For many organizations, licenses have historically been an administrative matter. But as Microsoft now follows up and validates licenses in Dynamics 365 in a more structured way, the issue has suddenly landed on leadership’s desk—impacting everything from cost control, data security, and compliance to the business’s ability to operate without interruptions. A large global industrial company chose to see the change as an opportunity to take a broader look at its entire role and licensing landscape—and is already seeing significant gains.
Over the past year, Microsoft has gradually tightened license validation in Dynamics 365, with licenses increasingly tied to actual access, roles, and usage. For many companies, this only becomes clear during license renewals—and often comes as a surprise. And when incorrect licensing can also affect both user access and business continuity, license management has quickly become far more business-critical than before.
Global review of roles and licenses in Dynamics 365
For a large Swedish industrial company operating in many countries, this became the starting point for a broader effort to gain better control, reduce risk, and future-proof the entire structure around roles, permissions, and licenses ahead of the upcoming renewal.
Together with Implema, process owners from the business in several countries reviewed, synchronized, and harmonized roles in the company’s ERP environment to create a clearer link between users’ actual tasks, permissions, and licensing needs.
But the work was about far more than licenses. It was about gaining better control over who has access to what, reducing business risk, strengthening governance, and improving data security—while also giving the business better conditions to run reliably without unnecessary interruptions as license follow-up becomes increasingly systematic.
Results: better cost control, data security, and governance
The results didn’t take long—and the project quickly proved to deliver both operational and financial impact.
“We’re already seeing major benefits from this work. In total, we’ve achieved future cost savings of at least twice the investment in the project, and we now have significantly better control of roles, licenses, and the structure around permissions globally,” says the company’s licensing lead.
The benefits already being seen include, among other things:
• better global control of licenses, roles, and permissions
• reduced risk of over-licensing and unnecessary costs
• stronger data security through more accurate and clearly defined roles
• clearer governance and traceability tied to access and accountability
• harmonized processes and ways of working across multiple companies and countries
• better conditions for stable operations and reduced operational risk
• a more secure foundation for future audits and compliance requirements
Role and license optimization can deliver quick results
In this project, the company chose to do a broader review of its entire structure. But even smaller efforts can have a big impact.
“Many are surprised by how much impact you can actually achieve relatively quickly by reviewing roles and licenses. Simply by creating better structure and a clearer link between permissions and actual usage, it’s often possible to both reduce risk and gain better cost control,” says Oscar Hellenberg, Consultant Dynamics at Implema, who took part in the project.
He continues:
“At the same time, we see some organizations choosing to take a bigger approach and use this as an opportunity to rebuild the entire role structure from the ground up. That can also deliver significantly greater long-term value—across security, governance, and business operations. For companies that aren’t sure where to start—or want to get moving faster—an initial review or workshop can be a good way to quickly get a clearer picture of the current state and which areas should be prioritized.”
Modern license management is about more than compliance
For us at Implema, this is the core of modern role and license optimization: combining compliance, cost control, security, and business value in the same effort.
Want to gain better control of your roles and know where you stand ahead of the next license renewal? Feel free to reach out!
Also read:
Why you need to quickly get control of your D365 licenses – Implema
D365 License Insight Workshop – Implema
