You, Me, and SAP
Dealing with SAP licensing can seem tricky, tough, or outright confusing. It doesn’t have to feel this way. The more you know about your SAP licenses, the more you get from your relationship with SAP.
This web page offers information and insights that bring transparency to your licensing situation with SAP, empowering you in negotiations, uncovering savings, and keeping your company compliant.
3 Reasons to SAM your SAP
You don’t want to overpay for the SAP software you use. SAP doesn’t want you to underpay. A Software Asset Management program helps you strike that balance — in favor of your company.
Annual measurement: Make your review smoother with better data collection and quality.
Optimization: Get more bang for your buck from your SAP licenses, with less effort.
Savings: Start paying for what you use and correct over-authorized users, re-negotiate contracts covering unused software, and choose the cheapest indirect access model for your company.
The SAP Licensing Golden Rule
Know Yourself
Before your annual self audit, an SAP audit, or contract negotiation, get to know your SAP licensing situation.
Know what licenses you have. Know the engines you’re using. Know what non-SAP applications have access to SAP software. Know what software your users are authorized to use (hint: it might be more than they need). Why?
SAP seeks revenue growth more than compliance
As a publicly-traded company always looking for growth opportunities, SAP knows its vast pool of customers offers the perfect market for selling its software.
The Price and Conditions List is difficult to understand, it updates every quarter, and it’s vague enough to be open to interpretation. SAP’s measurement tools – USMM and License Administration Workbench – aren’t always completely accurate, yet you’re obligated to use them.
SAP license management in a digital world
SAP customers face major changes – new measurement and pricing models for indirect access, the migration to SAP S/4HANA, new cloud products, and more. Take the first step in managing your SAP estate.
Be SAP audit-ready: 10 ways to outsmart your next SAP audit
This 30-minute deep-dive shows you 10 ways to navigate key SAP license management challenges and proactively avoid common traps in your annual, mandated SAP audit.
How to Deal with SAP Indirect Access by Yourself in 7 Complicated Steps
Indirect access is a big concern for all SAP customers. This Do-It-Yourself Guide will show you to find, solve, and license your SAP indirect access.
Audit Defense 101
LAW Measurement Myths
There’s no escaping the LAW – every year SAP customers must gather their usage data from USMM, then consolidate it and submit it with LAW to assess their licensing compliance. Before you hit the send button, remember LAW isn’t 100% accurate.
- It inconsistently accounts for special terms in contracts, so those special conditions you negotiated might not be accounted for.
- It doesn’t exclude redundant or unused licenses from its billing, both for unused named user licenses and engines that haven’t been installed.
- It often reads data inaccurately from older software versions.
- At the end of 2018 it will track and assign prices for license authorizations, not usage.
- It applies newer metrics and price models when your contract may entitle you to older metrics that are less costly to your usage situation.
SAP license roles are extremely difficult to change after they’re submitted to LAW. When over-licensed data is calculated by LAW, that’s it – you’re locked in at those prices. Before submitting to LAW, a SAM tool can trim unused or redundant licenses, analyze your usage to assign less costly licenses, and use your contract as a search rule in its analysis to uncover overlooked advantages. This optimized data analysis rules from the SAM tool can then be submitted to your SAP systems and applied to the next LAW report, bringing transparency between your company and SAP — and lower costs to your company.
7 Tips Take the “Aaw” out of your next LAW Self Audit
SAP often uses audits to sell its solutions to existing customers. An audit seems like a compliance issue, but it’s a sales issue, which makes it negotiable. The more and faster you learn about your SAP licensing situation, the stronger your negotiating position. If you’re faced with an audit (or self audit), here are a few things to remember:
- Take the initiative and respond promptly. This shows SAP you’re ready to dance the audit dance.
- Review your Review. Request time to properly gather and analyze your data before submission. A quality analysis takes time, SAP understands this.
- Get expert assistance. Many Software Asset Management providers, including Aspera, have experts with experience in SAP licensing, contracts, and audits.
- Read your contract. Thoroughly. In fact, don’t just read your contract, analyze it. Know your rights and look out for special conditions that could help your measurements.
- Aggregate your SAP data. You must use the SAP measurement tools, like LAW or USMM, but a SAM tool will go further and deeper, gathering license usage data and using your contract as a search rule to uncover potential advantages.
- Optimize your licenses. Remove inactive users. Match license authorization to actual usage. A SAM tool gets this done, strengthening your position in an audit. It’s not uncommon for SAP customers to use savings from optimized licenses to cover unexpected costs from an audit.
- No time? Performing a Rapid Vendor Analysis takes a snapshot of your license position in just a couple of weeks. Its results give you a leg up in your negotiations.
