Licensing Advent Calendar – Day 9 – User security governance

So far, during the Advent Calendar, I talked about license reporting outside of Dynamics 365 F&O. There are still some topics to talk about on PPAC, but I will first focus on User security governance features related to licensing in the Dynamics 365 F&O application.

User security governance

The base of all of the features available in User Security Governance is the acquisition of the Executive Automats Security & Compliance ISV by Microsoft. The goal was to add features for governance, user management, and licensing information. The idea that the license information was a better visualization than reports previously available probably made Microsoft believe that it was time for user license enforcement. However, this was already long on the wish list.

Next to the licensing information, the user security governance module has more features that can be beneficial to organizations. At the time the module was in preview, I wrote a blog with my first look at User Security Governance. By reading this blog, you get an idea about the scope of the module. After the first release of the preview, some features were changed or enhanced. As the initial license calculation had inconsistencies, the License Usage Summary was also reimaged and fed with information gathered by the new microservice performing the licensing calculations.

Feature management

The Licenses usage summary page is mandatory to have available to be able to do proper analysis of the current licensing requirements for your security roles. The module and report are managed via Feature management. If you haven’t enabled the two features, it is time to do so now.
You can find the features by searching with the keywords user security governance.

The License usage summary report feature depends on the first listed. For that reason you first need to enable the feature User security governance, then you can enable the second one.

The features can be found in the menu System Administration. In case any of the menu items are showing a suffix (preview), you are running on an older version. You can then install the latest available quality update (10.0.43 and above) or update to the current version. Anyway, the details on the Licenses usage summary page are the same regardless of the a word preview is still there or not. Note that, next to the removal of the word, other fixes are available for more reliable licensing reporting data.

You don’t need to review or implement all features available in the new module. In case you want to learn more, you can read my blog I shared above or the documentation on Microsoft Learn.

You can directly open the page Licenses Usage Summary. The information on the form is already present in your environment, as the underlying tables are filled by the microservice.

Licenses usage summary

In the post Tomorrow, the available details on the current page will be explained. In the post today, a small lookback at the first licensing page available in the module.

In the first version, you could set up the subscription prices of each of the license SKUs. Next to information on which user, role, duty, or privilege required what license, there was an option to calculate the total license cost for the Dynamics 365 user licenses. The setup and features for the subscription cost have been deprecated from the module.

As mentioned above, the calculation and view of this form got revamped. Unlock the door tomorrow to learn more about the current information available on this form.

There is more…

During the Advent period, each day in December, I will share some thoughts and tips related to the Dynamics 365 user license enforcement. If you have questions about this topic, feel free to contact me via LinkedIn, the comments section below, or the contact form on this blog. I will then either update one of the planned blogs for the coming 24 days or answer questions in a new post.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Enforcement Advent Calendar

I do hope you liked this post and will add value for you in your daily work as a professional. If you have related questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to use the Comment feature below.


That’s all for now. Till next time!