Approve all Operations – Activity related transactions (see Appendix F for details).
- Full Base License: For the different Dynamics 365 apps, such as Sales, Supply Chain, Finance, Operations, Customer Services, etc.
- Attach License: For the different Dynamics 365 apps when one user is using multiple apps and needs full functionality.
Optimizing your Microsoft agreement is a strategic process that starts with gathering and analyzing your usage data. By understanding which licenses are in use and identifying inactive or underutilized accounts, you can make informed decisions that lead to significant cost savings. Data is your most asset here, and with the right approach, you don’t need costly tools to achieve meaningful insights. Using exports from Dynamics 365, audit logs and PowerShell scripts, you can uncover opportunities to streamline your licenses and maximize your investment in Microsoft technology.
Ready to unlock savings in your Microsoft agreements? Contact us to learn more about optimising your licensing strategy or for assistance with data analysis and cost-saving recommendations.