Is it too late to control my SAP licenses?
No! You’re not alone if you think SAP licensing is too complicated to handle. Whether you’re dealing with an audit, renegotiating a contract, or looking to reduce ever-increasing costs, SAP Software Asset Management tools and expertise will help you.
What’s in it for me?
- Save an average of 10% on SAP licenses
- ROI in less than a year
- Cut down your annual self audit response time by 10%
- Save 33% of your time with automation
6 reasons not to Do-SAM-Yourself on SAP
Optimize your SAP licenses
When’s the best time to optimize your SAP licensing?
Now! It’s always a good time to manage your SAP licenses. SAP updates their pricelist every 3 months. New rules for authorizations, new measurement tools, new indirect access pricing are opportunities to improve your situation with SAP and make your costs predictable.
How? You can get expert services to help you get compliant in a pinch. Or you can start a SAM project long before your next self audit. You can be hands-on or let a SAM service partner do it all for you. It all depends on your situation:
- Audit: Take a deep breath and remember: an audit is about sales as much as compliance. So, when SAP wants to dig deeper into your results, a SAM program will give you the valuable data to negotiate with SAP and satisfy both sides.
- Contract renegotiation: SAM for your SAP gives you the transparency that strengthens your position before a contract renegotiation. A contract analysis is a standard part of SAM because it uncovers benefits you didn’t know about.
- S/4HANA migration: Named user license roles are difficult to change after your data submission to SAP. If you’re over-licensed, then optimize with SAM and reap the savings. As SAP migrates to S/4HANA, the window to optimize your licenses will close and your over-licensed position will be locked in.
Don’t wait to automate! Allocating licenses to users, measuring engines, reclaiming unused licenses, and canceling duplicates are time-consuming tasks that increase the potential for errors. A SAM tool automates the SAP license management process, speeding it up and removing the potential for error. For some, it’s as simple as setting a timer on Friday and seeing the results on Monday morning.
Level up your SAP licensing know-how with these blog posts
Timeline for SAP S/4HANA Migration Extended
SAP extends maintenance on core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 until 2027, and commits to maintenance for S/4HANA until 2040. Find out how these changes affect your S/4HANA migration.
SAP is Transitioning to LAW 2.0: How to Stay Compliant
SAP has introduced an updated version of their self-measurement tool, LAW 2.0. Find out how to ensure SAP licensing compliance as you migrate to LAW 2.0.
Optimizing Named User Licenses
Over-authorized, over-paying
Over-authorized, over-paying
- Problem: SAP is shifting its license measurements from application usage to authorizations. Your licenses’ authorization scope will be larger – along with your licenses’ costs – because they’re based on what users could use, not what they actually use.
- Opportunity: Many SAP users have more authorizations than they need, so there’s a chance to save! SAM technology can show you both license models for your current authorizations and current usage, comparing them so you choose the right one for your users and your budget.
The danger of the default license
The danger of the default license
- Problem: If you don’t assign a license role to a new user, SAP will assign a Professional User License. It is authorized for all SAP software (which is good) but is also an expensive user license (which is not good).
- Opportunity: A SAM tool shows you the gap between actual usage and mapped license types, and closes the gap by selecting the license with enough coverage. You pay for what you actually use and free up budget to invest in other areas.
Reduce, reuse, recycle your licenses
Reduce, reuse, recycle your licenses
- Problem: Contractors come and go, without deactivating their licenses. Employees move to another department, getting another, redundant license. Employees leave companies, leaving behind user licenses. Left unwatched, unused licenses pile up and push up maintenance costs.
- Opportunity: A Software Asset Management tool can recycle these unused, forgotten licenses – keeping you in a cost-effective, compliant situation and preventing you from buying more licenses than you need. Recycling is good for your license environment. And it’s easy with a SAM tool that will automatically pool our licenses for you.
Optimizing Your SAP Engines
Who’s inside your SAP systems?
Who’s inside your SAP systems?
- Problem: If your user license is a key, then your SAP engine is the house. This means you need a named user license to access the application, and an engine license for the application itself. The tangle of licenses begins.
- Opportunity: A SAM tool can disentangle your crisscrossing user and engine licenses, giving you a clear picture of your SAP licensing environment and compliance. It’s the first critical step towards transparency and optimizing your licenses.
Engine, engine number 9…10, 11, 12…
Engine, engine number 9…10, 11, 12…
- Problem: SAP’s engines are complicated things. Many have different sets of metrics, depending on usage and what they’re used for, so they can go from complicated – per core, per device, per named device – to really complicated – per patient, per transaction, per revenues, per job posting.
