SharePoint integration for P2 Plan users

By | June 11, 2019

 

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:

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

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

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

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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.

2 thoughts on “SharePoint integration for P2 Plan users

  1. Niels

    Hi Alex,

    Great post.

    The answer I got from Microsoft related to using the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook was, that you needed either at Dynamics 365 Sales license or Team Member. However, they were not really able to document it in any way. So right now, we’re using a D365 license only to use the App for Outlook. Everything else we’re currently using functionality wise, we could do with a P2 license. So I’m looking forward to the P2 Outlook integration.

    But let’s say that you want to mix and match licenses, which is no problem, as it is mentioned in the bottom of the PowerApps pricing page (https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/) – and you are running on a Dynamics CDS with the 1st party sales app:

    “You can mix and match PowerApps licenses, and licenses that include PowerApps capabilities, across the users in your organization. For example, if there are 100 users in your organization, 50 may be licensed with Office 365, 20 with Dynamics plans, 25 with PowerApps Plan 1, and 5 with PowerApps Plan 2. Compare the features in each plan to choose the mix that meets your team’s or organization’s needs.”

    Since your running a Dynamics CDS instance with the 1st party sales app installed, the Live Org Charts functionality will be visible on Accounts. However, this is specific Dynamics 365 for Sales feature (https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/sales/) that is not a part of the P2 license – but it will be available in the environment for all users.

    It’s not like the restricted entities (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/data-platform-restricted-entities), which you can control by using security roles.

    Reply
    1. Alex Shlega Post author

      Hi Neils,

      that’s the problem with the interpretations – if it all were clearly written in the licensing guide, we would not even have to ask. Thank you for the comment – we’ve been discussing this scenario with Microsoft at the moment (SharePoint and Outlook, not the Org Charts though), and your note adds details. Will let you know if/when I have more info.

      Reply

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