Resources who are not Users -- best practices ?

[John Bridgman]

We have roughly 350 resources in our Enterprise Resource Pool who were
accidentally set up as Windows users when we loaded the ERP. We actually only
have a very small number of people who interact with Project Server via PWA
(we don't use Outlook integration) and most of them already own licenses for
MS Project Professional 2003.

I don't want to have to buy CALs for everyone in the resource pool so
obviously I need to go and turn something off in the ERP entries to make them
"not users". This is not jumping out at me, unfortunately, and the manuals
are all written as if I want to take advantage of all the other capabilities
(timesheets, task updates etc...).

Does anyone know what I have to turn off in the ERP (or in Admin pages) to
disable login for the 90% of my resources which do not need to interact with
Project Server in any way ? We are running PS2003 BTW.

Thanks,
John

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

John:

I believe that you're obliged to buy licenses only for people that actually
use the application. The "so-called" license count that Project Web Access
produces is a logon count. Because the system creates logons for non-user
resources, or shall we say the application assumes all enterprise resources
are users, this isn't the basis for determining your license obligation.

 

[John Bridgman]

Thanks, Gary !

That also helps with what was going to be my next question -- we just
received a request to set up a generic logon which could be shared by many
users and used only to view project plans in the server without requiring the
MS Project Professional client.

My first take was a shared logon this violated the license agreement (unless
we had a license for everyone using the logon) but I wasn't sure -- now if
the spirit of the licensing is "you need a license for each person who is
accessing the system" (ie deriving value from it) that seems quite
unambiguous... and shared logons would not reduce our license requirements.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

John:

You must license each user, or make each of them use a single machine as a
viewing kiosk. You have the option to license by user or machine, but I'm
certain your users want the convenience of accessing from their own
workstations.

 

[John Bridgman]

I just noticed a global permission for "Log On" which seems to be exactly
what I'm looking for. Will give this a try over the next few days...

I wonder if turning off the "Log On" attribute actually removes users from
the "license count" in PWA ?