Oct 21 2019 03:12 PM
Just found this in the message center: " Self-service purchase capabilities for Power Platform products will be available for commercial cloud customers starting 11/19. Today, individuals within your organization are unable to purchase subscriptions or assign licenses for themselves or their departments without contacting you, their admin. Based on customer demand, we’ll soon be enabling self-service purchase and license management capabilities, which will allow users within your organization to purchase products directly, starting with the Power Platform family of products: Power BI, PowerApps, and Flow."
Does anyone have more info on this? Does this mean that end users willing to pay for a license will be able to connect company data to other sources and bypass their admins altogether? I'm finding this to be a bit insane - would love to hear other feedback. @adam deltinger @Chris Webb adding you both to this as you always provide great insights. Thanks in advance!
Oct 29 2019 01:22 PM
You are correct, Microsoft is in this business to make money, and they are good at it. (I had an Identity PFE tell me that once) But, what is upsetting to me is that Microsoft made this announcement, out of the blue, and there is no way for admins to say no, we do not wish for this feature to be enabled.
Microsoft does listen to its customers and they are doing their best to answer and solve all issues and requests. Kudos to them, but, normally, Microsoft has always had a way for Admins to stop the new features from coming and this time there is no option.
I think that you are right in your assessment, Microsoft's view on this is a bit skewed and might need to revisit this topic. I think they will eventually see the error of their ways (or at least the people who requested this feature) and things will be reversed or at least give us the ability to disable this feature.
Oct 29 2019 01:55 PM
Oct 29 2019 02:27 PM
Oct 29 2019 05:26 PM
Oct 31 2019 01:34 PM
SolutionAt Microsoft, we’ve been listening to all of the feedback regarding the rollout of our self-service purchase capabilities for Power Platform products. To those of you who provided your input, thank you! Based on your feedback, we’ve adjusted our approach to better address the needs of both IT admins and end users within organizations. We’re making the following changes to our plan:
You can find more details about self-service purchase at the Self-service purchase FAQ. Thank you again for taking the time to provide your feedback. We look forward to a continued partnership to help empower all organizations to achieve more.
Oct 31 2019 01:42 PM
Thank you, Microsoft!
Oct 31 2019 01:46 PM
@Matthew Kotler While it's nice when Microsoft takes user feedback seriously and withdraws from a position that embarrassed the company, it would be so much better if some folks in Redmond asked people in the field before making assumptions that Office 365 tenants would like this sort of thing.
Nov 01 2019 06:32 AM
They listened - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/self-service-purchase-faq
Nov 04 2019 09:59 AM
@Kelly_Edinger we're annoyed when Microsoft announced this feature. Now, We're glad to know that Microsoft updated policy to control self service. Thank you Microsoft.
Nov 04 2019 03:24 PM
Hi @Kelly_Edinger, With an environment strategy in place, couldn't the risk of data loss/misuse be significantly mitigated? (refer PowerApps Blog about creating an environment strategy) When you have the underlying structures and governance in place, if a maker can only design and make in an environment they have been granted access to through an AAD security group, would this self-service of licenses continue to be a big issue?
Nov 05 2019 05:39 AM
Hi @Robyn Eisler - yes that could help mitigate. Happy that Microsoft reversed their stance on this, but my two main issues were: 1. The 1st time we heard about it was a quiet post to the message center, not a major announcement 2. most IT depts are not ready - they're still trying to keep up with all the changes in O365 in general.
Nov 08 2019 11:13 AM
Nov 19 2019 08:28 AM
Microsoft heard the voice of the community and released a dedicated PowerShell module 'MSCommerce' to manage Office 365 Self-service Purchase.
If you have decided to turn-off self-service purchase for your organization, then you shall disable it now.
Nov 19 2019 11:11 AM
I'm unable to Connect to MSCommerce. I installed the module (no errors), I import the module (no messages or errors). When I run Connect-MSCommerce I get this error:
New-Object : Cannot find type [Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.PlatformParameters]: verify that the assembly containing this type is loaded.
At C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\MSCommerce\1.2\MSCommerce.psm1:91 char:21
+ ... ormParams = New-Object "Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirecto ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidType: (:) [New-Object], PSArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : TypeNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand
Cannot find an overload for "AcquireTokenAsync" and the argument count: "4".
At C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\MSCommerce\1.2\MSCommerce.psm1:93 char:3
+ $token = $authCtx.AcquireTokenAsync($Resource, $ClientId, $Redirect ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodCountCouldNotFindBest
Connect-MSCommerce : Unable to establish connection
At line:1 char:1
+ Connect-MSCommerce
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Connect-MSCommerce
Thoughts?
Nov 19 2019 11:28 AM
@Alex Carlock Did you happen to try to connect during the outage from Microsoft? That could have been the issue.
I was able to connect and see all of the Power Pack Applications set to allow to be purchased.
Nov 19 2019 12:23 PM
@Shaun Jennings I just tried it today and again a couple of minutes ago. Do you know if there are dependancies on other modules like AzureAD? I have AzureADPreview version 2.0.2.62 installed. If I connect to that first, and then run connect-MSCommerce the "New-Object : Cannot find type" error goes away, but I still have the errors starting from "Cannot find an overload".
Nov 19 2019 01:53 PM
@Alex Carlock No, I have not seen any dependencies. It was just as easy as Install-Module, Import-Module, Connect-MSCommerce.
I am running PSVersion 5.1.18362.145
I even tried it on PS 7 Preview and it worked.
Nov 19 2019 09:39 PM
@Alex CarlockAre you trying from Windows 10? or if you are in proxy network, then try configuring proxy in your active PowerShell session.
Nov 20 2019 01:45 AM
Not to much to add, but I want to track this issue, so I continue to document it here:
Microsoft Releases Control for Self-Service Purchases in Office 365 Tenants
The prospect of allowing user-controlled purchases of Power Platform apps in an Office 365 tenant maddened many administrators. Microsoft promised to release a method to allow administrators control self-service purchases in a tenant. The MSCommerce PowerShell module is now available. Here’s how to use it to disable self-service purchases.
https://office365itpros.com/2019/11/20/microsoft-releases-control-self-service-purchases/
Nov 20 2019 08:19 AM
@Robert Luck It's Windows 10 and there's no Proxy involved. I just tested on another system and it works fine there. At least I can make progress, but I'm still not sure why it's not working on my primary system.