- Opportunity: The complicated nature also means engines, or package licenses, are loaded with optimization opportunities. An effective Software Asset Management tool can rev up your engines’ savings by discerning and optimizing your complicated engine metrics—automatically.
Engines for long-term planning
Engines for long-term planning
- Problem: Package licenses are bought by the bundle, like hundreds of users or thousands of processes. This makes planning difficult. Do you over-purchase and risk paying for a slew of unused metrics? Or under-purchase and hope you remain compliant?
- Opportunity: SAM digs into the details of your engine metrics and usage, cross-references it with a detailed contract analysis, and optimizes your licenses. This gives you the knowledge to make smarter licensing decisions for future growth and finds value in your existing engine licenses to make these plans a reality.
SAP Contracts
Go from Super Size to Right Size
SAP contracts are no beach read, they’re dense and complicated – but knowing the ins and outs of your contract is crucial to optimize your SAP license position.
Beyond the convoluted text, many contracts are filled with unique clauses and special conditions from negotiations or from old contracts rolled into new ones. A detailed contract analysis can uncover opportunities for more budget friendly self audit or contract negotiations. For example:
- Active Reconfiguration Right lets you shift user and engine licenses around from a type you don’t use to a heavily-used type, if you stay within an agreed overall amount.
- Some contracts allow SAP users to carry over credit from a previous contract to a current contract.
- Special metrics for engine license are often included in the appendix, so you can ignore the LAW measurement and submit your own, like revenue or employee count.
- No limits on usage or obligations for LAW reporting (an Unlimited During Deployment Agreement)
If your company has an Unlimited During Deployment Agreement, then a hefty bill might be coming. SAP’s default Professional Named User license come with a load of authorizations and a high price tag, so you’re likely over-licensed and the new contract will reflect that with a higher set of rates.
What’s in your contract? Knowing your rights and obligations is the first step towards bringing transparency to your negotiations with SAP and evening out the playing field. It means cutting a fair deal with them, which maximizes your software resources and keeps your costs low.
4½ Steps to Prepare for S/4HANA
SAP introduced S/4HANA, its newest ERP platform, to address all the issues that modern enterprises will face in the future. Your migration could take years. It will be challenging and potentially costly, so start planning for S/4HANA now.
1. Choose your migration approach - there are two.
- A contract conversion with a new S/4HANA contract lets you reconfigure your R/3 solutions into their S/4HANA equivalents.
- A product conversion moves to S4/HANA in phases. You keep the same agreements and credit your current R/3 licenses against S/4HANA solutions.
2. Get an inventory of your SAP estate
Knowing what you own is essential. Analyze your contracts and usage to see what’s in your SAP environment and how it’s used – or if it’s being used. SAP will recommend what you need in S/4HANA, and recommend more than you need. You will already know what you won’t need, so you know when to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” which leads to cost savings.
3. Get your environment under control
Lots of savings are lurking in your SAP environment, like over-licensed Professional Named Users, unused licenses, and under-used or even decommissioned engines. Your S/4HANA migration is the best opportunity to optimize your SAP licenses. It’s a fresh start with a new contract loaded with only the SAP solutions you intend to use. And it will only happen once since you only migrate to S/4HANA once.
4. Understand your licenses vs. S/4HANA metrics
S/4HANA has one metric for most solutions with three use types that roughly correspond to their R/3 twins: Professional Use, Functional Use, and Productivity Use. You must understand your current named users’ usage to know where they should be mapped in S/4HANA’s license metrics to prevent over-licensing. Getting it wrong could cost you millions in over-licensing.
Transition from R/3 to S/4HANA
Get an action plan for knowing when and how to shift to S/4HANA, all while leveraging your current licensing position with SAP.
4½. Get a professional SAM tool
A professional SAM tool isn’t mandatory, but it’s crucial for a cost-effective migration. Moving to S/4HANA will only happen once, so get it right and you will cut costs in the process. A SAM tool can:
- Give you a clear inventory of your SAP estate
- Optimize your existing licenses to reflect their actual usage
- Simulate and analyze of the effects of an S/4HANA migration
- Oh, and it can do all of that automatically.
A SAM tool shows cost-saving potential and makes negotiations with SAP smoother. You buy only what you need from SAP, while SAP still gets to sell some S/4HANA licenses.
Indirect access, Digital Access
10 Steps to Mastering Indirect Access
How to learn to love indirect access or at least learn how to live with it: Indirect access is possible if your non-SAP applications interface with SAP software. The more non-SAP applications and the more complex IT structure you have, the more likely indirect access is occurring.
