Forum Discussion
Project Operations subcontractor licensing
Hello all and LicensingConcierge1
We are going through Type 1 deployment of Project Operations (Deal to pro-forma invoicing) and need to setup subcontractors that are resourced onto projects. We are assessing the following options to allow subcons to record time and expenses and need to confirm the licensing requirements:
1. Creating subcontractors as users (and the respective bookable resource) - subcons will have an AD/ guest M365 account and assign subcon users project ops team member licenses.
2. Creating subcontractors as Contacts (and the respective bookable resource) under a vendor account - subcons will need to submit time and expenses via a Power Pages portal. The Time and Expenses tables will need to be surfaced on the portal. We will need to license Power Pages login and page view capacity.
Scenario 1 seems pretty straightforward to me.
Is Scenario 2 valid and correct? will the subcontractors require any additional license to record time and expenses into project ops via a power pages portal?
cheers
1. Creating subcontractors as users (and the respective bookable resource) - subcons will have an AD/ guest M365 account and assign subcon users project ops team member licenses.
Correct, pg.37 of the D365 LG confirms that the Team Members license permits the ability to record time, materials, and expenses. This may be the best solution for this scenario in my opinion.
2. Creating subcontractors as Contacts (and the respective bookable resource) under a vendor account - subcons will need to submit time and expenses via a Power Pages portal. The Time and Expenses tables will need to be surfaced on the portal. We will need to license Power Pages login and page view capacity.
Per pg.42 the D365 LG, you have the option to license Power Pages to provide external access to your business processes or data, so the Power Pages license should be sufficient. However, since your scenario is a bit technical & specific, I've reached out to Power Platform SMEs to confirm.
If I find that you'll need additional or a different license, I'll update this post. (If I do not update this post, then the Power Pages license is sufficient).
If this reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.
Regards,Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
LicensingConcierge1Microsoft
1. Creating subcontractors as users (and the respective bookable resource) - subcons will have an AD/ guest M365 account and assign subcon users project ops team member licenses.
Correct, pg.37 of the D365 LG confirms that the Team Members license permits the ability to record time, materials, and expenses. This may be the best solution for this scenario in my opinion.
2. Creating subcontractors as Contacts (and the respective bookable resource) under a vendor account - subcons will need to submit time and expenses via a Power Pages portal. The Time and Expenses tables will need to be surfaced on the portal. We will need to license Power Pages login and page view capacity.
Per pg.42 the D365 LG, you have the option to license Power Pages to provide external access to your business processes or data, so the Power Pages license should be sufficient. However, since your scenario is a bit technical & specific, I've reached out to Power Platform SMEs to confirm.
If I find that you'll need additional or a different license, I'll update this post. (If I do not update this post, then the Power Pages license is sufficient).
If this reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.
Regards,Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
Just wanted to provide an update to this post (for completeness):
While creating subcontractors as contacts (as per option 2) was a valid scenario, the subcontractors would still require a ProjOps team member license. This is because of the 'Licensing requirements for external users' section on Pg 42 (Aug 2023) of the guide:
"External user access does not extend to your employees, onsite or independent contractors, vendors, agents, or those of your affiliates who are providing business processes on behalf of you or your affiliate. Those users are considered internal users"
It's a bit vague in this area as contractor usually is not treated as an employee by the company, but does execute processes/ provide services on behalf of the company.
Also, while you would purchase the license, I'm not sure how you would assign them to the user?
Finally, Project Ops team member + Power Pages view and login capacity makes this option financial unviable.
We ended up going down the guest account route 🙂
- LicensingConcierge1
Thank you for the follow up! I'll definitely point out your update should someone else have a similar scenario.
Have a great week!
Regards,
Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
- Thanks for the swift response!
Yes, option 1 is preferred. However, the volume of subcontractors and the client required security vetting and onboarding process that subcons will have to go through to create a AAD/guest account might make it difficult to go down this route. Additionally, the client will also have to deal with the different types/ policies/lack of subcon M365 accounts.
Power Pages presents a simpler option (from a subcon onboarding perspective, but we now have to implement Power Pages as a solution element 😅) as the subcons are not members of the client's organisation (so theoretically shouldn't need a Proj Ops license - we wouldn't be able to assign them to anyone either) and providing logins, resource management, etc becomes simpler too.- LicensingConcierge1
Sounds like you're on top of things!
While I cannot act as a Microsoft Sales Rep/Account Rep or anyone certified to offer a definitive solution to your scenario, I'm glad that I was able to assist.
I'm not sure if you've accessed the MS Learn Doc on Power Pages, but here's the link to get you started (see the left side of the page for additional topics/information).
Please let me know if you have additional questions licensing questions.
If this reply answers your question, please Accept as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. Otherwise, please let me know if you need further assistance on this topic.
Regards,Microsoft CSP Licensing Concierge
