Time is running out for Dynamics AX customers to take advantage of the transition or upgrade to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. There are several dates to consider in addition to your implementation plan: Mainstream and Extended Support for AX 2009 - 2012 and the Discount End Date for making the transition to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations in the Cloud.
Mainstream support for Dynamics AX 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Dynamics AX 2012, and Dynamics AX 2012 R2 ends on October 9, 2018. After that date, only security hotfixes will continue to be provided for these three versions through the extended support period that continues until October 12, 2021.
What is Mainstream Support?
Mainstream Support is the first phase of the product lifecycle. At the supported service pack level, Mainstream Support for products and services includes:
- Incident support
- Security updates
- The ability to request non-security updates
- Customers must remain current on the Microsoft Dynamics AX Enhancement Plan.
What is Extended Support?
- Paid support
- Security updates
- Customers must remain current on the Microsoft Dynamics AX Enhancement Plan.
Self-help Online Support
Self-help Online Support is available throughout a product's lifecycle and for a minimum of 12 months after the product reaches the end of its support. Microsoft online knowledge base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools, and other resources, are provided to help customers resolve common issues.
Upgrade Discount Deadline
Dynamics AX existing customers that were licensed before 10/31/16 have the opportunity to transition to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations at 40% off the cost until 11/1/19. Forty percent is for the cost of the software - you get every module. Please read about the modules here: Dynamics 365 Enterprise Finance & Operations Modules - An Overview
Basically the remaining 60% cost is for the Microsoft Azure Cloud and it is a tremendous value.
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Subscription Includes
The following excerpts from the June 2018 License Guide shows what servers and space are included with your subscription per the Dynamics Licensing guide as of 10/16/2018. You can download the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide and Service Description documents here.
- Default Production Instance
- Includes 10 GB database storage. Additional storage is granted at no charge with the increase of full system users at the rate of 5 GB for every 20 users.
- Default File Storage Default File Storage Capacity
- Each Dynamics 365 for Operations customer will receive 100 GB of file/Azure Binary Large Objects (BLOBs) cloud storage for files and binary data.
- Default Non-Production Instance Capacity
- Sandbox Tier 1 – Developer Instance. More may be needed depending on your requirements. Current pricing is $425 per month if an additional sandbox 1 is needed. Pricing can change.
- Sandbox Tier 2 – Standard Acceptance Testing (and training) with 10GB of default storage. Current pricing is $1,350 if an additional sandbox 2 is needed. Pricing can change.
The remaining costs are around the services and infrastructure that Microsoft includes at no additional cost:
- Storage and database capacity management
- High availability and disaster recovery
- Platform security
- Infrastructure capacity, scale up and down
- Infrastructure management and deployment
- Data center networking, power & cooling
Microsoft configures production tenants sized to handle the transaction volumes and user concurrency. Microsoft is responsible for:
- Proper allocation of resources of production tenants, based on the Customer’s profiling information in the LCS (Lifecycle Services) Subscription Estimator
- Continually monitoring and diagnosing service availability of production tenants
- Analyzing and troubleshooting system performance issues with Finance and Operations
See page 6 of the Service Description document for a complete explanation of the responsibilities of Microsoft, you, and your partner.
Dynamics 365 License Upgrade Costs
If you are Dynamics AX customer have you started planning for this upgrade or migration? Please keep the November 1, 2019 date in mind so you do not miss the 40% discount offering for existing Dynamics AX customers. You have to be current on annual enhancement plan to qualify and if not, you will pay full price for the subscription. Either way, the Microsoft Cloud with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations it is a tremendous value for your money, with no hidden costs. The only additional costs from Microsoft could be for another Sandbox Tier 1 and Tier 2 environments for a a few months during your implementation. But - no servers to purchase or software to buy! Speak to your Dynamics Partner or Clients First to determine your company's specific needs.
The Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Unified Operations Plan for a full system named user: list price is $190. This will replace your AX 2012 Enterprise and possibly your Functional users. For AX 2009 it will replace your BRL user for AX 2009 Advanced Management or Business Essentials. There are no additional software or server costs unless you have the need for an additional sandbox for the duration of your migration.
In addition there are other named user types to review with your Dynamics Partner and how to map them from your existing user roles to Dynamics 365. The license guide can give you some direction on these user types too:
- Team Members
- Activity User
- Device License
Of course there will be implementation costs to review with your partner. It's a pretty big upgrade from AX 2009 to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. However, you may have customizations that are no longer needed since the features and functionality have improved dramatically. Be careful about diving into any customizations (now called Extensions) without doing a lot of due diligence first. Since the software has such deep functionality and there is no ONE consultant or developer that knows it all, its possible to get misinformed information- unintentionally of course.
One important note: If your Partner ask you to prepay for the entire year and you need to add one of these Sandboxes or even additional users temporarily you will have to pay for the entire year of the subscription. Month to month payments allow you to add users and sandboxes for only as long as you need them. Be sure to ask your Partner what notification they require to make changes to your licensing. Pricing can change at anytime.
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations On Premise
You can install the solution on your own network. There is typically no software costs unless we add users, etc. However you still pay the annual support fee and you have to manage the solution. There are also some differences in the on-premise version versus the cloud. Check back later for a post about these differences.
Clients First has experience with on premise installations and presented a Lesson's Learned session at the recent Dynamics AX/365 User Group Summit in Phoenix.
Clients First is a Gold Cloud Service Provider or CSP. The Texas and Minnesota offices are two locations that focus on AX and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding licensing or if you need assistance with your Dynamics AX upgrade. Call 800-331-8382, or email info@cfbs-us.com.