Step 1: Accept that indirect access is normal
Step 1: Accept that indirect access is normal
In today’s world of data centers, clouds, apps and bots, indirect access is common. Generally, any indirect access to SAP needs to be licensed. But, as with so many issues with SAP, there are grey areas.
Step 2: Acknowledge the ambiguity
Step 2: Acknowledge the ambiguity
Indirect access is not only difficult to detect by SAP customers and SAP themselves, it’s also difficult to define. As with SAP licenses, contracts, and the Price and Conditions List, there are grey areas, exceptions, and qualifications around indirect access. Talking to an SAP expert can fill in those grey areas.
Step 3: You don’t need a license to read
Step 3: You don’t need a license to read
Without getting deep into the details, an Indirect Static Read is when data flows in one direction: from SAP to you because you’re extracting the data and not changing it. It’s only a transfer of data, like reading, so that doesn’t usually require a license.
Step 4: You don’t always need a user license
Step 4: You don’t always need a user license
Order to Cash and Procure to Pay are common scenarios that might cause indirect access to SAP software, so you won’t need named user licenses but you might need special order licenses.
Step 5: If a user license is needed, you only need one per user
Step 5: If a user license is needed, you only need one per user
You must allocate a named user license for any SAP usage, indirect access or otherwise, but each user mostly needs only one license with sufficient scope. That’s it.
Step 6: Stop doubling up on licenses
Step 6: Stop doubling up on licenses
When indirect access occurs, another license demand might be created, because it’s through a third-party application. Search for SAP licenses (created for direct access) and separate licenses under the same name (created for indirect access). Then apply one license to the highest authorization needed for both direct and indirect access. Or let a SAM tool do this for you.
Step 7: No indirect access is too trivial
Step 7: No indirect access is too trivial
Factory workers clock in and out of work with software and office workers use software to order paperclips. These seemingly trivial activities require named user licenses, like an affordable Employee Self Service User.
Step 8: Find it before SAP finds it
Step 8: Find it before SAP finds it
SAP is looking for indirect access too. LAW and USMM show every active license type and SAP’s audit department is aware of non-SAP applications that usually indirectly access SAP software through an interface. Prevent the costs of SAP-imposed licensing by investigating your own indirect access.
Step 9: License unlicensed indirect access
Step 9: License unlicensed indirect access
Uncovering unlicensed indirect access gives you transparency, so you’re aware of the financial risks, and can make an informed decision. What you don’t know can cost you. But knowledge allows you to act quickly. SAP is known to avoid auditing customers for indirect access when they buy a batch of licenses that clearly cover indirect access.
Step 10: Don’t be afraid to seek support
Step 10: Don’t be afraid to seek support
A SAM partner knows SAP licensing, dives into the complexity and brings transparency to the surface. They can recognize and minimize the risk of indirect access, license what needs to be licensed, and help you remain compliant with SAP—and lower your costs.
Meet the new indirect access: Digital Access
SAP has listened to its customers’ complaints – they might have even heard your long sigh when you finished reading the previous section – so they introduced a Digital Access, which uses “Document licenses” for instances of indirect access.
Here are five important things to know.
- Instead of licensing named users for indirect access, documents created by accessing the SAP digital core by third-party applications are licensed.
- There are nine document types. Only the creation is licensed – reading, editing, or deleting shouldn’t create a new license.
- They come in a tiered pricing system. More documents cost less per document – like buying in bulk.
- Once the measurement is done, both customers and SAP can see the documents created by indirect access.
- SAP customers can:
- Stick with the current indirect access model, or
- Trade in old indirect access licenses for document licenses while keeping their current contract, or
- Get a whole new contract including document licenses.
SAP insists document licensing brings convenience and transparency to the process. But you’re probably asking yourself: What’s the catch?
If you’ve analyzed your data connections and you’ve properly licensed users for indirect access, you might be paying less than you would with document licenses.
Plus, not all documents are so easily measured. For example, SAP Professional Named Users are licensed for indirect access, but when they create a document, a license is created for that new document. So, they’re doubled licensed.
Don’t jump into Digital Access
SAP will entice you with special deals, but you must resist. If you’re serious about compliance now and cost control later, there’s no escaping a thorough analysis of your current indirect access instances to know what you truly need.
What You Need to Know about SAP’s Digital Access Adoption Program
8 Benefits of SAP License Management Tools
Further resources to help you with your SAP license optimization:
Public Roads Operator saves on SAP licenses
Public roads agency Koezút chose Aspera’s service for SAP. The results: a clear overview of their license position, optimized SAM processes, and significant savings.
10 arguments to get SAM for your SAP
Here are 10 arguments you can use to convince your deciders and stakeholders that Software Asset Management for SAP is worth the investment.
