D365 Business Central Online licensing

[Patrick_ONeill]

We are working on a sales opportunity with high potential and have a challenge regarding the licensing of Business Central Online.

The licensee is a GmbH in which two persons each hold 50%. The group of companies includes 43 other companies which are not legally part of the licensee. However, the two persons who each have an company participation in the licensee also have an company participation in the 43 companies. Either one at 100% or both at 50%. In summary, there are no company shareholdings between the individual companies, but the companies are connected by two individuals.

This construct is to be mapped within a Business Central Online client structure (one tenant). This is a K.O. criterion of the customer.

How is such a scenario to be depicted in terms of licensing law? What options do we have?

We are talking about 300 users in phase 1, with another 150-200 users to be added in phase 2. The customer wants to decide as soon as possible.

[#2]

Hi @Patrick_ONeill 

Thank you for posting to the community!

There are a lot of technical aspects of your scenario that I am not familiar with, and I'm also not authorized to provide solutions as would a Microsoft Sales Representative or Account Manager.

However, I can provide you with the resources to help you service your customer.

The D365 Licensing Guide provides information for BC online as well as information on what's called multiplexing and external users, so that you can ensure that each person accessing BC is properly licensed.

Additionally, you can review the following link - Licensing in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn would be a great place to start. 

Lastly, another Partner here on the community may chime in and offer helpful suggestions on how they would handle this scenario.

Note: Since this is not an NCE question and is related to BizApps (business applications), I'll move this post and correct your labels to the applicable subject matter for your convenience.

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

[#3]

@Patrick_ONeill 

You describe mainly the ownership situation in the company construction. That has afaik nothing to do with the licensing topic. The license ownership goes to the company where the employees work for. The license fees are not paid by the owners in person but by the company. The company needs for the purchase of the user licenes a main license partner (wholesaler). The company can not buy the licenses directly at microsoft. If the licenses should be bought via the company group then the main license partner will help you to handle that. Scenarios like that are not new for them. 

[#4]

You mention one tenant, which I take to mean other companies and their users would be granted access to the single licensee tenant in order to access and use BC.

The solution is not compliant if the licensee is providing outsourced services from their tenant, or if the licensee is charging, on-selling, the licenses to the companies.

I would strongly recommend talking to your Microsoft PDM.