SAP Licensing 101

Dr. Paul Hawking

 SAP Licensing 101

What do we know?
Pretend
SAP always like I
say you need know But we
How can I have to speak to are
we find no someone else spending
out idea! a lot of
more? money

I am
confused
too!
 SAP Licensing 101

Complexity
 SAP Licensing 101

License Confusion
Customers do often not know:
• What software they have
• Where the software is located
• How the software is configured
• How software is used
• Who is using the software
• New innovations (virtualization, open source, multicore, SaaS, Cloud
computing)
• Several vendors, several contracts, use of none standard agreements
• Lack of understanding of license entitlements
• Lack of standards, software sold under many models (many metrics)
 SAP Licensing 101

Purpose of Session
SAP offers over 2,500 products, which are subject to
multifaceted licensing rules and metrics, catering to a variety
of user types, software engines, databases and third-party
products.
 SAP Licensing 101

SAP’s License Motivation

• Controls the use of the software
• Protects Intellectual property
• Provides a framework for license fees

“If your company runs better due to SAP

solutions then SAP should get a percentage
of that better”
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Dictates the Use of Software

• All Use of SAP solutions must be licensed, regardless of whether that
license requires a fee.
• SAP
• “Use is defined as to activate the processing capabilities of the software,
load, execute, access, employ the software, or display information resulting
from such capabilities. Use may occur by way of an interface delivered with
or as a part of the software, a licensee or third-party interface, or another
intermediary system. All ‘use’ of SAP software, regardless of the method of
access, requires an appropriate license.”
 SAP Licensing 101

Where to Start?

2013?
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Components
• “The structure of SAP’s Licensing model is intended to maximise the
business benefits of SAP software by providing named user and
package licences”.
Whose
Business
Benefits?
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Components
• Package Licenses
• Deploy and use a precise set of SAP functionality and is priced on a key
business metric that reflects its intended use
• Orders processed
• Contracts tracked Most?

• Named Users
• Authorises an individual to access SAP software
• Mandatory for most individuals to access SAP functionality
• Employee, employee of an affiliate or business partner
• Tasks and roles of individuals determine the type of name user license
• Named user licenses are priced per user
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Components Examples? tool

Named Users (18)
• Professional User $$$
• named user who is able to perform certain operational tasks such as system
administration or system management type roles that are within the agreed
license metrics. The user should also have the rights that are specified by the SAP
Application Limited Professional User.
• Limited Professional User $$
• named user who can perform limited operational roles as defined by the software
license.
• Employee User $
• named user who has the ability to perform tasks purely for the individuals own
use and not on behalf of anyone else, tasks that are set out by the software
license
Users are not clearly defined and SAP does not provide a tool to
classify users according to their activity
 SAP Licensing 101

Types of Licenses
• Perpetual
• Use the SAP software for unlimited period of time
• Requires both Package and Named User license components
• Access to maintenance and support services (patches, fixes, error
corrections, and upgrades require a separate maintenance agreement
• Maintenance is NOT perpetual
• Subscription Based
• Available for cloud offerings
• License fee paid per user per month
• License fee includes; installation, maintenance, upgrades and support
 SAP Licensing 101

Database License
• 3rd party databases can be licensed through SAP or directly with the
vendor
• SAP
• Runtime licence to be used only with SAP software
• 3rd Party Vendor
• Require an Interface Contract with SAP

Be aware of runtime restrictions of 3rd party databases. Don’t assume

you can do anything you want!
 SAP Licensing 101

Maintenance and Support

• Maintenance and Support services provides patches, fixes, error
corrections, and upgrades
• “Calculated as a percentage of the software contract value, which is
the total value of all package and named users minus applicable
discounts”
• 3 Types of Maintenance Discounts?

• Mainstream
• Extended
• Customer Specific
 SAP Licensing 101

Licencing Specific SAP Solutions

SAP Business Suite (“each package license has an associated metric”)
• Enterprise Foundation package
• NO Metric
• Pre-determined price
• Includes 5 SAP Professional named users
• Enterprise Extension package
• Industry Portfolio packages Definitions?

• Line-of-business portfolio packages

 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Analytic Solutions

• SAP Analytic Solutions
• BOBJ BI solutions
• Information Management
• Enterprise Performance Management
• Governance Risk and Compliance
• Analytic Applications Tableau?

