Key Takeaways
- Most enterprises ask SAP about RISE functionality and pricing. Almost none ask the specific SLA and RACI questions that determine what SAP is actually contractually obligated to deliver.
- The most revealing questions are not about uptime percentages — they are about the exclusions and carve-outs that reduce the practical guarantee below the headline figure.
- RACI questions that ask for specific activity assignments — not general descriptions of "how SAP manages the service" — consistently reveal significant customer obligations that SAP's sales materials do not highlight.
- Asking these questions in writing, before contract execution, creates a documentary record that can be used if SLA disputes arise post-go-live.
- SAP's responses to these questions often reveal negotiation opportunities — commitments SAP is willing to make verbally but hasn't included in the standard contract template.
Why Questions Beat Reviews: The Documentary Record
When enterprises evaluate RISE with SAP, they typically review SAP's marketing materials, attend SAP's product demos, and read the headline SLA terms in the commercial proposal. What very few do is ask SAP precise, written questions about RISE with SAP SLA and RACI obligations before signing — and require written responses. This is a significant missed opportunity on two levels.
First, the act of asking specific questions about SLA exclusions and RACI assignments frequently reveals material information that SAP's account team would not have volunteered. SAP's sales materials describe RISE as a fully managed, accountable service. Direct questions about who is responsible for integration monitoring, what triggers an AI maintenance window, and how credit claims are calculated reveal a more qualified picture. Second, written responses to specific pre-signature questions create a contractual documentary record. If SAP's account team asserts in writing that "AI maintenance windows will not affect production systems without 14 days' advance notice" and the contract doesn't reflect that commitment, you have grounds to hold SAP to the written representation.
For the full analysis of what RISE SLAs and RACI contain by default, see our complete RISE with SAP SLA & RACI enterprise guide.
The 12 Essential SLA Questions
Ask these questions in writing to SAP's account team and request written responses before any contract is executed. The questions are designed to surface the information that matters most — not to generate a friendly conversation.
Question 01
"What is the effective monthly uptime guarantee once planned maintenance windows are excluded from the SLA calculation?"
Why it matters: SAP's headline uptime figure (typically 99.7%) is calculated excluding planned maintenance. Once you factor in the 8-hour monthly maintenance window SAP's standard contract allows, the practical availability guarantee is materially lower. Require SAP to state the actual guaranteed availability including all permitted maintenance windows.
Question 02
"Which specific categories of events are excluded from SLA credit eligibility under the force majeure clause?"
Why it matters: SAP's force majeure clause can be written broadly enough to exclude hyperscaler infrastructure failures — the very infrastructure that RISE runs on. Require SAP to list, specifically, what constitutes force majeure in the context of your RISE contract.
Question 03
"Does the 2025 or 2026 version of this contract template include an exclusion for AI model training or inference maintenance downtime? If so, please provide the exact contract language."
Why it matters: SAP's latest contract templates include AI maintenance exclusion clauses. Requiring SAP to confirm this and provide the language forces the issue into the open before signature, where it can be negotiated.
Question 04
"What is the maximum total SLA credit available in any single month, expressed as both a percentage of monthly subscription and an absolute euro/dollar figure?"
Why it matters: SAP's standard credit cap (typically 10% of monthly subscription) means that even extended production outages generate limited compensation. Understanding the absolute cap helps enterprises assess whether the SLA provides meaningful financial protection.
Question 05
"Please describe the exact process for submitting an SLA credit claim — including the submission deadline, the evidence required, and who determines whether the incident was SAP-caused."
Why it matters: The claims process is where most SLA credits are lost. If SAP's own team determines causality, and the deadline for submission is short, many valid claims will be missed. Understanding the process before go-live allows you to establish governance that actually works.
Question 06
"What advance notice period does SAP provide before executing a planned maintenance window, and what is SAP's obligation if a maintenance window runs beyond the scheduled duration?"
Why it matters: Notice periods for maintenance windows vary significantly by contract version. Extended maintenance windows that run beyond schedule can cause business disruption — but SAP's standard contract may not commit to any consequence for overrunning.
