SAP Analytics Licensing – SAC vs BOBJ Pricing and Strategy

SAP Analytics Licensing – SAP Analytics Cloud vs BusinessObjects BI

Introduction – Two Analytics Worlds

SAP now straddles two analytics worlds: the cloud-focused SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and the legacy SAP BusinessObjects BI (BOBJ) on-premise platform.

SAP’s vision clearly leans toward SAC, a modern, cloud-based analytics suite sold via subscriptions, yet many enterprises still heavily rely on BusinessObjects for critical reporting. This split creates both challenges and opportunities.

Running SAC and BOBJ side by side (a hybrid analytics environment) often leads to overlapping capabilities and complex cost structures. However, it also gives savvy customers the leverage to negotiate and optimize their spending.

In this introduction, we’ll set the stage for understanding SAP Analytics Cloud licensing vs BusinessObjects BI licenses, and how a hybrid approach can actually play to a buyer’s advantage. Read our SAP Product Licensing Overview.

The key is being strategic and skeptical of SAP’s positioning – always keeping your organization’s needs and budget front and center.

Most companies today find themselves living in these “two analytics worlds.” SAC represents the future: a cloud service with a shiny UI, frequent updates, and a pay-as-you-go model.

BusinessObjects, meanwhile, is the tried-and-true system powering hundreds of static reports and dashboards, bought and paid for years ago under perpetual licenses.

SAC is all about subscriptions; BOBJ is about maintenance on sunk costs. Balancing the two is now a fact of life, and that balance can get costly if left unchecked.

Throughout this guide, we’ll compare how SAC and BOBJ are licensed, highlight differences in cost structure, and explore SAP hybrid analytics licensing strategies to control expenses.

We’ll also dive into negotiation tips that put you, the customer, first – because SAP’s sales agenda is to push SAC, and that pressure can become your bargaining chip.

In summary, whether you’re a BI manager or a CFO, it’s crucial to understand SAC vs BOBJ cost models and the available tactics to optimize both.

Let’s break down each platform’s licensing mechanics and then discuss how to leverage a hybrid environment to your advantage.

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) Licensing

SAC is sold as a cloud subscription, typically priced per user per month.

Unlike traditional on-prem software, there’s no large upfront license fee – you pay as long as you use the service. This OpEx model means costs are predictable but ongoing, and scaling up or down usually involves adjusting your subscription counts.

Editions and Functionality: SAP offers various SAC user license editions, primarily aligned with functionality tiers.

The most common editions are:

• SAC for Business Intelligence (BI) – This is the base edition for standard analytics: ad-hoc analysis, dashboards, and reporting.
• SAC for Planning – This higher tier includes all the BI features plus enterprise planning and forecasting capabilities. (SAP often subdivides this into Planning Standard vs Planning Professional licenses, where Professional unlocks the full range of planning features and perhaps more advanced predictive functionality.)
• Predictive Analytics – SAC also has built-in predictive features (like Smart Predict and machine learning insights). These are generally included in the planning licenses or higher-tier packages, rather than a separate license. Essentially, users with a Planning (or equivalent) license get the predictive tools, whereas pure BI users may not.

Each higher edition is a superset of the lower. For example, a Planning user can do everything a BI user can do, and more. Naturally, the more capabilities, the higher the price per user.

Licensing Metric:

All SAC editions are licensed per named user. Every individual who accesses SAC needs a license (there’s no “concurrent user” concept in cloud – each login typically requires an assigned subscription).

The licensing metric is straightforward: number of users × price per user. There are no server fees or CPU licenses because SAP hosts the infrastructure in the cloud.

Cost Structure: SAC is a subscription service, so the cost is recurring (usually billed annually, based on a monthly rate).

SAP’s list prices for SAC can be quite steep, especially for planning users. For instance, a BI-only user might list around $30–$40 per user/month at low volumes.

In contrast, a Planning user license can cost several times that, often easily $ 100 or more per user/month at the list price for the Professional tier. These are ballpark figures; SAP doesn’t publish public price lists, and actual prices vary by region and deal size.

The key point is that SAC for Planning costs significantly more per user than SAC for BI. You’re essentially paying a premium for those planning and predictive features.

