Measuring Digital Access in SAP
Digital Access in SAP is a licensing model that charges based on system documents created via indirect access rather than named users. Accurately measuring this digital access is critical for enterprises to stay compliant and avoid unexpected costs.
This article explains how SAP’s Digital Access works, the key document types involved, methods for measuring usage, and best practices for managing and optimizing licensing under this model.
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SAP’s Digital Access Model
SAP introduced the Digital Access licensing model in 2018 as a new approach to managing indirect access, which occurs when external systems or third-party applications interact with SAP.
Instead of counting individual users, Digital Access focuses on the outcome of those interactions: the documents created in SAP’s core system.
In other words, whenever a non-SAP application (such as a customer portal, middleware, or external software) triggers a transaction in SAP (for example, creating a sales order), SAP counts that resulting document for licensing purposes.
This outcome-based approach means organizations pay for the volume of business documents generated indirectly rather than trying to license every external user or device.
Shifting from user-based licensing to document-based licensing has big implications.
It aligns costs with actual system usage (e.g., the number of orders or invoices created), but it also requires companies to track document creation closely.
Without proper measurement, companies risk non-compliance (if they undercount and exceed licensed volumes) or overspending (if they overestimate and overpay for unused capacity).
Understanding how SAP defines these documents and how to count them is the foundation for effectively managing Digital Access.
Key Document Types and Counting Rules
SAP’s Digital Access model identifies nine key document types that represent common business outcomes generated in the ERP system via indirect access.
Each document type has specific counting rules and a weighting factor (multiplier) in the license calculation.
In essence, every time one of these documents is created by an external (indirect) system, it counts against your Digital Access license tally.
The table below summarizes the nine document types and how they count toward licensing:
| Document Type | Counting Method | License Weight (multiplier) |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Document (e.g. sales order) | Count each line item | 1.0 (each line = 1 doc) |
| Invoice Document (billing document) | Count each line item | 1.0 |
| Purchase Document (purchase order) | Count each line item | 1.0 |
| Service & Maintenance Document (service order) | Count per document | 1.0 |
| Manufacturing Document (production order) | Count per document | 1.0 |
| Quality Management Document (quality notification) | Count per document | 1.0 |
| Time Management Document (time entry/record) | Count per document | 1.0 |
| Financial Document (financial journal entry) | Count each line item | 0.2 (20% of a full doc) |
| Material Document (goods movement) | Count each line item | 0.2 (20% of a full doc) |
How the counting works: For most document types, each new document created via an interface counts as one. Some types (noted above) are counted at the line-item level, meaning that if a sales order has 10 line items, it is counted as 10.
Additionally, SAP assigns a fractional weight to Financial and Material documents (0.2x each line) to reflect their lower relative value – five such documents equate to one full document credit in licensing terms.
Importantly, only newly created documents count toward Digital Access. Reading, updating, or deleting existing documents does not incur an additional count.
For example, if an external system creates a sales order in SAP, that initial creation counts.
But if later updates are made to that order’s line items, those changes are not counted again. (SAP does not strictly define how soon after creation an update is considered the “same” document, which introduces a slight grey area, but generally, any modification after creation is not counted as a new document.)
Understanding these document types and rules is vital because it directly affects how you measure usage and project costs.
Each type of integration (e.g., CRM, e-commerce, supplier portal) typically generates specific document types in SAP.
Companies need to map out which of the nine categories their interfaces trigger and then count the number of such documents (or line items) created in a given period.
Why Measuring Digital Access Matters
Accurate measurement of Digital Access usage is critical for two main reasons: compliance risk and cost optimization.
SAP contracts enable the company to audit your system usage, typically on an annual basis, to ensure you have licenses for all indirect access.
If you’re not measuring how many documents your external systems are creating, you could be caught off guard in an audit, leading to unbudgeted license fees or even back-maintenance penalties for unlicensed use.
