RISE with SAP Benchmarking: Key Questions to Ask SAP

Infrastructure Questions: Control Your Cloud Destiny

SAP's RISE with SAP benchmarking assumes a specific infrastructure pathway. Before you accept that pathway, question it relentlessly. Your hyperscaler choice, data residency requirements, and migration scope drive costs up or down dramatically.

Hyperscaler & Data Residency

• Which hyperscalers does SAP support in our region? SAP's RISE offering uses certified hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP). If your jurisdiction requires data residency in a specific region or with a specific provider, this constrains your options. Ask SAP to list all certified hyperscaler-region combinations and any cost differentials.
• What are the exact cost differences between hyperscalers? SAP benchmarking often assumes a single hyperscaler. Get pricing broken down by provider. AWS S/4HANA hosting may cost 15-25% more than GCP in certain regions. Demand line-item pricing for compute, storage, and data transfer.
• Are we paying for hyperscaler redundancy or disaster recovery? RISE contracts sometimes bundle multi-region failover; others require you to purchase it separately. Ask whether your benchmarking includes cross-region replication costs or if you must negotiate that separately.
• What happens if we switch hyperscalers mid-contract? SAP's RISE agreements often lock you in. Ask about exit terms, data export procedures, and whether switching carries penalties or requires a new benchmarking assessment.

Migration Scope & Timeline

• What exactly is included in the "migration scope"? SAP's benchmarking assumes you're migrating core processes. But what about custom modules, Z-code, third-party extensions, and legacy integrations? If these are out of scope or cost-added, the true migration expense is hidden. Demand a detailed itemization.
• Who owns migration services—SAP or a partner? Many RISE benchmarking quotes assume SAP Global Services (expensive). If you're using Accenture, Deloitte, or an internal team, the quoted price may not reflect your actual services costs. Clarify the pricing model and who owns execution risk.
• How many systems are migrating? Your benchmarking should cover all SAP instances (ERP, CRM, SuccessFactors, Ariba, Fieldglass). If SAP is only benchmarking your primary ERP, the full migration cost will be higher. Ask for a consolidated migration scope across all systems.
• What's the timeline, and do delays cost us more? SAP often assumes a 12-18 month migration. If your timeline is longer, you may pay for overlapping licenses (old infrastructure + RISE). Get clarity on how timeline extensions affect pricing.

Capacity Planning & USMM

• How did SAP size our RISE capacity? SAP uses the Usage Sizing Management Model (USMM) to forecast your infrastructure needs. Ask to see the USMM data, assumptions, and growth projections they used. SAP often inflates sizing to drive higher subscription costs. Demand a line-by-line review with your own technical team.
• What's the basis for user count, CPU, and storage projections? SAP defaults to worst-case scenarios. If you're budgeting for 1,000 users but SAP sized you for 2,000, you're overpaying. Challenge the assumptions with 3-year headcount and transaction volume forecasts from your business.
• Can we flex capacity up or down without renegotiating? RISE contracts should allow you to scale. Ask whether you can reduce capacity mid-contract without penalty, or increase capacity at incremental cost rather than a full renegotiation.

Pricing Questions: Decode SAP's Benchmarking Math

RISE with SAP benchmarking pricing is complex—intentionally. SAP bundles infrastructure, support, and software into a single number, obscuring true costs and making comparison impossible. Your job: unbundle everything.

Base Subscription & User-Based Pricing

• What's the true base subscription cost, and how is it calculated? SAP quotes RISE as a total contract value, but the subscription component should be broken down by product (S/4HANA, Analytics, HCM, Supply Chain). Get unit prices per core, per user, or per transaction count, depending on the metric.
• Are Professional Users, Limited Professional Users, Developers, and Functional Users (FUE) priced separately? Your RISE contract will include different user types with different costs. SAP often assumes a higher-cost mix than your actual needs. Define your user profile precisely and demand pricing for each type.
• What happens if user counts grow beyond the benchmarked level? Get pricing for incremental users. SAP often quotes aggressive growth scenarios during benchmarking but charges premium rates for overages. Lock in overage pricing before signing.
• Are we paying for "named users" or concurrent users? This distinction matters for scaling. Named user licensing is typical for RISE, but clarify whether you're paying per head count or per concurrent session.

BTP Credits & Analytics Bundling

• How many BTP credits are allocated annually, and what's included? RISE bundles SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) credits, but 70% of typical allocations go unconsumed. Your benchmarking should justify the credit amount, not assume it. Ask SAP to model your specific extension and analytics scenarios against the credit allocation. If you're not using BTP heavily, you're subsidizing it.
• Are SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and Signavio Process Intelligence included? SAP often presents RISE as bundling these tools, then charges separately or assumes limited licensing. Clarify exactly what's included: how many SAC users, which Signavio features, and any add-on costs.
• What about Datasphere (enterprise data fabric) costs? Datasphere is increasingly critical in RISE implementations but often underestimated in benchmarking. Ask whether it's included in the subscription or priced separately. If included, request usage guidance and limits.
• Are there overage charges for exceeding BTP credits, SAC users, or storage? Many RISE contracts penalize overages heavily. Get specific rates for unused credits (usually non-refundable) and excess capacity charges.

