By Fiona Graham
With time fast running out and no visibility into their SAP license position, a large, global customer was concerned that they would not be ready to complete an informed and successful SAP audit and contract negotiation. Could they be prepared in time with scant resources available to work on this?
The answer was yes. In fact, in my time working in SAP license management, I have run projects for small, medium and large SAP customers in timeframes ranging from 3 to 30 days.
I have worked in the software industry for thirty years, with twenty-two years SAP and SAP related experience. In all these years I have never before seen such significant ROI and related business value delivered to customers in such a complex environment so quickly.
The customer’s problem:
- They were under pressure to complete an imminent SAP measurement of their global license estate and prepare for a contract renegotiation. However, they had no free SAP resources and no clear view of their SAP estate, since many of their SAP systems were spread across the globe and managed on separate networks by autonomous operating companies.
- They suspected that they may not be compliant in some areas but had no real proof.
- Like the majority of SAP customers, the company was required to run LAW (License Administration Workbench), the SAP license audit tool; however, they had no personnel internally who had experience with this tool and therefore needed outside support for this.
- They were aware that LAW would count user licenses irrespective of whether the users ever logged on or did any meaningful work on SAP and therefore they needed to quickly clean their data.
How did they tackle the problem?
The Head of Procurement needed visibility into the SAP estate as soon as possible so as not to delay the measurement. Having consulted with the internal SAP team, SAP, their software asset management (SAM) partner and after taking a look at the marketplace, the company realised that there were SAP certified solutions and resources out there that could help. An SAP license optimization solution was selected and the implementation project was completed in 15 days.
The consulting team collected, consolidated and optimised the customer’s user, role and SAP Computer Centre Management System (CCMS) data. We then consolidated and optimised the SAP named user license classifications based on actual usage and the constraints of the contract. The output of this process was a set of recommendations on the optimal license mix (i.e. the number of Professional, Limited Professional, Employee User, etc., licenses actually required) and users who could be invalidated on the SAP systems. The customer then updated the license data across countries and systems. We then further analysed the reports to help shape optimal contract terms going forward. After the idle users were removed and licenses reclassified, we then set up the SAP LAW measurement and ran this across the whole license estate.
Key Challenges
- Limited Resources—It is fair to say that the customer’s SAP team were already stretched to the limit running other high priority projects and had little available time to spend with us. However, they did not doubt the value of the work and gave all the time they could to the project. A dedicated resource is the best approach but it is often the case in projects that I have worked on that the SAP team is focused on upgrades and rollouts and so can only be part-time on an SAP audit and contract negotiation project, such as this one.
- Globally Distributed Organization—Once the data was collected and analysed, the hard work of convincing the autonomous operating companies to adopt the SAP licensing recommendations began and proved tough throughout. Although the savings were large, a number of operating companies had not been prepared to make the recommended changes and although this was very visible at Group level, it did complicate the project and was a significant risk in achieving the optimum license position.
Key Findings and Recommendations
- A large number of incorrectly defined Professional Users existed in the SAP systems at the start of the project as many of the operating companies failed to enter user license type in the user master files. The SAP measurement tool automatically counts users with no defined license type as Professional Users, and this is one of the most expensive SAP license types. Furthermore, these SAP users were found to be employees working in the company’s retail stores. The use of SAP in a retail store is an example of package licensing and the customer pays for the number of stores using SAP and not on the number of named users. Therefore, a compliance risk of tens of millions of pounds was removed.
- Idle and locked users were removed saving millions that were already budgeted for the SAP license compliance true-up.
- It was recommended that tighter control on number of Developers was required—Developer licenses are another high cost SAP license type.
- Central control of the SAP license estate was recommended. A common best practice approach supported by an automated SAP license optimization system would remove risk of the customer paying more than necessary for user licenses in future and would ensure continuous license compliance. It was clear that the operating companies should be brought onto the network and licenses controlled centrally.
The customer met their audit reporting obligations to SAP who reviewed and agreed with the results. The project was seen internally as a tremendous success and the operating companies are now being brought onto the network. The next step will be to introduce cross charging to the operating companies, a project which is high on the corporate agenda.
Finally, the customer successfully negotiated a 4 year deal with SAP that they were happy with. They now have the software license optimization tools to monitor and control their software estate at all times, with all the information needed to make the best purchasing decisions going forward.
This is not an unfamiliar scenario. Flexera Software is often involved in projects where the customer has an SAP measurement coming up, a contract negotiation taking place, or they are still rolling out SAP and are buying more licenses. It is relatively straightforward to get that customer to a position where they can ensure that they are correctly using what they have and buying only what they need, not just today but for as long as they run SAP.
However, SAP customers are facing an increasingly complex world where SAP license management includes applications and license models that are the result of acquisitions (e.g. Business Objects and Ariba). Customers are also seeing a growing need to identify indirect access usage and license accordingly. They also need to measure their SAP Packages correctly as SAP becomes ever more focused on this area of licensing. No two projects are the same but it is satisfying to be able to help customers solve their SAP license management challenges.
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To learn more, please view our on-demand webinar: SAP Software Licenses Could be Costing You