Guide to Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents May 2020 Licensing

The May 2020 Microsoft licensing guide featured in this blog post will explain different Power Platform applications like Microsoft Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate (formerly known as Microsoft Flow) and Power Virtual Agents. If interested in learning more about the general Microsoft Dynamics 365 licensing structure take a look at Guide to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Licensing & Pricing.

Morten Loegstrup

Morten Loegstrup

Head of Culture and Brand

In this post I will discuss the following topics:

Every subscription has its own levels which will be discussed in this blog to provide a deeper understanding on what you can expect to get out of each license subscription.

The Microsoft Power Platform pricing featured towards the end of this post reflect the May 2020, which is the latest version. However, Microsoft reserves the right to review or update the licensing guide at any time without notice.

For help or guidance on choosing the right Microsoft program please consult your Microsoft account team or your Microsoft Certified Partner. This guide does not replace any of the legal documentation covering the user rights.

What Is the Microsoft Power Platform?

The Microsoft Power Platform is a subset of technologies that can be connected to other Microsoft Products including Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and hundreds of other apps.

The Power Platform is a low code platform that business users can operate. You don’t need an experienced developer to build your next application.

Microsoft Power Platform
The Microsoft Power Platform includes Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents

What Is Power BI?

Microsoft’s business intelligent tool Power BI is a comprehensive data analytic tool, that allows you to get real time data in seconds. Quality insights gives you the ability and power to make faster informed decisions. Microsoft’s Power BI tool is fully integrated with your Dynamics AX- or Dynamics 365 application. Learn more on our Power Bi product page.

Microsoft Power BI compatibility
Power BI allows you to leverage multiple data sources to build embeddable data dashboards across your Microsoft ecosystem

What Is Microsoft Power Apps?

Power Apps is a low code tool for creating web and mobile applications without having to write any code. With Power Apps you can quickly turn your ideas into application that will make any challenges easy to overcome. Your team can get started quickly using pre-built templates, drag-and-drop easily, and publish roll out changes with simplicity in a no-code environment.

What Is Microsoft Power Automate?

Power Automate, automates repetitive and paper wasting tasks by using Robotic and digital process automation technologies. With Power Automate your business will instantly be more efficient giving your employees the opportunity to focus on more analytical tasks.

Guide to Microsoft Power Automate

What Is Microsoft Power Virtual Agents?

Power Virtual Agents is the newest technology to the Power Platform. It allows you to build a customer facing or internal chatbot without code, hosted VM’s or any infrastructure management needs. You can integrate Power Virtual Agents into existing Microsoft systems and aligned with the Power Automate functionalities and gives you access to the 250+ connectors. If you have built flows in Power Automate, you can use these flows in your Chatbot.

Microsoft Power Virtual Agents

What Is Microsoft's Common Data Service?

Microsoft’s Common Data Service makes it easier to connect and bring data together, allowing you to create apps using a common data source. Common Data Service, or better known as CDS,  has a set of over 200 business entities that you use to store data. An entity is a set of records used to store data, similar to how a table stores data within a database. If customized entities are needed, you have the availability to create your own using Power Query or through manual creation. 

What Are Data Connectors?

A Data connector in Microsoft terminology is a proxy around an API. The data connector allows the different Microsoft services such as Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents and Azure Logic Apps to communicate together.

The data connectors are used to link your accounts and take advantage of many pre-built actions and triggers that help you build apps and workflows on the spot. You can connect your different applications such as Dynamics AX, Office 365, Oracle, SharePoint, Power BI, Box, Azure Blob, Dropbox and many others. For a full list of connectors, please see Microsoft’s current documentation.

Microsoft offers a variety of data connectors that you can seamlessly connect to your existing environment

What Is the AI Builder?

The AI Builder is also a newest Power Platform technology, build for business process performance improvement. The AI Builder is a no-code technology that automates responses/tasks and predicts outcomes for your business.. With the AI builder your business will run smoothly and efficiently with just a couple of clicks. Click on the following link to learn more about the AI builder .

Purchasing Power Platform Licenses

In my previous blog “Microsoft 365 licensing and agreement overview” you can learn more about the different ways you can purchase Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Power Virtual Agents. The 3 most common ways to purchase your Microsoft licenses is through:

  1. Microsoft Volume agreements also called EA agreements
  2. Direct or Indirect Cloud solution Provider (CSP) agreement
  3. Directly through the web also called “Web Direct” or MOSP

Before making any decisions around your Microsoft licenses I highly recommend that you have a conversation with a Microsoft Partner like Avantiico. They can provide a licensing and agreement review to make sure you have what you need, are compliant and that you have the right mix of Microsoft subscriptions to support your business.

How Are Power Platform Products Licensed?

Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents service can only be accessed if you have a Power Apps, Power Automate or Power Virtual Agents license.

Understanding Multiplexing

To understand the differences between Microsoft licenses Power Platform products/applications, you would need to understand the concept of multiplexing, to ensure that you have the correct licenses.

