The future of licensing

Interest in Rise with SAP is currently high. As an all-in-one offer, customers receive software licenses, application and system management, infrastructure, operating systems, implementation and process consulting - all from SAP. Rise thus combines an existing S/4 Hana Cloud with additional components. This includes free trial or starter packages, which at first glance can reduce costs. At second glance, however, these packages often do not cover the complete requirement. For example, if you compare the list price with the annual costs of a 1000-user installation, they are less than five percent of the annual S/4 subscription price.

Here, it is important to check in advance whether there are any hidden costs lurking and whether the packages really do offer added value. If the calculated ROI is convincing and you want to relax and hand over responsibility for infrastructure and process optimization to your software vendor, then Rise is the right choice for you.

The annual license measurement determines the user transactions, i.e. the actual usage. However, SAP does not provide any meaningful documentation with license types for specific scopes of use. Since 2018, the option for "licensing by authorization" has been integrated in the new USMM. Initially, this function had a purely informal character. As of today, more and more companies have chosen the new survey type - whether it makes monetary sense or not remains to be seen. However, they all face the challenge of reducing authorization roles and role assignments to a minimum before the next measurement. Otherwise, if the authorizations are too far-reaching, so-called monster roles, an expensive Professional or even Developer license becomes necessary. If companies want to license by authorizations, they should follow the proven principle of "as little as possible, as much as necessary". Roles and their assignments can be shrunk quickly and automatically. It is also advisable to revise the authorization concept before the next license measurement in order to counteract monster roles.

Go into the negotiation well prepared

Many years ago, SAP made the interaction of SAP and third-party systems subject to a charge. Unless otherwise contractually agreed, costs are incurred for third-party access to SAP systems. From now on, SAP will try to measure companies against the so-called 9 Documents. This means that newly created, value-added database entries in a certain category will be expensive. For 1000 entries, the price is 500 euros plus maintenance. Often, the entries created are in the millions and present companies with existential challenges. 

It is recommended to take advantage of the Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP). SAP offers special conditions if customers proactively - ergo: before the survey - switch to the document-based licensing model. The DAAP grants a discount of 90 percent and exempts from retroactive maintenance payments. Here, it is advisable to perform a proper analysis and count by a licensing manager. The origin and number of documents are crucial and may not be measured correctly with on-board tools.

Companies should not wait until the measurement date is just around the corner or the migration has already been contractually agreed before dealing with license management. In order to be able to negotiate on an equal footing, there needs to be sufficient lead time and well-founded information on the licensing that is really necessary and the associated costs.