Overview

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, referred to as CRM here on, is primarily licensed on a per user basis. However because of its capabilities it is very attractive to use it as a master data repository for an enterprise building a service oriented architecture. However, while the software itself makes this type of usage very compelling Microsoft’s licensing requires some consideration. Unless you plan to purchase a license for every employee in the business.

The normal deployment and licensing

CRM is usually deployed to a set of servers in the business as follows:

In this case you require licenses for the servers (Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Professional). Each user that accesses CRM will require a CAL. If external users, say customers accessing your company’s customer service web-site, are going to see and edit CRM data you will need to add an external connector license:

Integration

Now to make things more complicated. Say your organization has another software package, say a truckload management system. You need to exchange data between the two systems. Users of the TMS package will see data from CRM, things they do in TMS will update data in CRM:

In this case the TMS users will not require CRM licenses. The integration system that exchanges the data between CRM and TMS will need a license, but that is all.

Don’t be sneaky

So you want avoid buying CALs for CRM so you decide to do the following:

Based on the research I’ve done this won’t really get you out of needing additional CALs for the users. Just providing an alternative UI and calling the CRM web-services is not enough. To avoid being in a gray area two things should be done:

1. Give the application its own database to cache data

2. Give the application its own identity in CRM and have it do all the work on behalf of the users. The users themselves do not have identities in CRM.

The application would logically look something like:

However, you might get away by just doing #2.

Caveat

I strongly believe that you should pay for what you use. However, I don’t think you should overpay either. Unfortunately Microsoft makes their licenses so freaking confusing they are impossible to read or understand. All that said; you really should talk to a Microsoft licensing specialist.

I hate meetings. I mean I seriously hate them and will do everything in my power to avoid them. My experience is that there isn’t a meeting that can’t be improved by canceling it. Save everybody some time and send an email.

Unfortunately I’m in a very small minority with my opinion so on occasion I have to attend. One the even rare occasion where I’m doing a lot of the talking at the meeting I run in to a problem: what the heck did I say? Or in the case of classes: what did the instructor just say?

I stink at note taking. What was important and what can be forgotten? With storage today I could just record everything, but having to listen to hours of meetings or classes doesn’t seem very productive. So at some point learning to take good notes would be a good thing.

Some people might wonder how I’ve gotten so far along w/o this skill. Don’t worry – so do I. From a different angle I might wonder how much further along I’d be if I did take notes.

Anyway, on Seth’s blog he suggested an interesting tactic using notepads. Basically to record facts, and tasks. Not terribly innovative, but what I like was his example of using a notepad to build authority and persuade people. Very cool. Read it for yourself.

It’s interesting how both people and businesses have gotten a sense of entitlement about stuff.  By stuff I mean goods and services.  Right now I’m watching a video from “Revenue Bootcamp” titled “Will anyone pay for anything?”.

So they have a panel of people who basically say they expect most stuff on the internet to be free.  Guy Kawasaki provides a succinct summary of the panel here. It really is a nightmare:

This is a nightmare for anybody trying to start a business.  But what is really funny to me is businesses behave exactly the same way both toward each other and toward their employees. 

There are a few things you can do in the face of this: whine, cry, curl up in a ball and hope it will go away.  Or do the really hard thing and start thinking.  People do pay for stuff.  Even in the video the panelists do pay for things.  It goes back to basics though: what people value they will pay for.  Virtual crap has no value.  Things that are widely available have little value.  Tangible stuff has more value than virtual.

The panelists will buy gadgets (cell phones, laptops, etc).  They’ll pay for services until there is a free alternative.

Really scary for my friends who are in to Internet marketing is that click through advertising is being ignored.  So more for all those ebooks on how to make $90K/mo selling shit through adsense. 

Thing that scares me about all of this is the drive for free.  Things cost money.  It’s how we measure and exchange value.  Developers have to pay for their gear, software, books, and training.  Mechanics need tools, books and training.  Manufacturers have to pay for raw materials.  The people that produce the raw materials have to pay to extract, grow or make the raw materials.  Nothing is free.  Movies, tv shows, music, books, articles all have costs associated with them.  This crappy article cost me 15 minutes of time to write.  15 minutes I could have spent doing something else.

At a certain point if there is nothing coming back then people will stop doing stuff.  So if journalists arent paid they will stop journaling.  Programmers won’t program.  Things will grind to a halt.  We’ll go back to growing carrots and potatoes.  Crap – seeds cost money.