Many customers license only the expensive planning tier for specific power users who need it, and assign cheaper BI licenses to everyone else.

It’s worth noting that SAP often negotiates on these prices. Volume discounts are commonly applied – the more users you license, the lower the per-user price can go.

If you’re deploying SAC to thousands of users, you should push for tiered pricing that rewards that scale.

Editions under Bundles:

In large enterprise deals, SAC is sometimes bundled or discounted as part of broader agreements. SAP’s strategic push is to get customers onto cloud products so that they may include some SAP licenses in RISE with SAP contracts or S/4HANA cloud deals.

For example, if you sign a RISE contract (which is an all-in-one subscription for SAP’s ERP and infrastructure), SAP might throw in a base number of SAC BI licenses or offer a reduced rate for adding SAC.

Similarly, customers who are big SAP shops might negotiate SAC as a “bundle” with other software purchases (like Ariba, SuccessFactors, or S/4HANA) for an overall better discount.

Read our SuccessFactors licensing guide..

Always ask what it would cost to include SAC in a big deal – sometimes SAP can be surprisingly flexible to drive cloud adoption.

To summarize SAC licensing, here’s a breakdown in a table format of key editions and tips:

A note on add-ons: SAC offers optional components, such as Digital Boardroom (an executive briefing dashboard) or integration with specific SAP data sources.

Ensure that if you need these, you clarify whether they require an additional fee or are included. In some cases, high-end planning licenses include these extras.

Be careful in a hybrid setup that you’re not paying twice for similar functionality.

For example, if you already pay for a separate SAP planning tool on-premises, try to negotiate SAC Planning in a way that doesn’t double-charge you for overlapping capabilities.

BusinessObjects BI (BOBJ) Licensing

SAP BusinessObjects is the older, on-premise analytics suite (Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, etc.), and its licensing reflects a legacy enterprise software model.

Unlike SAC, which is subscription-based, BOBJ is generally sold as perpetual licenses plus annual support/maintenance.

License Metrics: Over the years, BusinessObjects BI licenses have been available in a few flavors:

• Named User License (NUL): A license tied to a specific individual (username). Each named user license allows that person to access the BusinessObjects system. This is common for users who regularly need the system.
• Concurrent Session (CSBL) License: A pool of licenses that are not person-specific. Instead, you might have, say, 50 concurrent session licenses which allow any 50 users to be logged in at the same time. If a 51st user tries to log in, they’d be blocked until someone logs out. Concurrent licenses are useful when you have a large population of occasional users – e.g., 200 people who might use it, but never more than 50 at the same time.
• CPU-based License: In some cases (especially older contracts or when serving external audiences), BusinessObjects could be licensed per CPU or core on the server, allowing unlimited user access on that server. This model is less common now, but some large enterprises or OEM agreements had CPU licenses to cover broad usage without tracking individual users.

Many deployments are a mix of these. For example, a company might own 500 named user licenses for power users and analysts, plus a 100-concurrent-user pool for casual viewers, plus a CPU license for a public-facing report server. The exact mix often reflects historical purchases and the nature of usage.

Perpetual + Maintenance Model:

BusinessObjects licenses are typically one-time purchases (capital expenditure). A company might have paid, for instance, $1,000 or more per Named User license years ago. In addition, SAP charges annual maintenance fees, usually around 20–22% of the license’s purchase price, for support and updates.

That maintenance is essentially a yearly subscription to upgrades and support, even though the software license itself is “perpetual” (you own the right to use it forever, but without maintenance, you won’t get upgrades or official support).

For example, if you bought a BOBJ license for $1,000, you’d pay roughly $200–$220 every year in maintenance. Over 5 years, you might pay more in maintenance than the original cost!

This is where optimization opportunities lie – if certain licenses are not being used actively, you’re paying ongoing maintenance for nothing. SAP typically raises maintenance rates only modestly (or not at all) year to year, but the cost is tied to the number of licenses you keep on support.

Cost Structure:

With BOBJ, once the initial purchase is done, the primary ongoing cost is maintenance (plus the hardware/infra costs of running the system on your own servers or cloud VMs). The cost per user in the BusinessObjects world isn’t straightforward, since it depends on how heavily you utilize the licenses.