Question 07
"Is hyperscaler infrastructure failure (AWS, Azure, or GCP) classified as force majeure under this contract? Please provide the exact contract clause that addresses this."
Why it matters: RISE infrastructure runs on hyperscalers. If hyperscaler failures are classified as force majeure — outside SAP's SLA obligations — the practical availability guarantee is severely limited, since most real-world outages originate at the infrastructure layer.
Question 08
"What SLA applies to non-production systems (development, quality assurance, pre-production) under this RISE contract, and is it the same as the production SLA?"
Why it matters: Non-production system availability directly affects development velocity and go-live readiness. Many RISE contracts apply materially lower SLAs to non-production environments, which enterprises often don't discover until the environment is down during a critical testing phase.
Question 09
"What SLA applies to Integration Suite and BTP services included in the RISE bundle, and are they guaranteed under the same SLA schedule as the core S/4HANA PCE environment?"
Why it matters: Integration Suite and BTP are often on different SLA schedules from the core S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition environment. Enterprises that assume one SLA governs all RISE components are frequently surprised by this distinction post-go-live.
Question 10
"Does SAP provide a monthly SLA compliance report showing actual measured uptime, and is this available in the SAP for Me portal without requiring a support ticket?"
Why it matters: Without access to SAP's own uptime measurement data, enterprises cannot independently verify SLA performance or identify credit entitlements. Requiring proactive monthly reporting as a contractual obligation is both achievable and essential for effective SLA governance.
Question 11
"What escalation path and resolution time does SAP commit to for P1 (Critical) incidents under this RISE contract, including initial response time, update frequency, and resolution time commitment?"
Why it matters: The SLA uptime percentage describes planned availability, not incident response when things go wrong. P1 incident response commitments are equally important for production-critical environments and should be reviewed against industry benchmarks.
Question 12
"Can SAP commit in writing that the SLA schedule in this contract will not be unilaterally modified by SAP during the term without customer consent?"
Why it matters: SAP's standard contract typically includes a unilateral modification right for service terms. Requiring SAP to confirm that SLA commitments are fixed for the contract term — or that changes require customer agreement — eliminates a significant long-term risk.
The 8 Essential RACI Questions
Question 13
"Please provide the full RACI matrix for integration layer monitoring, specifying whether SAP or the customer is Responsible for monitoring standard SAP Integration Suite connectors post-go-live."
Why it matters: SAP's 2024-2025 RISE RACI shifts integration monitoring to Customer Responsible. Requiring SAP to confirm this in writing before signature allows this obligation to be priced and resourced — or challenged contractually.
Question 14
"What is SAP's RACI assignment for custom code remediation at each quarterly S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition release? Does SAP provide any development resources or tooling support, and if so, under what conditions?"
Why it matters: Quarterly release cycles create regular custom code remediation obligations for enterprises that have not achieved full Clean Core compliance. The cost is ongoing and significant — understanding the RACI assignment and any SAP support available before signing allows you to plan and potentially negotiate co-funding.
Question 15
"For data residency and sovereignty compliance, is SAP or the customer designated as Responsible in the RACI? Please specify which regulatory frameworks this covers and which are excluded."
Why it matters: Regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, government — have data residency obligations that must be contractually assigned. SAP's standard RACI assigns this to the customer, but in regulated industries this creates significant operational and compliance risk that should be addressed before signature.
Question 16
"What is SAP's RACI assignment for security patching of the operating system and database layers within the RISE private cloud environment?"
Why it matters: Security patching responsibility is a critical distinction in any managed cloud service. Enterprises sometimes assume SAP manages all patching under RISE — but RACI assignments can leave customers responsible for database or OS layer patching in ways that are not obvious from the sales materials.
Question 17
"Who is RACI Responsible for user access management and role-based access control (RBAC) governance within the RISE environment — SAP, the customer, or shared?"
Why it matters: Access governance is a significant operational workload and an audit risk area. The RACI assignment determines whether SAP's managed service includes access governance tooling and advisory, or whether the customer must resource this entirely from internal or third-party capability.
Question 18
"For Fiori app deployment and maintenance within the RISE environment, what is the RACI assignment, and does this change if apps use custom extensions versus standard SAP Fiori catalogue apps?"
