Procrastination in SAP license management? Becomes expensive!

There is no doubt that the licensing business in the SAP area is more than complex. It's no surprise, then, that this topic is treated with great respect and is always put off. Where large enterprises can afford an internal license manager, mid-sized companies are often left to their own devices - unless they call in external support.

Practical experience shows that this quickly pays off financially: after an intensive license review, for example, one q.beyond customer was able to make various adjustments through user/use structuring and ultimately regroup a mid-six-figure sum in license fees.

If companies are underlicensed, they face painful additional claims; if they are overlicensed, they pay too much. In principle, the same applies as in normal life: If you use something, you have to pay for it. If you have something twice, you can sell it. This is where the problem begins, because: SAP doesn't want that and puts various obstacles in the way of customers - but the other software hyperscalers aren't any better.

The good news: SAP offers the possibility of extension policies. It may not always be effective, and it's complicated, but you can convert your software. Another way to draw a smooth line in your SAP licenses is to move to S/4 Hana. A complete relaunch into a new, organized SAP licensing world is possible.

The SAP experts usually start the review of the licenses with an inventory: How many and which licenses are available and how are they actually used in real and functional terms? Is the user type represented in the role model even the right one at the point of use?

With regard to digitization and/or process changes, it is important to recognize whether this use(r)-type is still correct or even still necessary at this point in the future. For example, a process that until recently worked from human to machine is now covered by machine to machine. With a roadmap, the companies define the next steps together with the external consultants, for example for a planned transformation to S/4 Hana.

Necessary foresight

The vexed topic of indirect use is something you will encounter here again and again. It is certainly understandable from SAP's point of view to charge a fee for basic use of its system. Especially when an end user or a bot starts a process in the system that was started yesterday by a (paid) user.

But in the digital age, is a piece of information, a data record, always the start of a process? An inexhaustible, but above all confusing minefield. If companies have optimized their licenses independently of the time pressure of the remeasurement, they have a significantly better negotiating position. They are optimally prepared and avoid expensive additional payments as well as high, unnecessary costs as a result of overlicensing.

In all of this, it is not easy to always have the necessary foresight, i.e., ideally to know today whether the work of employee X will still require a professional license by the end of the year. This requires a holistic view - starting with the corporate strategy and extending to the processes and the operating model.

As in an orchestra, this requires not only the right instruments and methods, but also the right conductor. Conclusion? It is very worthwhile to overcome the procrastination complex and professionalize license management. Once again, you just have to do it, because even the longest journey begins with the first step.