If you have 100 named users and 100% of them actively use it, maybe it’s money well spent. But if only 50 really use it, you’re effectively paying double per active user. Shelfware (purchased licenses that sit unused) is common in mature BusinessObjects deployments, especially as usage patterns change over time.

One common scenario: companies bought large BOBJ license pools in the past to anticipate growth, and are now paying 22% maintenance on all those licenses, even if a chunk of users have migrated to other tools or simply no longer need access.

This is essentially wasted spend unless you take action (more on that in the Hybrid section).

To summarize BusinessObjects BI licensing:

• It’s complex but flexible. Named vs concurrent vs CPU gives you different ways to cover your users.
• It’s CapEx + OpEx. Big upfront license costs (sunk already for most current customers) and ongoing support fees (~20% annually).
• It often results in locked-in costs. Once you have bought the licenses, you keep paying maintenance, unless you terminate some of them. There’s no automatic scaling down of cost if usage drops; you have to actively reduce license counts at renewal.
• Risk of overpaying: If you don’t optimize, you might be paying maintenance on users who haven’t logged in for a year. Unlike SAC, where you could choose not to renew some user subscriptions, with BOBJ, the onus is on you to reduce the support count or convert licenses if possible.

Hybrid Analytics Considerations

Today’s reality for many SAP customers is a hybrid analytics estate – running SAC and BusinessObjects in parallel.

Maybe you use SAC for newer dashboards, self-service analysis, or planning models, but still rely on BOBJ for legacy reports, complex scheduling, or certain regulatory reporting that hasn’t moved to the cloud.

This dual setup can be temporary (on the path to full SAC) or indefinite, but in either case, it requires careful management to avoid cost overlap.

Maintaining two analytics platforms means you might be double-licensed in some areas, but it also means you have negotiating power since SAP wants you to eventually go cloud.

Here are key considerations and optimization tactics for a hybrid SAC+BOBJ environment:

• Rationalize and divide roles: Examine which users truly need both systems. Often, you’ll find overlap where the same person has a BOBJ named user license and an SAC subscription. If that user can accomplish most of their needs in SAC (or vice versa), consider dropping their access to the other platform. Avoid paying twice for the same person. For instance, casual report consumers might be moved entirely to SAC (no need for a BOBJ license), whereas a team that relies on complex BOBJ reports might not all need SAC accounts. Rationalizing usage can trim costs on both sides.
• Right-size BOBJ licenses (Named vs Concurrent): If BusinessObjects usage has declined, you might be able to convert some named users into a smaller number of concurrent licenses. For example, suppose you have 500 named user licenses, but analysis reveals that only 100 people use the system in a peak month. Rather than paying maintenance on all 500, you could negotiate to swap a chunk of those for, say, 50 concurrent session licenses. This way, any 50 of the remaining active users can be on at once, covering your needs with fewer licenses. Switching from named to concurrent (or vice versa) can be a negotiation point with SAP – they may allow a conversion at a fee or as part of a deal. The result: lower ongoing maintenance for a smaller license pool that better matches actual usage.
• Negotiate conversion credits: SAP is eager to get BusinessObjects customers onto SAC, to the extent that they have offered conversion programs. In practice, you can ask SAP to credit your existing BOBJ investment toward SAC subscriptions. This could mean getting a discount on SAC equivalent to some portion of the unused BOBJ licenses or maintenance fees. For example, some customers have been able to effectively “trade in” their shelfware BOBJ licenses and have the value applied to a new SAC contract (SAP sometimes refers to this as a license conversion or cloud extension policy). It won’t happen automatically – you must bring it up during negotiations. But if you’re planning to ramp up SAC, definitely raise the idea of BOBJ-to-SAC conversion credits to avoid paying for two systems at once more than necessary.
• Example – 30% Cost Reduction: To illustrate the potential, consider a company that has 500 BusinessObjects named users and decides to pilot SAC for a large department. They discovered that only ~150 of those BOBJ users actively use the system anymore. So they moved 200 light users entirely to SAC (buying SAC BI subscriptions for them) and terminated their BOBJ access. The remaining 300 BOBJ named licenses were excessive for the 150 active users, so they converted to 50 concurrent licenses, more than enough for those 150 occasional users. They negotiated with SAP to apply the maintenance savings from the 250 retired BOBJ licenses as a discount on the new SAC subscriptions. Ultimately, their total analytics spend (maintenance plus SAC subscriptions) decreased by approximately 30%. They saved money by not double-paying for overlapping users and by resizing the BOBJ environment to actual needs. This example illustrates the benefits of actively managing a hybrid environment, as significant cost savings are possible.

