RISE with SAP Migration Costs: Key Questions to Ask SAP

Why RISE with SAP Migration Cost Questions Matter

RISE with SAP is a complex, multi-year commitment. The financial impact extends far beyond the headline pricing SAP quotes in their proposal. Yet SAP's enterprise sales model is built on a principle: they answer the questions you ask, but they don't volunteer what you don't ask.

This creates a structural imbalance. Your procurement team is focused on landing a deal; SAP's sales team is focused on closing it. Neither side has an incentive to surface the hidden costs, escalation clauses, or exit barriers that emerge during implementation.

That's where these 20 questions come in. They force specificity. They create accountability. They push back on vague language and cost structures designed to remain opaque until you're locked into a contract.

Questions About Total Contract Cost

The biggest cost hidden in RISE proposals is the invisible infrastructure and support escalation. Here are the six questions you must ask:

1. Full 5-Year Total Cost of Ownership Breakdown

Question: "Provide a detailed line-item breakdown of all costs for years 1–5, including SAP subscription fees, hyperscaler infrastructure, support & maintenance, user overage fees, implementation services, and training. Show year-on-year escalation percentages explicitly."

Why it matters: SAP often quotes only the first-year subscription cost. The real burden emerges in years 2–5 when infrastructure scaling, support escalation, and overages accumulate. A typical enterprise RISE deployment balloons 30–40% after year 1.

2. Hyperscaler Infrastructure Fees vs. SAP Fees

Question: "Who is responsible for paying hyperscaler (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) infrastructure costs? Are these included in the RISE subscription, or billed separately? Who owns the billing relationship, and what are the escalation terms?"

Why it matters: Many enterprises assume SAP covers this. They don't. SAP covers the SAP application layer; you pay hyperscaler for compute, storage, and bandwidth. As your data volumes grow, these costs can exceed SAP subscription fees within 18 months. Establish explicit ownership now.

3. What's Included in RISE Migration Support vs. What's Extra

Question: "List every migration service included in the RISE contract: custom code conversion, integration migration, data replication, testing support, cutover orchestration, and rollback capacity. For each, specify the hours included and the hourly rate for overages."

Why it matters: SAP's standard migration support assumes a 'textbook' move. If your estate has custom code, legacy integrations, or complex data landscapes, you'll hit overages immediately. Overages are billed at 2–3x the blended rate—often £500–£1,500/hour for senior SAP resources.

4. Business Technology Platform (BTP) Credit Consumption vs. Allocation

Question: "How many BTP credits are included in our RISE subscription? What consumption rates should we plan for? Are overages consumed from a shared pool or billed at list price? What's the rollover policy for unused credits?"

Why it matters: BTP credits are SAP's way of pricing cloud integrations, analytics, and extensions. They look 'free' but are priced at premium rates once depleted. Many enterprises underestimate consumption and face surprise bills. Lock in consumption assumptions now.

5. Support Cost Escalation Clauses

Question: "What are the year-over-year escalation percentages for support and maintenance costs? Are there cliff escalations (e.g., jumping from 17% to 22% in year 4)? Can escalation be tied to a capped index like CPI?"

Why it matters: SAP's support escalations are aggressive and front-loaded. Year 1 is often discounted; years 3–5 jump 20–25% annually. Lock in escalation caps—CPI + 2% is defensible; anything above that is SAP's margin expansion.

6. Price Protection After Year 3

Question: "Are we guaranteed price protection beyond year 3? If SAP discontinues a module or capability, can we opt out of that cost? If cloud consumption exceeds forecast, are we locked into premium rates or can we negotiate?"

Why it matters: Year 3 is when contract renegotiations happen. SAP will attempt major price increases, citing 'enhanced functionality' or 'market conditions.' Establish price protection language now, or you'll be forced to capitulate mid-contract.

Questions About Technical Migration Costs

Technical debt is the second-largest hidden cost in RISE migrations. These five questions extract it:

7. Custom ABAP Code Compatibility Report

Question: "Conduct a full ABAP code analysis and provide a compatibility report, including: total lines of custom code, how much is auto-compatible with S/4HANA, how much requires rewrite, how much can be deleted. Estimate hours and cost for rewrite and testing."

Why it matters: Your custom code is SAP's opportunity to bill massive rewrite services. Many organizations have 2–5 million lines of custom ABAP. Even at 10% rewrite rates, that's 200k–500k lines needing conversion—often £2M–£8M in services.

8. Integration Landscape Assessment

Question: "Provide an integration assessment covering: all connected systems (ERPs, HCMs, CRMs, data warehouses), integration patterns used, tools required for migration (MuleSoft, SAP Cloud Integration, custom APIs), licensing costs for integration tools, and estimated effort."

Why it matters: RISE migrations often require re-platforming integrations to cloud-native tools. If you have 50+ integrations across legacy middleware, you're looking at significant retooling costs—often underestimated because integration scope isn't locked down upfront.