In the past, several SAP customers faced hefty compliance findings due to indirect access (notably the well-known Diageo case in 2017, which was a catalyst for SAP introducing this model). Measuring digital access means you know your numbers before SAP asks – it’s a form of license risk management.
From a cost perspective, measuring usage helps avoid overpaying. Digital Access licensing is sold in packages (blocks) of documents per year. If you overestimate and buy far more document licenses than you use, you’ve tied up your budget unnecessarily.
On the other hand, underestimating usage could mean running out of entitlement and having to purchase additional blocks later at possibly unfavorable terms.
Regularly monitoring the actual document counts (monthly or quarterly) allows you to adjust your licensing strategy, perhaps taking advantage of SAP’s adoption program discounts (explained later) or negotiating a tailored deal.
In short, you can’t manage what you don’t measure: knowing your indirect document counts lets you right-size your license investment and plan for growth.
Moreover, measuring helps align IT and business teams. Often, business units may integrate new systems or automate processes (for example, a new e-commerce platform that generates sales orders in SAP) without fully understanding the licensing implications.
Establishing a practice of measuring digital access creates visibility – it forces conversations between IT, licensing managers, and business owners about the true cost of various integrations.
This ensures that architecture decisions take into account potential SAP licensing costs upfront, avoiding surprises down the line.
Tools and Methods for Measuring Digital Access
SAP has introduced tools to help customers estimate and track their Digital Access document counts.
However, these tools each have limitations, and many organizations use a combination of SAP-provided tools and manual analysis. Here are the primary methods available:
- Digital Access Estimation Tool: SAP provides an Indirect Access Estimation Tool (via SAP Note) to analyze your systems and estimate the number of documents generated by indirect usage. You input a date range and specify technical usernames or interface accounts that external systems use to connect to SAP. The tool then scans document creation logs and produces a report detailing the number of documents of each type created during that period. This estimation tool is compatible with both SAP ECC and S/4HANA, provided relevant support notes are applied (e.g., Note 2992090 for ECC). It is optional and must be run manually, but SAP highly recommends that customers use it to establish an initial baseline. The output can be useful for planning – for example, if it shows 50,000 sales order line items a year via interfaces, you know roughly how many document licenses you’d need. Limitations: This tool provides only an approximation. It does not always distinguish whether a direct SAP user or an external system created a document. Without that context, it might overcount by including documents created by human users (which shouldn’t count toward Digital Access since named-user licenses already cover those users). It can also double-count documents across processes – for instance, an indirect creation of a Sales Order might later generate an Invoice; only the originating Sales Order should count, but naive counting might list both. The estimation tool doesn’t fully eliminate such overlaps, so the results require careful interpretation and sometimes manual filtering.
- SAP Passport (Digital Access Passport tool): The SAP Passport is a more sophisticated approach that SAP has been developing to track indirect usage in real-time. It works by tagging transactions initiated by external systems with a “digital passport” token. When installed and configured, the SAP system will automatically mark any document created by a non-GUI (non-human) process with this token, enabling precise tracking of which documents originated from external sources. The Passport technology spans multiple layers (ABAP, SAP Java stack, HANA DB logging) to capture events across different interface technologies. In theory, this provides an accurate, granular measurement without the guesswork – you can generate reports that show exactly how many of each document type were created via indirect access, distinct from those created by regular users. Challenges with Passport: Implementing the Passport tool requires applying specific support patches and possibly adding fields to your database to store the tokens. This can be a complex change touching core system behavior. Many customers have been cautious about deploying it, as it needs careful testing to ensure it doesn’t impact system performance or stability. As a result, adoption of Passport has been slow; some enterprises are waiting until it becomes a standard part of a future SAP release or a more proven solution. If implemented, however, Passport is the most reliable method for continuously and accurately measuring digital access.