Support & CPI Escalators

• What support level is included, and what's the cost per year? Enterprise Support runs ~22% of your RISE license value annually. Standard Support is cheaper but limits access. Ask whether your benchmarking includes Enterprise or Standard support and what you're paying per annum.
• What are the annual CPI (Consumer Price Index) escalators? SAP applies CPI adjustments annually, typically 1.5-3% per year. Over a 3-year contract, that's 5-10% cumulative cost growth. Demand a cap on CPI escalators or fixed pricing for at least years 1-2.
• Are there "true-up" mechanisms? SAP may reserve the right to true-up your licenses mid-contract if they discover under-licensing. Get clarity on what triggers a true-up, whether you have the right to audit, and what recourse you have if disagreements arise.
• What's included in "support" vs. what costs extra? SAP support covers critical issues, but implementation, custom code support, and performance optimization often cost more. Get a detailed support scope document.

Contract Questions: Protect Your Optionality

SAP's standard RISE contracts are heavily weighted in SAP's favor. Your leverage lies in asking the right questions early and demanding contractual protection before signing.

Term, Renewal & Exit Clauses

• What's the minimum contract commitment? SAP typically demands 3 years. Push for 2 years with optional renewal, or a performance gate (SLA performance triggers renewal). A 3-year lock-in in a rapidly evolving cloud market is risky.
• What are the renewal terms? SAP often auto-renews RISE contracts at new rates (potentially +15-20%). Demand that renewal requires explicit written consent and that pricing for any renewal is negotiated separately based on current market rates and your performance data.
• What's your exit strategy if RISE underperforms? Ask about exit clauses. If RISE doesn't deliver promised performance or you discover hidden costs, what's your right to terminate and at what cost? Most SAP exit clauses are punitive. Negotiate them before signing.
• What happens at contract end? Does RISE convert to standard S/4HANA licensing, and at what cost? Or do you have other options (e.g., switch to SuccessFactors standalone)? Get clarity on post-RISE pathway to avoid surprise re-benchmarking demands.

Minimum Commitment & Usage Adjustments

• Is there a minimum annual spend, and how is it enforced? Some RISE contracts include annual minimums independent of actual usage. If you use less than the minimum, you still pay. Understand this metric and negotiate flexibility around it.
• Can we reduce capacity mid-contract without penalty? If you downsize operations (sell a business unit, consolidate systems), can you reduce your RISE footprint? SAP often restricts downsizing. Demand the right to reduce capacity with 60-90 days' notice and minimal penalty.
• What triggers a price re-assessment? SAP may re-benchmark if you significantly exceed the original scope. Get specific thresholds (e.g., user count growth >30% annually). This protects you from surprise re-benchmarking and gives you advance notice.

Data Portability & Asset Ownership

• Who owns our data and configuration? RISE is SaaS, so you don't own the infrastructure. But your data, custom code, and configuration should be portable. Ask about data export processes, whether they're free, and how quickly SAP will provide exports if you exit.
• What's the process for taking backups or exporting data? If you exit RISE, you need to ensure continuity. SAP should provide regular backups and support data export in standard formats (e.g., XML, CSV, database backup). Lock this in contractually.
• Are we locked into SAP's archival tools after contract end? Once you exit RISE, you may still need access to historical data. Get clarity on long-term data retention and whether you can export archived data after you leave.

Performance Questions: Lock In SLA Guarantees

RISE moves your SAP infrastructure to the cloud, where performance becomes a shared responsibility. Before signing, get specific SLA commitments in writing.

Uptime & Availability SLAs

• What uptime SLA does SAP guarantee? Standard cloud SLAs run 99.5-99.9% annually. Ask SAP for their specific RISE SLA and what's excluded (planned maintenance, customer errors, regional outages). Get this in the contract—verbal commitments don't count.
• How does SAP define "uptime"? Does it mean SAP's infrastructure is available, or does it include customer-side access (network, firewalls, client code)? Some SLAs exclude customer-tier failures. Demand a clear definition aligned with your operational needs.
• What's the penalty for SLA breach? If SAP misses its uptime target, do you get service credits, refunds, or just an apology? Demand service credits (typically 5-10% of monthly fees per 1% of uptime below the SLA) and the right to escalate to termination for repeated breaches.
• How does seasonal demand affect uptime? Month-end or year-end peaks can stress cloud infrastructure. Ask how SAP handles capacity planning during peak demand and whether your SLA holds during high-volume periods.

