What Is The Professional Licence For Dynamics 365 Customer Service

As part of its October 2018 release, Microsoft has introduced a new Customer Service licence for users who don't need the full set of features offered by the main Enterprise licence.

In the same way that Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional delivers core sales capabilities so the new Customer Service Professional introduces a slimmed down experience at a lower pricing point compared to Customer Service Enterprise.

Microsoft define the two Customer Service licences as follows:

• Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Enterprise goes beyond core support functionality and meets the needs of more complex customer service processes.
  
• Dynamics 356 for Customer Service Professional is for customers with less complex service scenarios who need streamlined capabilities to provide core support functionality.

Before looking at the differences between these, let's start with the core features and capabilities shared by both licence types:

User numbers

Neither the Professional nor Enterprise licence are subject to any minimum or maximum user licence numbers.

Available in both Customer Service Enterprise & Professional

For either licence, users will have access to create and manage all the following entities and processes in Dynamics 365: Cases, Contracts, Entitlements, Service Level Agreements, Contacts, Accounts and Facilities / Equipment. 

The October '18 update adds a capability to create new Lead records on a Customer Service Pro or Enterprise licence. Both licence types also include access to the Customer Service Hub. 

Finally, both sales apps offer the same functionality for connecting Dynamics 365 with Outlook, Excel and Power BI as well as accessing the app via mobile and tablet apps.

Limited Capabilities in Customer Service Professional

While Customer Service Enterprise provides unrestricted use rights, the following restrictions apply for Customer Service Professional:

• Forms - maximum of 2 per entity. For example, this would only enable a couple of variations for contact or case forms
• Custom Entities - maximum of 15
• Guided Business Process Flows - limited to a maximum of 5 process flows
• Custom Workflows - limited to a maximum of 15 workflows
• Reporting customisations - maximum of 5

Greater flexibility is extended for third party solutions added from AppSource as these will not count against the above limits for customer entities, business process flows or customer workflows. However, the Professional licence is restricted to a maximum of 10 installs of third party apps from AppSource or other sources.

Functions Excluded from Customer Service Professional

The following functions and services are not available with a Customer Service Professional. These will only be accessible for the Customer Service app with an Enterprise licence, or in some instances can be activated with an add-on purchase:

• Voice of the Customer surveys
• Gamification
• Unified Service Desk
• Embedded intelligence / AI 
• Web Portal - add on available
• Non-Production Instance - add on available
• Powerapps P2 - add on available

Licence Rights

It's important to note that a mix and match between Customer Service Professional and Enterprise licences is not available on the same instance of Dynamics 365 Online. 

Other licensing options include the Team Member for light usage across all Dynamics apps and the Customer Engagement Plan for full use rights across all Enterprise apps.

Finally, dual usage rights between Dynamics 365 on-premise and cloud are only granted to Customer Service Enterprise licences. Professional licences are only available for a cloud deployment.

Conclusion

In deciding which Service licence is best for your team's use requirements the limited capabilities listed above could be a good starting point. As an example, the are many instances where Dynamics 365 customers require 15+ custom workflows to handle a combination of their case management, contract and feedback processes. In this scenario, the Customer Service Professional workflow limitation would immediately rule out this option in favour of an Enterprise licence.

With a £30 price difference between the two licence types and the inclusion of core case management functions, Customer Service Professional will be a cost efficient fit for many SMB requirements to licence Dynamics 365 and only pay for what features are needed.

As a Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner, Preact are here to help. Please get in touch if you have any licensing questions.