- Audit Logs and Custom Tracking: In addition to SAP’s official tools, companies can utilize existing audit logs, user traces, and interface logs to compile a comprehensive picture of digital access usage. For example, analyzing middleware transaction logs or IDoc (Intermediate Document) postings can reveal how many documents were created by certain interfaces. Some organizations build custom reports or use third-party Software Asset Management (SAM) tools that consolidate data from multiple sources to estimate indirect usage. This approach requires significant effort and expertise in SAP data structures (to identify where each document type’s creation is recorded). It can be error-prone, but it may be necessary for due diligence, especially if the SAP tools are not deployed. It’s essentially a manual measurement strategy: identify all entry points (RFCs, APIs, background users), then track the number of documents each produces over time.
In practice, many enterprises begin with the Estimation Tool to obtain a rough estimate, utilize the Digital Access Evaluation Service (discussed next) for a one-time, detailed count, and then plan a more comprehensive solution (either by implementing Passport or establishing a robust manual monitoring process).
Challenges in Measuring Indirect Usage
Measuring Digital Access isn’t straightforward – several challenges can complicate the process:
- Data Fragmentation and Complexity: The data required to identify indirect document creation is dispersed across various SAP tables and logs. For example, to determine if a material goods movement was triggered indirectly, one might need to correlate user IDs, timestamps, and application logs. If a document’s line items must be counted, it involves digging into line-item tables and linking them to the document header. This is time-consuming and technically complex, especially since SAP was not originally designed to distinguish between “who/what” caused a document (i.e., direct user vs. external). Without an automated tool like Passport, pulling together this information can feel like assembling a puzzle from scattered pieces.
- Manual Effort and Accuracy: Traditional SAP license measurement tools (LAW and USMM transactions) were designed for counting users and specific engines rather than this document-based approach. They often require manual adjustments even for standard metrics, and for Digital Access, they are largely insufficient. Many customers find that to obtain accurate counts, they often perform extensive manual reviews, for instance, exporting raw data and filtering out transactions known to have been created by internal users. Manual processes are prone to error: it’s easy to double-count or miss documents, especially in a large system with numerous interfaces. Human error or incorrect assumptions about what to include or exclude can significantly skew the results, leading to either a false sense of security or an overestimation of license needs.
- Identifying Indirect Sources: One of the first challenges is simply knowing all the ways your SAP system is accessed indirectly. In a large organization, there may be dozens of integration points, including EDI connections, web services, partner portals, mobile apps, and external scheduling systems. Some might use generic technical accounts or shared APIs. Cataloging every interface and determining which ones create which document types is a non-trivial task. Overlooking an interface means missing usage data (and potential compliance exposure). Conversely, not understanding an interface’s nature might lead to misclassifying some direct usage as indirect.
- Double-Counting and Document Relationships: As mentioned, SAP’s licensing rule is that only the initial document in a process flow counts. For example, in an order-to-cash process, an external store system creates a Sales Order in SAP (counts as one document). That sales order might later automatically generate a Delivery (outbound delivery document) and an Invoice in SAP. Those subsequent documents, although indirectly triggered by the initial order, are not supposed to be counted again if they result from the first document. However, measurement tools or naive queries might count all three if you aren’t careful. This over-counting can dramatically inflate numbers. The onus is on the customer to apply SAP’s counting rules properly – essentially to trace documents to their origin. This often requires logic to filter out derived documents, which can be quite complex in practice.
- Unclear Update Windows: As noted earlier, SAP doesn’t specify exactly how to treat modifications to documents shortly after creation. If an external system creates a document and then updates it moments later (say, adds another line item within a minute), is that considered part of the initial creation or a separate event? SAP’s guidance is that updates do not count, but without clear rules on timing, customers have to interpret this reasonably. This ambiguity is a minor issue but can cause uncertainty when measuring high-volume, real-time integrations.
All these challenges mean that measuring Digital Access often feels like navigating uncharted waters. Even SAP’s guidance on measurement has evolved, and their Global License Auditing team sometimes works directly with customers (via the Digital Access Evaluation Service) to help figure it out.
Companies should approach the measurement exercise as a critical project involving SAP basis experts, licensing specialists, and integration architects to ensure accurate and consistent counting.