In short, a hybrid landscape is complex, but it can be optimized for improved performance.

The goal is to minimize duplicate licensing and waste while ensuring both platforms cover your business requirements. Next, we’ll get into concrete negotiation tips for each platform to help execute these strategies.

Negotiation Tips – SAC

When negotiating SAP Analytics Cloud licenses, remember that SAP’s priority is to land long-term SAC subscriptions. This puts you in a position to ask for concessions.

Here are some negotiation tips specifically for SAC:

• Push for tiered volume pricing: Don’t accept the first quote as a flat per-user price. If you plan to roll out SAC to hundreds or thousands of users, insist on a volume discount. For example, the rate for 50 users should be higher (per user) than the rate for 500 users. SAP expects this ask. They often have pricing bands (e.g. 1- hundred users, 101-500, 501-1000, etc.) that lower the unit cost as you hit each tier. Make SAP spell out the tiers and ensure you’re getting a better rate at your volume. Leverage competitive alternatives if needed to justify a lower price.
• License planning features sparingly: SAC’s planning-capable licenses are expensive. Do an internal assessment of who truly needs planning or predictive features. Perhaps only the finance planning team and a few analysts need the full Planning Professional license. Others can do fine with BI-only licenses. SAP will happily sell you all Planning licenses, but you should push back and split the user base. Also, ask if you can start some users as BI and upgrade a subset to planning later if needed, rather than over-committing upfront. This prevents overspending on features not everyone uses.
• Avoid double-paying for hybrid add-ons: If you are in a hybrid scenario, be careful with things like data connectivity or add-ons. For instance, SAC might offer an add-on for live connectivity to on-prem databases or to BOBJ universes. If you’re already paying maintenance for those on-prem tools, negotiate so that any SAC integration or add-on is free or discounted – you don’t want to pay twice to use your own data. Additionally, if you have existing SAP enterprise licenses (like BW/4HANA or BPC for planning), see if their functionality overlaps with SAC. Ensure that adopting SAC doesn’t require you to keep paying for an on-prem tool performing the same function. You might negotiate a package where some on-prem maintenance is reduced once SAC is in use.
• Bundle SAC in larger deals: As mentioned earlier, bundling can be a golden ticket. If you’re making a big purchase like a S/4HANA migration or signing a multi-year enterprise agreement, explicitly ask to include SAC licenses at a heavy discount. For example, “We’ll buy SAC for 300 users if you give us 50% off as part of this bigger ERP deal.” SAP’s reps have quarterly cloud targets; a bundled sale that boosts SAC user counts may earn them internal credit so that they might go deeper on the discount. Also consider multi-product discounts: perhaps combining SAC with another cloud product (like SAP Data Warehouse Cloud or SAP S/4HANA Cloud) could get you an overall better price on both.
• Contract flexibility for growth: If you expect your SAC usage to grow, negotiate price protections. For instance, agree that adding more users later will be at the same discounted rate. Otherwise, you might find expansions are quoted at higher prices. Lock in renewal caps too – ensure the annual uplift on SAC subscriptions (if any) is modest (e.g., no more than inflation or a few percent). Since SAC pricing can sometimes be tied to longer-term cloud contracts, clarify these terms to avoid surprises.

In summary, treat SAC like any strategic cloud investment: don’t be afraid to walk away or explore alternatives if SAP isn’t flexible.

Often, simply signaling that you’re considering another BI tool or delaying SAC adoption can prompt SAP to return to the table with a better offer. They want your subscription revenue locked in, so use that as leverage.

Negotiation Tips – BOBJ

Negotiating on a legacy product like BusinessObjects might seem less straightforward (since you already bought the licenses), but there are still ways to save money.

SAP may not be as excited about BOBJ, but they also don’t want to lose you to attrition or third-party support.