To paraphrase the May 2020 Power Platform licensing guide, “Multiplexing refers to the use of hardware or software that a customer uses to pool connections, reroute information, or reduce the number of users that directly access or use the Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents services. Multiplexing does NOT reduce the number of SLs of any type required to access the Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents apps. Any user or device that accesses the Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents app —whether directly or indirectly—must be properly licensed.” 

There is a set of different users referred to as “Internal users” that works in the application and “external users” that work primarily in, for example, Reporting, or who only need Read Only Access to reports/data, through a device.

For you to access and take advantage of the functionalities within Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, or Virtual Agents you’ll need a subscription matching your needs. It can be challenging to figure out what exact Microsoft Power Platform licenses your different users need, so I recommend that you get a free consultation by one of Avantiico’s licensing experts before you sign up for a free trial or purchase a number of licenses.

Users that enter data into Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents or view data/reports generated by other “Internal users would also need subscriptions/licenses covering their individual need. Those licenses are much more financially accessible (see below graphics).

Accessing Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents or Power Apps through a portal (see “Learn how to deploy a modern power portal”) or via an API requires a license regardless of if you are an internal or external user accessing.

Note: Before buying, check if you are licensed through your Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) Subscriptions.

June 2020 Power BI Pricing

The prices below are taken from the June 2020 Microsoft Power BI pricing page. These prices are for two different Power Bi subscriptions: Power BI Pro and Power Bi Premium.

From experience working with several different enterprise customers, both privately owned and public traded companies, Power Bi Pro licenses which are $9,99 a month/per user satisfies their needs

If you have a more complex need for deep analytics including handling big data, you should consider purchasing the Power BI Premium license. The monthly price is $4,995.00 and a yearly subscription is required. It is a higher price, but it also licensed by a dedicated cloud compute.

Microsoft Power BI Pricing
The above pricing is June 2020 Power BI pricing as reflected on the Microsoft website

June 2020 Power BI Pricing

If you do not choose to contact Avantiico’s Microsoft licensing Experts, I recommend that at minimum, you read below Power Bi Pro and Power BI Premium comparison list before deciding on a subscription.

Power BI Comparison Graphic
The graphic below shows the difference between the two different Power BI subscriptions
Power BI Comparison Graphic

For more information on how your business can leverage the power of Microsoft Power BI, get a free product demo from Avantiico’s Power BI Team – Contact us today

June 2020 Microsoft Power Automate Pricing

Microsoft Power Automate is all about how you can automate manual and repetitive business processes to gain productivity and efficiency. Microsoft’s Power Automate technologies comes at a lower cost compared to the automation capabilities your business can adopt.

Power Automate is licensed the same way as Power Apps, standalone. Limited capabilities are part of your Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) subscriptions. Get help understanding if you have the right subscriptions to use Power Automate or if you need additional licenses.

When using Power Automate you will need one license per each user or per flow. Take a look at the Microsoft Power Automate different prices to determine which one is best for your business, however, keep in mind that the price mentioned below can differ from the actual price depending on currency and region.

Power Automate Subscription Plans

  • $15 per user/month
    • This user plan equips a Power Automate user to run as many flows as they want within the usage limits (5,000 daily API request) with the full capabilities of Power Automate.
  • $40 per user/month
    • This plan gives you the same functionalities as the $15 plan + you can automate your Microsoft legacy applications through Robotic process automation and Artificial Intelligence
  • $500 per flow plan per month
    • This flow plan enables organizations to implement up to 5 flows and with up to 15,000 daily API request per licensed flow.
Guide to Power Automate Graphic
$500 per month includes five flows. Additional flows may be purchased for $100 per flow/month. Purchasing and assigning Power Automate per flow plan or per user with attended RPA plan licenses requires access to the Microsoft 365 admin center with either the global administrator or billing administrator roles

Interested in Dynamics 365 as a solution?

Talk to an Avantiico representative today about setting up a demo for your organization.

A Microsoft Gold partner like Avantiico can help you with everything from licensing, user setup to assigning different admin and security roles.

Microsoft Power Automate Plan Explanations

This table shows a detailed overview of the different plans and data limitations.

Microsoft Pricing plan Power platform
2 Usage subject to service limits. Please review https://aka.ms/platformlimits for more details. 3 UI flow authoring, bot orchestration and management are included. 4 AI Builder service credit capacity is combined at the tenant level. Purchase additional capacity per 1M service credits for $500/month. 5 Common Data Service database and file capacity entitlements are combined at the tenant level.

Power Automate Add-ons

One of the very exciting add-ons I would like to highlight is the AI builder. Microsoft has really stepped up their game when it comes to infused Artificial Intelligence capabilities. Microsoft is the frontrunner and top investor when it comes to developing their AI platform. If you are betting on AI in the future, you have to go with Microsoft. The AI builder is licensed per tenant at $500 per month.