Licensing Costs and Commercial Considerations
SAP sells Digital Access licenses in blocks of documents per year. A common increment is blocks of 1,000 documents annually.
The actual price of these blocks can vary (SAP doesn’t publish public list prices for this; it’s subject to negotiation and discounts), but for illustration, let’s assume a list price of around $1,000 per 1,000 documents (i.e., roughly $1 per document).
Volume purchases often come with tiered discounts (buying hundreds of thousands or millions of documents reduces the per-unit price).
SAP launched the Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP) to encourage customers to transition to this model. The DAAP offers a minimum discount of 90% on the cost of digital access licenses for the initial purchase.
It also allows customers to trade in certain shelfware or unused older licenses for credit, making the switch more budget-friendly.
Another benefit is flexibility: under DAAP, SAP allows you to license 115% of your current measured usage but only charges for growth beyond that buffer.
In essence, you buy what you need (with a 15% extra cushion) at a steep discount, and you won’t pay more unless your document counts increase past 115% of the baseline.
This protects you from immediate overages and futureproofs some growth.
To see how the costs might work out, consider the following hypothetical example (for illustration only):
| Annual Document Volume | Approx. List Cost (no DAAP) | Cost with DAAP 90% Discount |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000 documents/year | ~$100,000 list price | ~$10,000 (discounted) |
| 500,000 documents/year | ~$500,000 list price | ~$50,000 (discounted) |
| 1,000,000 documents/year | ~$1,000,000 list price | ~$100,000 (discounted) |
Assuming $1 per document list price for simplicity. Actual prices vary and are typically discounted further based on volume and negotiations.
In real-world contracts, enterprises have leveraged the DAAP to significantly reduce their exposure to risk.
For example, a company that estimates needing 250,000 documents per year might normally pay a large sum, but under the adoption program, they secure it for a fraction of the cost, often bundling the deal as part of a broader SAP S/4HANA migration or renewal to secure even better terms.
SAP initially set end dates for the DAAP (it was supposed to end in 2020, then extended to 2021 and 2022), but due to customer demand, SAP has extended the program indefinitely (as of the latest updates), while reserving the right to end it in the future.
This means customers still have an opportunity now to opt in and lock in those discounts.
Named Users vs. Document Licenses:
It’s worth noting that moving to Digital Access doesn’t eliminate traditional named-user licenses. You still need named-user licenses for your human users of SAP. The Digital Access license is intended solely to cover external system interactions.
In theory, one could avoid Digital Access fees by purchasing named users for every external party or system account that interacts with SAP; however, this is often impractical or more expensive. (For instance, if thousands of customers place orders via a portal that connects to SAP, you can’t realistically purchase a user license for each customer.)
The document model is designed to be a more practical and scalable way to license such scenarios.
Most enterprises will have a mix of named user licenses for their employees and internal users, as well as a Digital Access license to cover indirect usage resulting from integrations.
Negotiation considerations: When negotiating SAP contracts, it’s advisable to:
- Clarify the definition of each document type in your context (ensure understanding of what counts, so there’s no dispute later).
- Seek price protections such as fixed unit pricing for future growth or caps on annual cost increases if document volume grows unexpectedly.
- If you’re renewing a contract or purchasing S/4HANA, use that leverage to include Digital Access licenses on favorable terms (or even an enterprise agreement that covers them).
- Consider requesting a clause that allows for an audit or true-up specifically for digital access after one to two years, with the option to adjust license counts rather than incurring compliance penalties. This encourages a partnership approach with SAP on this new model.
Recommendations
- Establish a Measurement Process: Set up a regular process (quarterly or at least biannually) to measure your Digital Access document counts. Use SAP’s estimation tool to gather data and supplement it with manual analysis for accuracy. This proactive approach will prevent surprises during official audits.
- Leverage SAP’s Evaluation Service: Take advantage of SAP’s free Digital Access Evaluation Service to get an official baseline count. This will help validate your internal measurements and guide your decision on whether to adopt the Digital Access license model or remain with the current licensing model.