Here are BOBJ negotiation and cost-saving tips:

• Leverage SAC plans to lower maintenance: If you’re adopting SAC, use that as a bargaining chip to get a break on BusinessObjects maintenance. For example, you might tell SAP, “We plan to reduce our BOBJ footprint over 2 years as we move to SAC. We need you to freeze (or discount) our maintenance fees during this transition.” The idea is to argue that you shouldn’t be paying full freight on BOBJ while also investing in SAC. SAP might agree to a maintenance cap or even a temporary reduction to keep you on board (rather than you canceling maintenance or going to third-party support immediately). They know BOBJ is a cash cow from maintenance, so any concession would likely be tied to you committing more to SAC.
• Optimize license types and ask for swaps: If you have the wrong mix of licenses (e.g., too many named users, not enough concurrent), bring this up. SAP has, in the past, allowed customers to swap license types or migrate older licenses to newer models. During your next contract true-up or renewal discussion, present your usage data and propose an exchange: “We have 100 unused named licenses – can we convert those to 20 concurrent licenses for a smaller department, and drop the rest?” There might be some administrative or conversion fee, but if it lowers your ongoing cost, it’s worth it. Negotiate so that such swaps don’t feel like a new purchase but rather an even-value trade or at least heavily discounted.
• Consider third-party support: This is a more radical move, but if BOBJ is in pure “lights on” mode (you’re not expecting new features or upgrades, just using what you have), you can threaten or choose to move to a third-party support provider. Companies like Rimini Street and others offer support for SAP products at maybe 50% of SAP’s maintenance cost. You lose official SAP upgrades (but BOBJ’s upgrades are minor these days), yet you save a lot of money. Even if you don’t actually go that route, letting SAP know you’re considering it can sometimes motivate them to negotiate maintenance down or offer short-term discounts. SAP, of course, prefers you stay on their maintenance, so they may suddenly become flexible with terms if the alternative is losing you to a third party. (Always ensure your license contract allows you to restart SAP maintenance later or has no penalties if you drop off – typically, you can rejoin by paying back support, but that’s costly. So, many companies only do third-party support when they’re fairly sure they won’t need to return to SAP’s fold.)
• Align renewals with strategy: Time your negotiations to when your BOBJ support comes up for renewal (usually annually). That’s your moment of maximum leverage. If you’ve just paid, you have less immediate leverage. As you approach renewal, plan out: how many licenses can we cut or convert this year? What SAC adoption can we cite as a reason? Let SAP know that if they aren’t cooperative, you have options (like reducing licenses or the third-party support idea). Essentially, don’t auto-renew maintenance without reviewing usage. And if you’re signing multi-year support agreements, bake in flexibility (e.g., ability to reduce license count year by year as usage drops).
• No “forced” upgrades or shelfware: Sometimes SAP might try to upsell you on newer analytics products or say “hey, you need to upgrade to BI 4.3, buy some new license,” etc. Be cautious of any narrative that pushes you to spend more on BOBJ. Given SAC is the future, your BOBJ strategy is likely to maintain or shrink. Make it clear to SAP that you’re not putting more budget into BOBJ beyond what’s necessary, so they focus the conversation on how to make your current investment last until you’re ready to fully switch to SAC.

Negotiating BOBJ is about cost containment. SAP knows every dollar you free from BOBJ could be one you spend on SAC (or not spend with SAP at all).

Use that to frame the discussion: “Help us reduce our BOBJ costs so we can invest in innovation (read: SAC) otherwise we have to consider alternatives.” This carrot-and-stick can yield maintenance concessions or at least a more favorable conversion deal.

Checklist – Optimizing Hybrid Analytics Licensing

Use this quick checklist to ensure you’re covering the bases in a dual SAC-BOBJ environment:

• ✓ Audit SAC vs BOBJ usage. Regularly measure how many users actually use SAC and how many use BOBJ (and how often). Data is power – it will reveal redundant licenses and usage patterns.
• ✓ Reallocate users to avoid dual licensing. Try not to have the same person holding a license in both systems unless truly necessary. Decide which platform each user should primarily use.
• ✓ Check entitlements for SAC add-ons. Understand if any SAC features (planning, predictive, data integration) overlap with on-premise entitlements you have. Avoid paying twice for similar capabilities.
• ✓ Negotiate conversion credits for BOBJ → SAC. When talking to SAP, bring up options to offset new SAC subscription costs with reductions in BOBJ licenses/maintenance.
• ✓ Bundle analytics with broader SAP deals. If you’re making any large SAP purchase or renewal (ERP, database, etc.), consider bundling SAC or even BusinessObjects adjustments into that negotiation for better pricing as a whole.

