Did you know that you are entitled for up to 5 free Service Accounts connected to a single CRM Online Instance? These are known as Non-Interactive User Accounts in CRM. In this blog I will cover what Non-Interactive User Accounts are, why you may consider one and finally how to use them.

Firstly, the information is correct at time of reading. The following Technet article details your entitlement.

Source: Technet Article

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj191623.aspx

“For each instance of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you can create up to five non-interactive user accounts”

With that out of the way, let’s continue.

What is a Non-Interactive User Account?

These are user accounts which do not require access to the web based version of CRM, and communicate solely using the CRM Web Services.

Why?

You may have integration services that pull and push data to and from CRM to your line of business applications. These do not necessarily require interactive access and will reduce your overall CRM Client Access License costs. Another example of where this may be useful is when you have ISV’s such as portal products, marketing automation tools or document generation engines that don’t require full interactive access.

How?

Firstly, within Office 365 Admin Center, you need to:

  1. Create a User (if one does not already exist)
  2. Assign a CRM License

Next, in your CRM Online instance,

  1. Goto Settings > Security > Users
  2. Navigate to the User record
  3. Click Manage Roles
  4. Assign a Role
  5. On the User form, goto Administration Tab and change “Access Mode” to Non-Interactive.
  6. Save the User Record

Back in Office 365 Admin Center, you can now remove the CRM Online License for this user.

Summary

That’s all there is to it. Make sure you re-test your application’s access to the CRM environment. Note that the change may not be effective instantly. Hope you enjoyed this quick tip this month. Any feedback please drop me a comment below.