Why it matters: Fiori app maintenance creates an ongoing workload that enterprises often underestimate. The RACI distinction between custom extensions (typically Customer Responsible) and standard catalogue apps (typically SAP Responsible) has significant implications for ongoing support resourcing and cost.
Question 19
"In the event of a major service disruption, who is the RACI Responsible party for communicating status updates to the customer's business stakeholders — SAP's technical support organisation or the customer's internal IT team?"
Why it matters: During major incidents, the communication RACI determines who manages business stakeholder expectations. If the customer is responsible for communicating what is ultimately a SAP-caused outage — without access to SAP's real-time incident data — this creates an asymmetric information problem that damages internal credibility.
Question 20
"Can SAP provide a complete, version-controlled copy of the RACI matrix as it will be incorporated into this contract, not a generic RISE RACI overview from the product documentation?"
Why it matters: SAP's generic RISE RACI documentation describes the typical framework. The actual RACI schedule incorporated into your specific contract may differ — particularly for non-standard deployment configurations or negotiated elements. Always require the contract-specific RACI matrix before signing. See also our
RISE with SAP SLA & RACI negotiation strategies for what to do with SAP's responses.
✓ The Written Record Principle
Every one of these questions should be submitted in writing — email or formal RFI — and SAP's responses should be retained and attached as exhibits to the final contract where possible. Verbal assurances from SAP's account team that contradict the standard contract terms are not enforceable. Written pre-signature representations create a legal record that can be used to hold SAP accountable post-signature.
Red Flag Responses: What SAP's Answers Reveal
When you submit these questions to SAP's account team, pay particular attention to four types of response that indicate significant risk. First, refusal to answer in writing — if SAP's team will explain an SLA exclusion verbally but won't confirm it in writing, that's a signal the written contract language is unfavourable and they know it. Second, responses that reference general product documentation rather than contract-specific commitments — the RACI in your contract may differ from SAP's published RISE documentation. Third, responses that confirm obligations the standard contract doesn't include — these are negotiation opportunities to formalise verbal commitments into contractual language. Fourth, vague or non-specific answers to specific questions — particularly around AI maintenance exclusions and force majeure scope — that require follow-up.
For the full set of RISE contract negotiation positions to take based on SAP's responses, see our RISE SLA & RACI negotiation strategies guide and our article on RISE SLA & RACI cost optimisation tactics. For the full suite of RISE contract clause analysis, see our complete RISE with SAP buyer's guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will asking these questions irritate SAP's account team?
SAP's account teams are experienced commercial negotiators. Formal due diligence questions — submitted professionally and in writing — are expected in enterprise procurement processes. What makes SAP accounts teams uncomfortable is not the questions themselves, but the specificity of questions that surface contractual weaknesses SAP would prefer remain unexamined. The right response to that discomfort is to continue asking — these questions exist precisely because the answers matter to your enterprise's operational and financial interests.
Should these questions be submitted before or during contract negotiation?
Ideally, submit the SLA questions during the evaluation phase — before any commercial proposal has been accepted — so the responses can inform your decision to proceed. Submit the RACI questions in the early stages of contract negotiation, so that RACI assignments can be reviewed alongside commercial terms. Submitting them after the commercial terms are agreed reduces leverage but still creates valuable documentation.
What if SAP declines to answer some of these questions in writing?
If SAP declines to answer specific questions in writing, that itself is information. It typically indicates that the contract language on that point is unfavourable to the customer, and SAP is aware of it. In that case, the question becomes a specific negotiation priority: require the contractual language to reflect the verbal commitment SAP is willing to make, or treat the unanswered question as an unresolved risk that must be addressed before execution.
Can I use SAP's written responses as contractual obligations?
This depends on the legal framework governing your procurement. In most jurisdictions, written pre-contractual representations can be enforceable — particularly where the contract doesn't expressly disclaim them. However, the safest approach is always to incorporate SAP's written responses into the contract itself, either as contractual commitments or as attached exhibits. An independent legal review of SAP's responses before signing is strongly recommended.
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