Unattended Robotic Process Automation is another Power Automate Add-on. It is priced at $150 per bot/month and requires that you already have a Power Automate plan. Unattended Robotic Process Automation helps you automate back end processes, so that you don’t have to do any manual work.

Power platform AI Builder Pricing
6 Each AI builder add-on unit is a pack of 1 million services credits put together at the tenant level.

Power Apps licenses give you access to Power automate. If you have a Power Apps licenses will include some Power Automate user rights, so that you can you can link power automate and power apps together. The usage is limited to triggers, actions and the connections (learn more on www.microsoft.com/learn)

If your new flow is completely standalone or isolated from Power Apps, you will need a Power Automate license. Read more about the different scenarios in the Microsoft Power Platform Licensing guide.

How is Power Virtual Agents Priced? – June 2020

Power Virtual Agents is more than just a chatbot, as previously known. Microsoft Power Virtual Agents can be deployed as a customer facing chat bot, solving issues, answering questions and needs and also as an internal chatbot helping employees with their everyday challenges. What has been holding many organizations back from using chatbots is the required code setup and developer expertise. Microsoft Power Virtual Agents is a no-code solution.

Power Virtual Agents is licensed per tenant at $1,000 per month for 2000 sessions. With a Power Virtual Agents subscription, you can create and maintain intelligence chatbots internally and customer facing without having to code. Microsoft takes care of everything.

A session is defined as an interaction between the bot and a user (customer/employee). For more details around how a session is defined I would recommend you to read the Power Platform Licensing guide or reach out to us.

The Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agent’s landing page shows you what’s included in the $1,000 monthly subscription. As you can see you can create 1000 bots, have 2000 sessions per month with up to 10 GB Common Data Service database capacity and 20 GB file Capacity.

Power Virtual Agents Pricing
3 Power Virtual Agents session capacity is combined at the tenant level. 4 Common Data Service database and file capacity entitlements are combined at the tenant level. 5 Trigger Power Automate flows within the context of the chatbot including access to Premium connectors.

Power Virtual Agents - Additional Sessions

If you need more chatbot sessions, you can purchase additional 1,000 sessions for $450 per month.

How is Microsoft Power Apps Priced?- June 2020

As mentioned earlier Microsoft Power Apps technology is a low-code application that requires little to no code knowledge. With this setup you can easily transform your business with digital technologies and automate manual processes for higher work efficiency.

Microsoft have made it very easy to license your Power Apps users. There are only two plans or two models that you can choose from: licensed on a standalone basis. If you already have Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) subscriptions, some limited Power Apps capabilities are included in your subscription. For more information please reach out to our team here.

First, you need to figure out how many apps your users need to run your business, then you will have the option of two plans to select from:

  1. Run single apps
  2. Run unlimited apps

Cost:

  • Run single app is $10 per user/app/month – Each license allows each user to run 2 custom apps and access 1 custom portal – see the Microsoft licensing guide for more information
  • Run unlimited apps is $40 per user/month
Guide to Power Bi Pricing

Microsoft Power Plans Explanations

This table gives you an idea of the more technical details and differeces Microsoft Power Plans include.

Guide to PowerApp Plan Explanation
3 Within service limits. Learn more here: https://aka.ms/platformlimits. 4 Common Data Service database and file capacity entitlements are pooled at the tenant level. 5 Trigger flows within the context of the app.

Power Apps Add-ons

Portals a very popular Power Apps Add-on. Power Portals allow you to build vendor or customized customer portals, which can replace your old legacy support or service portals with high end modern features that integrate and align with the rest of your Microsoft investment. Graphics and designs can also be added to the portals for a more pleasant customer/vendor experience. Our Microsoft Portal teams is always available to show you some examples of what’s possible within the Power Platform and how you can take advantage of the portal technology. For a demo of Power Apps Portal click here.

Power Apps Portal Pricing
6A login provides an external authenticated user access to a single Power Apps portal for up to 24 hours. Multiple logins during the 24-hour period count as one billable login. Internal users can be licensed either by the Power Apps per app or per user plans, or a qualifying Dynamics 365 subscription. Volume pricing available. Contact your Microsoft representative for more information. 7Each AI Builder add-on unit is a pack of 1 million service credits pooled at the tenant level.

If you want to be a data driven organization or have large amount of data, I would recommend that you take a look at the previous described AI builder. It is only $500 per unit/per month that is linked to your tenant.

June 2020 Microsoft Offers

Microsoft is currently promoting a 6-month free Power Platform trial as a response to COVID-19. As a healthcare, government or non-profit corporation you can take advantage of Power Apps, Power Apps portals, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents.

The fine print:

  • Up to 1,000 seats for Power Apps;
  • Up to 50,000 views and 20,000 logins for Power Apps portals
  • Up to 100 seats of Power Automate
  • Up to 200,000 session for Power Virtual Agents.
  • For use only with COVID-19 response-related scenarios.

If you are not within the above listed industries, there are still a number of free Power Portal and Dynamics 365 trials available.

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