From "static read" to "indirect" use

With five keynotes from two architecture experts, two lawyers and analyst Carlo Velten, Crisp Research, it was clear that the topic of licenses affects everyone in the SAP community.

The five sponsors (Sandmeier Consulting, Snow Software, Aspera, ConSalt and SNP) provided practical answers, presented software solutions for license management and were available for one-on-one discussions with the participants.

The participants were welcomed in Heidelberg by Frank Bayer (IA4SP) and Peter Färbinger (see photo). Both gave an overview of the licensing discussions in the past years.

Many topics are not new: The "battle" of SAP existing customers with the PKL (price and conditions list) is omnipresent. This year, the challenge of an alternative license model for "indirect" use was added in April.

The two architecture experts Guido Schneider and Guido Stass addressed the new topic of "Indirect/Digital Access" and emphatically emphasized proactive action: As an existing SAP customer, you should not wait until a survey is due, but initiate a license inventory in advance.

RA Jürgen Beckers dealt with "indirect use" against the background of European copyright law, where the interoperability of software is at stake.

The communications between programs are considered as intended use, which means that an "indirect" use can hardly be argued - unfortunately, there is no court ruling on this yet, because so far SAP always managed out-of-court settlements including a confidentiality obligation.

RA Dr. Jana Jentzsch looked at the situation of the existing customer on the basis of the GTC and explained the rights of the purchaser. She thus took on the role of a "consumer protector" for SAP users.

In the context of "indirect use", it mentioned the dubious function "static read", which has not yet been clearly defined by SAP - and is therefore of little help.