New User Types

[CamMiller17]

I was wondering if there is anyone aware of some of the changes that are coming to ArcGIS. I saw that they are reducing the number of type of users to 6. I was reading it and was wondering if you have creator, professional or professional plus, that would include ArcGIS Flight/GeoBIM, etc. It looks to me that they are including it in the license type now instead of an extension. Thoughts?

[George_Thompson]

I would read that the same way based on the table. I would recommend reaching out to your Esri Account Manager for confirmation.

[ZachBodenner]

I also read through the lines and it sounds like if an organization is still using a legacy concurrent license structure for their desktop applications, this change essentially kills that off. I got the "yeah pretty much" confirmation from my account manager (details to follow, of course).

Does anyone use concurrent licensing and have any information about what this will do to their deployments?  I'm having a meeting with my account reps next week and so I can return with details, but if anyone can give me additional context in advance I'd appreciate it.

[ChelseaRozek]

Hey @ZachBodenner , I was waiting to hear how this affects concurrent licensing too. I'm not sure how the new changes affect it, but last year my rep said we could convert our existing concurrent licenses to single use licenses at 1:3 ratio. However, then that's ongoing maintenance for 3x the accounts so we wouldn't be able to afford that. We're going to have to take a hard look at just how many accounts we really need. It's also going to be a pain to assign/unassign licenses often as many users only use it seasonally.

I would love to hear more details if you can share them!

[ZachBodenner]

Yeah I explored that as a possibility a few years ago and came to the conclusion that it's nearly impossible to afford Pro licenses a la carte and the only economical way to support 5+ ish users is to purchase an ELA (which we don't have but I suspect we will be purchasing given this information).

[DarylHochhalter]

I'm wondering about the viewer licenses currently unlimited with enterprise. Not clear to me that they aren't being effectively taken away with the new structure including a charge of $125 for viewer licenses. Since those are the only users you can assign to anyone now to view things that aren't shared with everyone. 

Also, it does seem that any permanent licenses we have may be disappearing as well, which I guess means it depends on your definition of permanent? I have written to the account manager on this but haven't yet received the response.

Quote from email on this topic:

Updated Pricing and Expanded Access

The upcoming license updates streamline and provide expanded access to ArcGIS capabilities, apps, and services through the updated user types. The US list prices for annual subscriptions and annual maintenance are detailed below.

Viewer—$125/year
Securely view maps, apps, and dashboards, including content from ArcGIS for Microsoft 365.

I don't see how charging for a user type previously free and unlimited can possibly "expand access to ArcGIS capabilities"?

[ChelseaRozek]

Thanks for bringing this up. I had assumed it wasn't going to be affected, but I would prefer to see that in writing. Please update us if you hear a reply from your account rep.

[DarylHochhalter]

Ok, just met with my account rep and got promising explanations from them for those licenses included with enterprise and desktop.

First, the VIEWER licenses will still be available for those with enterprise at no additional cost. There may be plans to cap them at some point, even then some may be grandfathered in is my takeaway.

Pro licenses derived from Desktop permanent license types will not be immediately affected by this change, however they might roll into the new license types by the end of 2025. The will be quoting only the new license types after 6/24.

If you bought additional licenses mobile worker and Creator, that weren't derived from your enterprise license, they will roll into the new types with and upgrade to 11.4.

This is my best recollection of the explanations I was given and hopefully relayed correctly! I'm less concerned then when I first read the email, but do let me know if you've heard something different!

[AndresEcheverri]

In the link below, Esri gives some clues of what might happen. I guess we will need to wait a couple of weeks more to understand some of the changes. 

https://www.esri.com/en-us/c/product/introducing-new-user-types

One thing that perhaps I am keen to see is if the ArcGIS PRO Basic licenses for ArcGIS Enterprise users come after the ArcGIS Online June update (to happen around 27 June), acording to the following statement in that link:

Planning for the updates

Updated user types for ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise will be available to purchase in June 2024. The updated user types will be available in ArcGIS Online with the June 2024 update and in ArcGIS Enterprise upon upgrading to version 11.4 (expected November 2024) and later versions. Since ArcGIS Pro can be administered through ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online, the update will be reflected in the respective release.

Effective with the ArcGIS Online June update, Esri will deliver ArcGIS Pro Basic to all ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9 to 11.3 customers who purchased Creator user types or received Creator entitlements included as part of the ArcGIS Enterprise purchase for the duration of their maintenance or subscription term.

Additionally, ArcGIS Excalibur and ArcGIS Mission Manager licenses will be available to assign to the Creator user type. ArcGIS GeoBIM will be available for the Contributor user type. Log in to My Esri to explore what’s new and to administer licenses.

Another thing that I would like to know is what will happen with Extensions. I know the Professional Plus will include what it was previously included within the Extensions Bundle, but will you be allowed to buy specific extensions to assign to Creator or Professional user types or assign the ones we already have to these two user types? or would you need a Professional Plus user type to assign those Extensions?.