9. Data Migration Tool Licensing

Question: "What data migration tools are included in RISE, and what's licensed separately? If using third-party tools (Informatica, Talend, etc.), who licenses them, who manages them, and what are the per-month or per-GB costs?"

Why it matters: Data migration tooling is often a separate line item. If you're moving terabytes of data with complex transformations, enterprise-grade tools like Informatica can add £500k–£1.5M to your implementation costs.

10. UAT Environment Included or Extra

Question: "How many production-equivalent UAT environments are included in RISE? Are parallel run environments included? What's the hourly cost of additional environments, and how long do environments persist post-go-live?"

Why it matters: Most RISE contracts include minimal UAT capacity. Full parallel runs—where you run old and new systems side-by-side—require 2–3 months of dual infrastructure, which often means overage billing. Lock down UAT capacity upfront.

11. Third-Party Connector Re-Certification

Question: "Which third-party connectors (SAP Ariba, SuccessFactors, Concur integrations, etc.) require re-certification or licensing in our new environment? What are the costs, and who manages compliance?"

Why it matters: Connectors to SAP's partner ecosystem often carry separate licensing. If you use Ariba for procurement or SuccessFactors for talent, you may need new connector licenses or technical certifications—an often-overlooked cost.

Questions About Commercial Flexibility

These five questions protect your ability to evolve, scale, or exit after you've signed:

12. User Count True-Down Rights

Question: "After go-live, can we reduce our named user count without penalty? If yes, how frequently can we true-down (monthly, quarterly, annually)? Is there a minimum floor, and what's the per-user credit if we reduce?"

Why it matters: Most RISE contracts fix user counts at signature. If you've over-provisioned—which most enterprises do—you're locked in for 3+ years. True-down rights protect you from over-forecasting.

13. Exit Clause Terms and Penalties

Question: "What are our contractual rights to exit RISE if we're unsatisfied with service, product direction, or cost trajectory? What are the financial penalties? Is there a break clause at year 2 or 3?"

Why it matters: SAP contracts are 3–5 years with minimal exit rights. If SAP's roadmap diverges from your needs, you have limited leverage. Negotiate for a break clause at year 2 or 3—worth negotiating hard for.

14. Module Removal Without Penalty

Question: "If we decide to decommission a module (e.g., SAP Analytics Cloud, RISE Travel) mid-contract, can we remove it from our subscription without proportional credits or without triggering renegotiation clauses?"

Why it matters: SAP bundles modules into RISE packages. If you later discover a module isn't needed—or you license it separately—SAP often fights to keep you on the subscription. Lock in removal rights explicitly.

15. Hyperscaler Switching Rights

Question: "If we deploy RISE on AWS initially, can we migrate to Azure or Google Cloud later without SAP's permission? Are there switching costs, and who bears them?"

Why it matters: Hyperscaler lock-in is a long-term risk. AWS pricing may become less competitive; you may need Azure for strategic integrations. Establish switching rights now, or you're locked into a single cloud provider for the life of the contract.

16. Contract Novation in M&A Scenarios

Question: "If our company is acquired or merged, can the acquiring company assume this RISE contract, or does SAP require renegotiation and new terms?"

Why it matters: M&A activity is common. SAP will use M&A as a trigger to renegotiate and increase pricing. Establish novation rights—allowing contract assignment—upfront, or face surprise costs in a sale scenario.

Questions About Hidden and Indirect Costs

These four questions surface costs that often don't appear in the proposal but will hit your budget:

17. Legacy System Decommissioning Support Included

Question: "After cutover, does SAP provide support for running legacy ERP systems in parallel during the stabilization period (typically 90–180 days)? If we need extended parallel run, what's the cost?"

Why it matters: Parallel run costs are enormous. Running your old ERP alongside RISE for 6 months can cost £200k–£1M depending on your legacy system's size and complexity. SAP doesn't volunteer to subsidize this—it falls to you.

18. Organizational Change Management Tools Included

Question: "Does RISE include funding for change management tools, training platforms, communication templates, or resistance management resources? If not, what's the budget allocation SAP recommends?"

Why it matters: Enterprise SAP migrations fail on change management, not technology. Budgeting for change management tools, external coaches, and communication campaigns is essential—but often omitted from the technical RISE quote.

19. Training and Enablement Costs

Question: "What training and enablement does SAP provide (instructor-led, e-learning, role-based)? For each training type, specify hours included and per-person cost for overages. Does this include job-simulation and super-user certification?"

Why it matters: Training budgets are massively underestimated. External training vendors can cost £500–£2,000 per employee per week. If you have 500 users across 3 roles, you're looking at £750k–£2.5M in training alone.

20. Indirect Access Risk from Connected Systems

Question: "As we integrate new systems into RISE (data lakes, analytics platforms, third-party SaaS), will users accessing RISE data indirectly through those systems trigger new licensing obligations or indirect access fees?"

Why it matters: SAP's indirect access policy is deliberately vague. As your RISE estate grows and becomes a central hub for reporting and integrations, indirect access risk increases. Establish clear indirect access boundaries now to avoid future audit surprises.

Frequently Asked Questions