Developer licensing strategies for and against Hana

Part 1 - Stefan Autengruber

Let's take a look into the future. How is the developer user developing in S/4 Hana? What is striking is that there is no longer a user, but the term "Developer Access" - i.e. access to development activities.

Anyone familiar with SAP knows that "gray areas" are first written down in the price lists and only implemented later: Developer Access as an "additional license component for the development of the software" does not cover all development activities:

There is now a Development Cloud and if you want to develop in it, you need a Web IDE license (Integrated Development Environment). SAP currently only charges for the IDE license, but from a legal perspective, you are also entitled to charge for Developer Access.

SAP is not executing this yet, but perhaps only in a few years, at its own discretion. SAP has always been creative when it comes to interpreting license rights.

There was once NetWeaver Developer for NetWeaver, there was Mobile Developer for Mobile and at some point there was also the rule that you needed at least one "Developer" per contract, and sometimes even the statement that this was necessary per installation.

Regulations in which only a true licensing expert is familiar with and can provide legally sound advice. Legal analyses based on copyright law are also of no use.

The legal situation is certain and clear: it depends solely on the price list and general terms and conditions know-how of the past 18 years. Back to the future: In addition to web IDE access, development in Native Hana is strictly prohibited. Development is only allowed outside the interfaces.

It is clear to everyone that this does not work and SAP does not want to hear it and sometimes tacitly tolerates it. However, this does not create a right!

If you have known SAP Pricing (PKL) for as long as I have, then you should prepare yourself for the fact that SAP will introduce a new user type for "Native Hana Development", which will probably be priced higher than previous developers.

So here's the advice: insist that Developer Access is granted free of charge to existing Developer users when concluding Hana DB and S/4 Hana contracts. Your SAP salesperson doesn't want to hear that. But the legal and contracting team behind it knows that this is the way it is and must be.

Part 2 - Peter M. Färbinger

The latest SAP press release on the new conditions for PKL and indirect use also contains the following section of text as an "offer" and "compensation" to existing SAP customers:

[...] SAP is also introducing new organizational and governance rules that provide for a strict separation between the sales organization and processes and the audit organization and its processes.

To this day, disagreements continue to arise between customers and SAP over how older contracts should be interpreted with regard to the new digital requirements.

[...] The organizational changes on the SAP side now allow these issues to be separated and enable independent discussions. This makes it easier for customers and SAP sales staff to work together.

(End of quote from the SAP press release by Global Communications on April 10, 2018)

The conflict between SAP Sales, which has to meet a quota, and SAP's Legal and Contracting team, which also wants to ensure legal certainty, can be read very clearly between the lines.

Whether the administrative and organizational separation is really to the advantage of existing customers remains to be seen. Ultimately, the aim is to have a consolidated license system with SAP and not with different departments.

Whoever thinks this SAP diversification is evil is a rogue. But it is once again the many goals that the ambitious SAP CEO Bill McDermott wants to achieve all at the same time:

On-premise and cloud computing; maximum license costs for indirect use and digital transformation with IoT sensors that are to transfer their data directly to ERP; all existing SAP customers must move to the new Hana platform and pay for new developer licenses.

The list of Bill McDermott's claims and contradictions could go on and on. The fact remains: If SAP has not consolidated its price and conditions list (PKL) for the digital transformation by 2020, then nothing will come of the S/4 release change by 2030.

And in Walldorf, the horror scenario is already being discussed behind closed doors:

What if existing customers implement IoT, blockchain, machine learning, mobile computing, etc. with other IT partners and reduce SAP to its old ERP role - without any developers or indirect use?