Disaster Recovery & Backup

• What's SAP's Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)? RTO is how quickly RISE restores after failure (hours? minutes?). RPO is how much data loss you can tolerate (minutes? hours?). These metrics should be in your SLA. If SAP offers 4-hour RTO, that's significant downtime for critical processes.
• Where are backups stored, and how often are they taken? SAP should backup your RISE database continuously or at least daily. Ask whether backups are geo-redundant (stored in multiple regions). If all backups are in one location, a regional failure could be catastrophic.
• Can we test disaster recovery procedures without disrupting production? SAP should allow you to perform DR drills on a sandbox copy of your database. This is critical to validate your recovery procedures. Ask how often SAP will support DR testing and at what cost.
• What's the process for restoring data from backups? If you accidentally delete data or suffer corruption, how quickly can SAP restore? Get specific timelines and whether restore costs are absorbed or billed separately.

Performance Monitoring & Reporting

• How do we monitor RISE performance, and what visibility do we have? SAP should provide a dashboard (Solution Manager or cloud-native tools) showing uptime, transaction performance, resource utilization, and capacity trends. Request this in writing and specify the metrics you need to track.
• What happens if we're not hitting performance targets? SAP might claim their SLA is met, but your application performs poorly due to inefficient code or misconfiguration. Ask about performance optimization support and whether SAP provides recommendations for tuning.
• How quickly does SAP respond to performance incidents? Get specific response times by severity level. Critical issues should have 15-30 minute response, Urgent within 2 hours, etc. These should be in your support agreement.

Licensing Questions: Avoid Hidden Compliance Risks

RISE simplifies licensing in some ways but introduces new complexities. You must understand licensing implications before committing.

User Types & Access Rights

• How are Professional Users, Limited Professional Users, Developers, and FUE counted in RISE? Traditional SAP licensing counts these separately. RISE bundles them but may apply stricter definitions. Ask SAP to define each user type in your RISE agreement and clarify which of your current users will map to which category.
• Can users change types mid-contract? If a Limited Professional User needs Professional access, do you pay more? Or can you simply upgrade without penalty? Get flexibility language in your contract.
• Are contractor and temporary user licenses included? If you use contractors or seasonal staff, ask whether their access counts against your licensed user base or requires separate licensing.
• What about named users vs. concurrent users? RISE typically uses named user licensing (each person who accesses RISE counts as a licensed user, whether they use it daily or quarterly). Understand this model and negotiate overage pricing if growth exceeds projections.

Indirect Access in RISE

• Are indirect access licensing rules enforced in RISE? SAP's Licensing and Authoring Workbench (LAW) tracks who accesses SAP data through non-SAP applications. In RISE, this becomes critical—if your web portal or third-party app queries RISE, the users are indirectly accessing SAP. Ask SAP to clarify what indirect access scenarios apply and how they're licensed.
• Do portal users, integration users, and service accounts require licensing? These non-human users often consume licenses in ways enterprises don't expect. Get a comprehensive indirect access assessment before signing RISE.
• Are there exemptions for read-only access or specific data types? Some indirect access is licensed more leniently (e.g., master data access vs. transactional updates). Work with SAP to define exemptions that fit your architecture.

Compliance & Audit

• What's SAP's audit rights in your RISE contract? SAP reserves the right to audit your RISE usage to ensure compliance. Ask about audit frequency, notice requirements, and scope. You should require 30+ days' notice and the right to have your own auditor present.
• How does SAP audit RISE licenses without direct database access? RISE is cloud-managed SAP infrastructure. SAP has backend visibility into all your users, sessions, and data access. Understand what SAP logs and how often they review it.
• What are the consequences of under-licensing? If an audit finds unlicensed users, SAP typically demands true-up payments and may charge penalties. Get specific consequences before signing and negotiate a "fix-it" clause allowing you to license retroactively without penalties.
• Do you have audit counter-rights? You should be able to run your own compliance reports and request SAP provide supporting evidence for any audit findings. Demand audit reciprocity in your contract.

Frequently Asked Questions

Moving Forward: Your RISE Benchmarking Strategy

RISE with SAP benchmarking is a negotiation, not a take-it-or-leave-it offer. SAP's benchmarking models embed assumptions and biases in your favor. Your job is to question every assumption, demand evidence, and negotiate protections before you commit.

The questions you ask during benchmarking determine whether RISE becomes a cost optimization play or a vendor lock-in mechanism. Ask about infrastructure (hyperscaler costs, data residency, migration scope), pricing (BTP credits, analytics bundling, CPI escalators), contracts (exit clauses, renewal terms, minimum commitments), performance (SLAs, disaster recovery), and licensing (user types, indirect access, compliance). Get answers in writing. Challenge assumptions that don't match your data. Negotiate protective language for ambiguous scenarios.

RISE with SAP can deliver genuine value—cloud infrastructure, simplified licensing, built-in analytics. But only if you negotiate terms that protect your enterprise and maintain your optionality. The 30+ questions outlined in this guide are your starting point. Use them to deconstruct SAP's benchmarking logic, expose hidden costs, and secure a RISE agreement that aligns with your strategy and budget.

Need expert guidance navigating RISE with SAP benchmarking? Our advisory team has reviewed 200+ RISE contracts and identified 50+ optimization opportunities. Let's turn your benchmarking process into competitive advantage.