Digital Access as a Stowaway in S/4 Hana

In addition to the technical conversion to S/4 Hana, SAP customers are also required to transfer their existing SAP licenses to the new world. It must be determined which licenses are available, which products will be needed in the future, and how dual use will be regulated during the transition phase. Each point in itself is correspondingly time-consuming and can have costly consequences if something is overlooked.

The danger is that the topic of indirect use and digital access will be brought into the contract by SAP without explicitly talking about it. This is a fundamental setting of the course for the future. Anyone who licenses Digital Access agrees contractually that documents imported into the SAP system via interfaces are subject to licensing.

To date, this issue has been the subject of legal controversy. Among other things, two complaints have been filed with the Cartel Office against this requirement by SAP. So while it was previously possible to reject the licensing requirement for indirect use in principle, once digital access has been licensed, it will only be possible to argue about the number and negotiate the price.

Licensing Digital Access means that all documents that were not created by dialog users and do not originate from other SAP systems are subject to licensing. This also includes documents that are entered on the road by a sales employee via a self-written app on the tablet, even though this employee also has a user license for working with S/4 Hana in the office.

With Digital Access, SAP wanted to address the issue of indirect usage transparently with a clearly measurable metric. This was implemented in such a way that, in case of doubt, everything is subject to licensing if it cannot be proven that the document originated from a dialog user or was transferred from another SAP system.

With SAP Passport technology, SAP wanted to ensure that the latter documents could be identified. Unfortunately, the technology does not work reliably and requires that all systems involved have a modern patch level. This leaves the burden of proof on the customer as to which of the counted documents are not subject to licensing.

License migration to S/4

Anyone who gets involved in digital access should negotiate the extremely high list prices down significantly and also limit future price increases contractually. The identification of non-licensable but counted receipts should only be credibly traceable; exact proof will often not be technically possible.

In order to avoid incurring incalculable license obligations, it is essential to make an estimate of the documents subject to licensing. The tool that SAP provides for this purpose is only capable of doing so to a very limited extent. As a result, the actual quantities are underestimated.

At the latest with licensing of Digital Access, it is very important to analyze all data traffic to the SAP system in order to be able to determine how many receipts result from SAP-to-SAP communication. It is essential to evaluate each new interface in terms of licensing law before implementation in order to consider the follow-up costs.

The S/4 migration is a Herculean task for any company. Anyone who does not have enough resources now to take sufficient care of the Digital Access issue should conclude an S/4 contract without this new product. In the meantime, SAP is allowing this because many customers are not prepared to take the risks involved. The old rules then apply, with all the gray areas and plenty of room for individual agreements.

Those who know the pitfalls in S/4 licensing and pay attention to them now in negotiations will avoid risks and put their contractual future with SAP on a firm footing.