Keeping this checklist in mind will help ensure you’re not leaving easy savings on the table in a hybrid scenario.

FAQs

Q: Do I need both SAC and BOBJ?
A: Not necessarily – it depends on your situation. If you’re a new SAP customer or your reporting needs are modern, you might go straight to SAC and never touch BusinessObjects. However, many existing SAP customers utilize both SAC for new projects, planning, and dashboards, and BOBJ for legacy reports that are deeply integrated into business processes. In the short term, running both can cover all user requirements. The long-term goal for SAP (and likely for you) is to transition to SAC if it can fully meet your needs. If you can migrate all critical reports to SAC, you may eventually retire BOBJ. But if BOBJ still does something SAC can’t (for example, heavily formatted reporting or certain offline distribution), you might maintain a smaller BOBJ footprint for those purposes. In summary, you don’t need both, but many enterprises have both during a transition period. Assess your content: if SAC can replace it, you might not need BOBJ going forward.

Q: Is SAC included in S/4HANA or RISE?
A: SAC is not automatically included with S/4HANA or even RISE with SAP. It is a separate product with its own licensing. That said, SAP has positioned SAC as the analytics layer for S/4HANA Cloud. For instance, S/4HANA Cloud editions often come with an embedded analytics engine (some of which is actually powered by SAC technology behind the scenes for analytics in S/4). In RISE deals, SAP will sometimes bundle a certain number of SAC user licenses or offer a discount as part of the whole package, but you have to negotiate that. Do not assume that just because you have S/4 or RISE, you automatically get full SAC access for your users – you typically need to explicitly license SAC. Always clarify with SAP what’s included. If you’re moving to RISE, that’s a great time to ask for some SAC as part of the deal (e.g., “We want SAC Enterprise for 100 users thrown in for the first year” or similar). Often, SAP will be accommodating to drive cloud adoption.

Q: Can BOBJ licenses convert to SAC subscriptions?
A: There’s no direct one-to-one conversion where you flip a switch and turn a BOBJ license into an SAC subscription – they are fundamentally different models. However, SAP does have programs and a general willingness to facilitate cloud migration by using your existing investment. This often takes the form of credits or trade-in value. For example, SAP might allow that for every $1 of BOBJ maintenance you drop, you get $0.5 credit toward new SAC subscriptions (these numbers are just illustrative; the actual terms vary). Another mechanism is the “cloud extension policy,” where you keep your on-prem licenses but commit to not using some of them, and in exchange, SAP gives you a discount on the cloud side. The bottom line: yes, you can negotiate a conversion, but it’s case-by-case. Many customers have successfully negotiated deals where unused BusinessObjects licenses or the support budget for them was repurposed to fund SAC. Engage your SAP account executive – if they know you’re serious about moving to SAC, they’ll often work out a custom proposal to make it financially palatable.

Q: Which is cheaper — SAC or BOBJ?
A: It’s not a straightforward comparison, like comparing apples to oranges. Upfront costs: BOBJ had large upfront costs (servers, licenses), but if you already paid those, you’re now mainly paying maintenance. SAC has no upfront license cost but has continual subscription fees. For a new deployment: going to the cloud (SAC) might be cheaper initially because you avoid infrastructure, and you can start small. Over the long term, SAC’s recurring fees could sum up to more than a one-time BOBJ purchase plus maintenance, or not, depending on usage and discount. For an existing BOBJ customer, keeping BOBJ might seem cheaper since you’re “only” paying maintenance and using existing infrastructure. However, if you need to expand analytics to more users or capabilities (such as planning), SAC might be more cost-effective than purchasing additional BOBJ licenses and hardware. Also consider intangible costs: SAC updates automatically and includes hosting, whereas BOBJ you manage yourself (which has IT costs). Many companies find that for purely viewing dashboards and basic BI, SAC’s per-user cost is reasonable. Still, for large communities of casual users, BOBJ’s concurrent licensing might have been very economical. So, in summary: SAC can be costlier on a per-user basis, especially for advanced features, but you get a lot of modern capability for it. BOBJ can be more cost-effective if you already own it and have a stable user base, but its cost per active user can actually become high if many licenses remain unused. The most cost-effective scenario is one where you eliminate redundant spending, which typically means not paying for both platforms longer than necessary.