• Requires Package Licenses + Named User Licences (but

there are exceptions)
• BOBJ License – Package License metrics = Concurrent users
and/or Named users
• Other Analytic solutions licensing varies but usually based
on a single metric
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Analytic Solutions

• Package + Named Users
• “In general, if an individual uses these analytics applications in a view-only
manner, a named user license is not required: only the package license is
required”
• Named User Licenses I
need
• SAP Business Expert User Clint!
• SAP Business Analytics Professional User
• SAP Business Intelligence Limited User
 SAP Licensing 101
1 or 2 Public
Metrics? Documents?

Licensing Analytic Solutions

 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Cloud Solutions

• Subscription model
• Named users
• “For most of our cloud based offerings, the monthly subscription fee is based
on the number of named users…in some cases based on business metrics”
• Named users varies between solutions
• SAP Cloud Platform User types?

• Subscription based
• Consumption based (API’s)
 SAP Licensing 101

Licensing Database Solutions

• Databases
• HANA
• Sybase ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise)
• Sybase IQ
• SAP SQL Anywhere
>1 package
• Different Licencing for HANA?

• Package + Named Users

 SAP Licensing 101

Indirect Access

Direct

Batch / Indirect

Realtime / Indirect
 SAP Licensing 101

Indirect Access

“I’m particularly pleased SAP

can be relied upon for 75% of
the world’s annual beer
production. Thanks goodness
that’s in safe hands.” (2000)

28%
 SAP Licensing 101

• Direct Access Indirect Static Read

• Number of human users with hands on
keyboards
• Indirect Access
• Everything other than humans that
interacts with SAP solutions – interfaces,
bots, EDI, IoT
• SAP - “when people or things use the
Digital Core without directly logging into
the system.”
SAP does not require a license for indirect
static read if it meets ALL of these criteria:
1. The process was initiated by an
individual licensed to use the SAP ERP
system from which the information is
being exported.
2. It runs automatically on a scheduled
basis, and
3. The use of such exported information
by the non-SAP systems and/or their
users does NOT result in any updates
to and/or trigger any processing
capabilities of the SAP ERP system.
 SAP Licensing 101

Indirect Licensing
SAP’s New Document-Based Licensing Model
• What is SAP’s document-based pricing model?
• This new model eliminates the challenges related to reconciling human users and
indirect use. Rather than measuring use by the number of “hands on keyboard”
users, the new model counts the total number of documents created through both
direct and indirect methods. Sales Document Line Item
• Invoice Document Line Item
• Purchase Document Line Item
• Service & Maintenance Document
• Manufacturing Document
• Quality Management Document Only ERP?
• Time Management Document
• Financial Document Line Item
• Material Document Line Item:

• What is not counted?

• Updates, reads, and deletes, as well as cascading documents created based on one
document that is counted. (For example, a sales order document that generates a
number of associated financial accounting documents.)
 SAP Licensing 101

Indirect Access Resource

 SAP Licensing 101

Compliance
• Software compliance
• being able to demonstrate that you have the correct number of licenses paid
for and accounted for on your systems compared and matched to what you
have installed.
• Responsibility of the Customer
• SAP do this by performing periodic measurements of usage with customers
including on-site audits
• SAP Licensing Auditing Tools
 SAP Licensing 101

Non Disclosure Agreement

“ SAP does not currently have a publicly available price
list. SAP’s pricing tends to be highly customized for
each customer and contract, and the pricing that
results from these negotiations is considered
confidential for each customer.”
Enforcing Confidentiality
NDA is a contract through which the parties agree not
to disclose information covered by the agreement.
An NDA creates a confidential relationship between
the parties to protect any type of confidential and
proprietary information or trade secrets.
 SAP Licensing 101

Further Information
Contact Your Account Executive
• Understand your needs
• Provide required information
• Provide appropriate solutions
• Renumeration impacted by sales
NDA!!!
 SAP Licensing 101

Resources
• Partners
• Documents
• Indirect Access White Paper
• https://discuss.asug.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/48040-102-1-71717/SAP-IndirectPricing-White-Paper-vF-July06.pdf

• SAP Software Use Rights 2018

• http://www.br3consultants.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SAP_Software_Use_Rights_enGLOBAL.v.1-2018.pdf

• Guido Schneider, Aspera Software: Eight challenges in SAP license Ray Wang!

management
• https://www.globalsecuritymag.com/Guido-Schneider-Aspera-Software,20160608,62751.html

• User Groups

Licence Resource Centre

Your Questions