- Consider the Adoption Program: If indirect usage is significant, strongly consider enrolling in the Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP) while its generous discounts are available. The 90% discount and growth buffer can result in substantial cost savings. Align this with any upcoming contract renewals or migrations to maximize negotiating leverage.
- Map and Monitor All Interfaces: Create an inventory of every system, interface, or integration that interacts with SAP. For each, identify which of the nine document types it could generate. Monitor these interfaces closely – for example, if a new e-commerce integration is introduced, track its document output immediately. Early detection of high-volume document generation allows you to respond (optimize the process or adjust licenses) before it becomes a compliance issue.
- Implement Governance and Ownership: Assign a cross-functional team or owner for Digital Access compliance. This team (license managers, SAP basis team, integration architects) should regularly review indirect usage reports, maintain documentation of how counts are derived, and update internal stakeholders. Treat Digital Access like any other capacity that needs management, similar to monitoring cloud resource usage or database growth.
- Optimize and Educate: Collaborate with business process owners to enhance the integration of external systems with SAP. Sometimes, small changes (like batching transactions or adjusting how an interface creates documents) can reduce document count significantly. Educate your integration partners and internal developers about the cost impact of creating SAP documents. By building awareness, teams can design solutions with licensing efficiency in mind (for instance, avoiding unnecessary document creation).
- Plan for Future Tooling: Monitor SAP’s enhancements to measurement tools. If feasible, plan a project to implement the SAP Passport technology or any new automated solution SAP releases for tracking digital access. Automating the detection of indirect creation will pay off in the long run as your system landscape grows. If Passport is too invasive now, consider revisiting it when you upgrade to a newer SAP version, where it might be standard.
- Contract Safeguards: During SAP contract negotiations, seek to include protective terms regarding digital access. For example, secure the right to re-evaluate and adjust digital access licenses after a year, or lock in the discounted rate for additional document blocks in the future. Ensuring your contract has flexibility can save money if your usage assumptions change.
- Regularly Reassess Usage: Your business environment isn’t static – mergers, new applications, or changes in transaction volume can all affect digital access usage. Make it a practice to reassess your indirect usage before any major IT project and after major business changes. This way, your licensing can scale appropriately, and you can budget in advance for any needed adjustments.
FAQ
Q1: What is “Digital Access” in SAP, and why did SAP introduce it?
A1: Digital Access is SAP’s licensing model for indirect usage. Instead of requiring a named-user license for each external user or system, SAP counts the number of specific business documents created in the ERP by external (non-SAP) applications. SAP introduced this model to provide a clearer and more scalable way to license scenarios, such as third-party interfaces, APIs, and IoT devices interacting with SAP, especially after high-profile disputes revealed that the old user-based model didn’t fit modern integration patterns.
Q2: Which document types are counted under SAP’s Digital Access licensing?
A2: SAP counts nine types of documents: Sales documents, Invoice documents, Purchase documents (these first three are counted by line item), plus Service & Maintenance orders, Manufacturing orders, Quality Management records, Time Management entries (counted per document), and finally Financial documents and Material documents (these last two are counted by line item but weighted at 0.2 each). These cover the most common transactions generated indirectly. Only the initial creation of these documents via an external system counts toward license usage.
Q3: How can we measure our Digital Access document usage accurately?
A3: Start by using SAP’s Indirect Access Estimation Tool to get an approximate count of documents by type over a given period. For a more accurate measurement, consider implementing SAP’s Passport technology, which tags external transactions for precise tracking and monitoring. Additionally, review your system interfaces and use logs or third-party tools to cross-verify the number of documents each integration is creating. SAP’s Digital Access Evaluation Service is an excellent way to get an official count straight from SAP’s audit team, which you can then use as a trusted baseline.
Q4: What if our SAP system generates documents indirectly, but we haven’t licensed Digital Access yet?
