NAV Licensing for Mulitple Countries with Dev Granules

JLK1977

I have a client that would like to purchase developer granules for NAV so that they can carry out integration work with their in-house application. They currently have 3 databases - UK, US and W1 and when I told them the price of the Dev Granules they clearly had reservations especially as they want to roll NAV out to about 9 other countries. They are keen to have the local functionality from each region with the ability to develop.

I have spoken with Microsoft who pointed me to their Cross-Country licensing document which really talks about the client having to purchase minimal licenses for each foreign country license they require local funcationality from, which then provides them with adequate license cover to merge the objects into the local database by renumbering the objects to ranges which are purchased. My customer, in an ideal world doesnt want to be merging objects if they can get away with it.

A secondary conversation took place with someone at EOC and a member of my team and they spoke of the ability to MERGE licenses, including different countries - i.e. UK master license having a US license merged with it to enable the UK license to use the NA tax granules. Microsoft had a little information on this but said it was possible.

So I that has left me with a few questions which I wondered - has anyone done this before and is the following possible:

1. Can you merge 2 licenses, UK and US for example (UK has Developer options on already), and then use the new merged license to develop on both a UK and US database? This would enable the client to keep the localisations separate but develop on both?

2. If the above is possible, is it possible to share the license across the 2 databases in user environment to get user concurrency across the two databases?

3. Does anyone know if there is any limitations to the above if indeed it is possible?

4. If it is not possible, what is the suggestion?

Thanks all.
JLK

matttrax

JLK1977 wrote:

1. Can you merge 2 licenses, UK and US for example (UK has Developer options on already), and then use the new merged license to develop on both a UK and US database? This would enable the client to keep the localisations separate but develop on both?

I know you can split licenses, so I don't see why you couldn't merge them. You probably have to prove that both companies are owned by the same parent company. An alternative that might work would be to get a license in the parent company's name. I believe that license could be used on all subsidiary companies, especially since it would not be that company's production license (since you would be developing in a test database, which you can have unlimited of). You could purchase the development granules for it (or transfer them from the UK subsidiary that already has them), and buy the "cross country" things you need in that parent license. Just a thought.

JLK1977 wrote:

2. If the above is possible, is it possible to share the license across the 2 databases in user environment to get user concurrency across the two databases?

Microsoft is pretty clear from what I understand. 1 License for 1 Database. However, as mentioned above, you might be able to get around that for the development part.


Hope that helps some anyway. It's hard to get consistent answers on licensing.

ssingla

JLK1977 wrote:

1. Can you merge 2 licenses, UK and US for example (UK has Developer options on already), and then use the new merged license to develop on both a UK and US database? This would enable the client to keep the localisations separate but develop on both?

Yes you can merge functionality from different localizations.

JLK1977 wrote:

2. If the above is possible, is it possible to share the license across the 2 databases in user environment to get user concurrency across the two databases?

Yes you can subject to certain conditions (number of concurrent users). Multi-Site licensing is one such option. The option is not frequently used so you might have to work with you partner and MS to get it.

JLK1977 wrote:

3. Does anyone know if there is any limitations to the above if indeed it is possible?

4. If it is not possible, what is the suggestion?

Since it is possible I am not giving any suggestion but for sure I know that Multi-site option turns NAV Licensing into a compliance matter rather then restrictive matter (you can use more no. of users than permitted in License at all locations cummulatively).