Q: Should I consider third-party support for BOBJ?
A: If you’re in a stable environment and looking to cut costs, third-party support for BusinessObjects is an option. Third-party support providers (like Rimini Street, Spinnaker, etc.) offer maintenance for SAP products at a lower price than SAP charges. By switching, companies often save 50% or more on annual support fees. The trade-off is that you won’t get new versions or official SAP patches (the third party may provide fixes themselves if issues arise). If your BOBJ deployment is not going to be upgraded and you just need it to run reliably for a few years during a transition, third-party support can be a smart cost-saving move. It essentially lets you keep using BOBJ without paying SAP’s maintenance. However, be mindful: once you leave SAP support, you typically can’t get back on without paying back fees, and SAP might not allow license conversions or support if you’re off maintenance. This approach makes sense if BOBJ is nearing its end of life in your organization. Many SAP customers use the threat of third-party support as leverage during negotiations (“if you don’t work with us on price, we’ll take our support elsewhere”). Sometimes, just that discussion can lead SAP to offer a better deal to retain your maintenance contract. So, yes, consider it both a negotiation tactic and a viable strategy if cost is a higher priority than product updates.

Five Expert Recommendations

Finally, here are five expert recommendations to optimize your SAP analytics licensing strategy in this SAC vs BOBJ era:

1. Audit your hybrid estate and rationalize user counts. Know exactly who is using what. Conduct regular audits of SAC and BOBJ usage to identify redundant licenses and inactivity. Use this data to right-size both environments – you may discover you can cut 20% of licenses without impacting users at all.
2. Use SAC adoption to negotiate BOBJ maintenance relief. Don’t pay for two full systems longer than needed. When you commit to SAC, ask SAP for some give on the legacy side. For example, negotiate a freeze or reduction of BOBJ maintenance for the period you’re ramping up SAC. Make the case that it’s a win-win: you invest in SAP’s cloud, and SAP helps you afford it by easing up on the old product’s fees.
3. License only essential SAC features per user. Be granular in assigning SAC licenses. If only 50 users need Planning capabilities, only buy 50 Planning licenses and give everyone else the more basic (cheaper) BI access. This avoids overspending on premium features that not everyone uses. Also, review these assignments periodically – today’s power user might be tomorrow’s casual user and vice versa.
4. Push SAP for conversion credits or bundle discounts. Everything in SAP licensing is negotiable if you have the right leverage. Don’t be shy about asking for credit on unused licenses, especially when moving to the cloud. And always explore bundle deals: sometimes you get a better bargain by solving multiple needs in one negotiation (e.g., renewing ERP and adding SAC at the same time, or consolidating two proposals into one for a bigger discount).
5. Build a phased roadmap: Optimize hybrid operations now and prepare for full-scale adoption later. Have a plan for the next 3-5 years. Maybe today you’re 80% BOBJ, 20% SAC. In two years, it might be 50/50, and later 20/80. Map this out and align your contracts to it. That means actively reducing BOBJ licenses as you migrate content to SAC, and ensuring SAC contract terms support expansion. By phasing the transition, you can continuously shed cost (retire BOBJ licenses in chunks, redeploy that budget into SAC) rather than paying double indefinitely. Communicate this roadmap to SAP as well – it sets expectations that you will need flexible licensing to make it happen.

In conclusion, navigating SAP analytics licensing requires a combination of technical expertise and negotiation skills. SAC and BusinessObjects each have very different cost models, but with careful management, you can run a hybrid environment without breaking the bank.

Always put your business needs first and make SAP’s desire to sell you the next product work in your favor.

By understanding the licensing mechanics and deploying smart negotiation tactics, you’ll keep your analytics team happy and your CFO even happier. Good luck!

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