A4: If you’re creating these documents without a Digital Access license, you could be out of compliance. In an audit, SAP might identify the indirect usage and require you to purchase the appropriate document licenses (potentially with back maintenance fees starting from when the usage began). It’s best to be proactive: measure your usage and either adjust your licensing (e.g., via DAAP) or find alternative licensing arrangements. The good news is that SAP’s current approach is collaborative – they encourage customers to use the evaluation service and DAAP rather than immediately penalizing them. However, ignoring it is risky as usage continues to grow.
Q5: How does the Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP) help customers?
A5: DAAP significantly lowers the cost barrier to adopting the document-based model. It offers a 90% discount on the initial purchase of Digital Access licenses and often allows conversion of some existing license investments into credits. It also gives a buffer (e.g., license 115% of current usage), so you won’t pay more until you exceed that cushion. Essentially, it’s SAP’s way of easing customers into the new model by making it financially attractive. If your evaluation indicates substantial indirect usage, DAAP is typically the most cost-effective method to legitimize it. Since SAP has extended the program indefinitely (for now), it’s a prime opportunity to take advantage of it.
Q6: Can we stick to named-user licenses instead of using Digital Access licensing?
A6: In theory, you could try to cover indirect usage by purchasing enough named-user licenses (for example, a type of “communications user” or similar for each external party). However, this is often impractical because you may not know or control the external users. For scenarios like B2C customers or widespread integrations, document licensing is more practical. SAP also expects customers to eventually adopt the digital access model for indirect scenarios. While you can stay on older contracts for a while, during renewals, SAP sales will likely push for the document model. Most companies find it simpler and even cheaper to go with Digital Access once they calculate the numbers, especially with the DAAP discount.
Q7: How often should we review or audit our digital access usage?
A7: It’s wise to review your indirect usage at least quarterly or whenever a major change occurs (like a new interface going live or a big increase in transaction volume). Regular reviews help catch trends – for instance, if your document count is steadily rising, you can plan for additional licenses in advance. Also, an internal annual “true-up” ahead of SAP’s official audit schedule is a good practice. This way, if you find you’re over your entitlement, you can address it proactively (perhaps via DAAP or other negotiations) rather than waiting for SAP to find it.
Q8: What challenges do companies face when tracking digital access?
A8: Common challenges include difficulty in separating indirect documents from direct ones because SAP’s standard logs don’t always show the source of a document creation. There’s also complexity in counting line items and avoiding double-counting documents that are part of the same business process. Many organizations struggle with incomplete data, particularly those with multiple systems. Lastly, organizational challenges play a role – obtaining information from all stakeholders on integrations and maintaining an up-to-date inventory of interfaces can be challenging in large enterprises. These challenges mean that without proper tools and governance, the counts you gather might be inaccurate.
Q9: Are there third-party tools to help with SAP indirect usage monitoring?
A9: Yes, some Software Asset Management (SAM) and license management tools have modules for SAP that claim to help with detecting indirect usage. They often work by analyzing user behavior, RFC calls, and document tables to identify patterns. Additionally, consulting firms sometimes offer services or custom scripts to measure digital access. However, be cautious – any third-party solution is only as good as its understanding of SAP’s rules. It’s still important to validate the results and understand the methodology. In many cases, third-party tools complement SAP’s tools, but they don’t eliminate the need for expert analysis.
Q10: What steps can we take to minimize our Digital Access licensing costs?
A10: First, ensure you’re not over-counting – follow SAP’s rules so you only license the documents you truly need to. Next, optimize processes: if an interface is generating an extremely high number of documents, check if it’s doing so efficiently (for example, perhaps it’s creating multiple partial orders when a single consolidated order would suffice). Consider archiving or cleaning up any automated tasks that generate unnecessary SAP documents. From a purchasing standpoint, utilize the DAAP discount if you haven’t already done so. Also, consider negotiating for volume discounts if you anticipate growth. Finally, continue to optimize your named-user licenses in parallel – ensure that internal users have the correct roles and aren’t creating indirect usage patterns that could be handled differently. An optimized overall SAP license landscape will ensure you’re paying only for the value you get.
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