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Create a Flow consumer license that is less expensive than the new Premium licensing

(This applies to PowerApps and Power BI as well)

 

We have a pretty small number of people in the organization that would qualify as content creators - people who would use Flow to build and/or modify workflows.  We have a much larger number that could potentially participate in a workflow (perhaps being an approver in an approval step).

 

With the licensing changes coming in October, if we want to use Premium features (like the approvals with custom options) we would need to license everyone who may be assigned one of the Premium approval steps.  Since those people can reassign their approval step to anyone else in the organization (without knowing if that person had a Premium license or not), we're left with either not using the Premium features at all OR using the business process Flow licensing with runs $6000/year - a lot for just one flow.

 

Once again, as happened with the Power BI licensing changes a few years ago, Microsoft is making a licensing change "to make their licensing simpler" that will result in us restricting adoption of their tools because of the sudden and large jumps in cost.

 

I love the Power Platform tools and see how they could be a huge benefit to our business, but it gets harder to sell anyone on them when MS keeps making the licensing so much more expensive as soon as they gain some traction.

 

Status: New
Comments
Syndicate_Admin
Administrator

Just voicing my opinion that with the new licensing scheme, Flow is not worth the cost anymore, unless literally only one person is going to use it heavily.

 

billjn
Advocate I

@downwardCorgi  I think Flow can still make sense (for the time being) if you don't use any of the premium connectors.  For Office 365 content related Flows (like SharePoint content or emails) it can still work with no additional licensing beyond the O365/M365 license.  However, as we've seen in the past, MS can change that AT ANY TIME to make something that was included previously (like SQL Server connectors) and make them premium.

 

Syndicate_Admin
Administrator

@bnewmanYes, I JUST learned that Office 365 licenses can still use Flow for no additional cost IF you only connect to Office 365 applications. In my organization, that actually solves everything because we're only using Flow that way currently. But I will for sure keep in mind that MS can pull it right out from under us at any point, and I will be sure to bring that up as a negative when making proposals for new implementations.

 

Syndicate_Admin
Administrator

We're actively looking at other options for our workflows. Our ERP vendor Infor has some really strong options in this space, so we've removed Flow from our strategy except for fringe requirements that we can redevelop easily if (when?) Microsoft pulls Flow completely out of the E3 Office 365 feature set. Up to two months ago I was buoyantly recommending Office 365 as a killer strategic pathway and now I'm having to walk my comments back and go back to market for some features, which is irritating and unproductive.

 

Syndicate_Admin
Administrator

For advertising powerapps as bringing development to no-code users and allowing small businesses to play with the big boys... these changes are incredibly disappointing. 

We cannot afford the new license model... period.  So all the development effort we have put into powerapps over the past 2 years is shot - and we now have to hire someone to develop all our "no-code" apps with native code - which again, won't happen given budgets.   

Why not have a PER/APP license (not per/app/user)?   We can pay $50/month for a simple app and use in our org.... but to pay $6000/month for an app that does a simple lookup is insane. 

 

The new pricing model alienates Small Businesses - and even Big Businesses, with resources - why would they pay this? 

 

Include Powerapps in your "Microsoft 365" line - which will push businesses to spend while getting value.  There is no value here.