
SAP Licensing for Multinational Companies
SAP licensing for multinational companies is notoriously complex and can become a multi-million-dollar expenditure if not managed strategically.
CIOs and CTOs at global enterprises must navigate a maze of user types, engine metrics, cloud subscriptions, and regional contracts.
This brief provides an advisory overview of SAP licensing models, real-world cost examples, and best practices for negotiating and optimizing SAP agreements across multiple countries.
SAP Licensing Complexity in Global Enterprises
SAP’s licensing model is one of the most complex in enterprise IT, and this complexity only grows for multinational companies.
A global organization might run several SAP systems across regions, each with hundreds or thousands of users. Every individual accessing SAP, whether directly or via integrated systems, requires an appropriate license.
Without careful oversight, companies can over-license (buy far more than needed) or under-license (risk compliance violations).
Global CIOs face the added challenge of aligning licensing across different countries, navigating local regulations, currency differences, and ensuring all subsidiaries are covered under consistent terms.
Key challenges for global SAP licensing include:
- Fragmented Contracts: Large companies often accumulate separate SAP contracts in different countries or business units over time. Each contract may have different pricing, terms, and renewal dates, making it challenging to manage and often resulting in a more expensive overall arrangement.
- Local Requirements: Different regions may require specific SAP modules or localizations (e.g., country-specific tax, payroll, or language packs), which come with additional license fees. Multinationals must account for these localized licenses in each relevant jurisdiction.
- Cross-Border Usage: Users in one country may need access to an SAP system licensed in another country. A global license agreement (covering the parent company and all international subsidiaries) is often necessary to permit seamless cross-border system access and avoid legal barriers.
- Compliance & Audits: SAP regularly audits customers. For a global company, an SAP audit can be particularly complex, with multiple systems and geographies, there are multiple points of potential non-compliance. Ensuring each region’s usage stays within entitlements is critical to avoid hefty true-up bills.
In short, managing SAP licensing at an enterprise level requires centralized oversight and a coordinated strategy.
Many CIOs establish a dedicated licensing team or utilize software asset management tools to track SAP usage globally, ensuring they maintain control over this significant investment.
SAP License Models and Types
SAP offers a mix of perpetual licenses for on-premise software and subscription licenses for cloud services.
Understanding these models is fundamental:
- Perpetual Licensing (On-Premise): The traditional model where you purchase a license upfront and own the rights to use the software indefinitely. A large one-time fee is paid for each license, and annual maintenance (support) fees (typically around 20–22% of the license price) are paid for upgrades and support. For example, a Professional named user license might list around $3,000 upfront, plus about $600 per year in maintenance. Companies running SAP ECC or S/4HANA on-premise often use this model. The upside is long-term use rights; the downside is the significant upfront cost and ongoing maintenance expense.
- Subscription Licensing (Cloud/SaaS): With cloud offerings such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SuccessFactors, or others, you pay a recurring subscription (monthly or annually) per user or capacity metric. This includes the software and support bundled together (and often hosting if it’s SAP’s cloud). For instance, a S/4HANA Cloud full-use user might cost roughly $150–$250 per user per month in subscription fees, rather than a big upfront purchase. Subscription models offer flexibility – you can increase or reduce users over time and avoid heavy upfront costs – but the trade-off is that costs recur indefinitely and may total more in the long run if you use the software for many years.
- Hybrid & RISE with SAP: SAP now promotes RISE with SAP, an all-in-one subscription bundle that includes S/4HANA Cloud licenses, cloud infrastructure, and technical managed services under one contract. For multinational customers, RISE can simplify things by combining what used to be separate agreements (software licenses, databases, hosting) into a single “one offer, one contract” globally. It typically requires a commitment of 3-5 years. The benefit is simplified vendor management and predictable costs for that term. However, CIOs should weigh the flexibility – with RISE, SAP manages the environment, and you might relinquish some control or ability to customize. Hybrid licensing is also common: for example, keeping some systems on-premises (with perpetual licenses) while using cloud subscriptions for new projects or regions. SAP supports mixing models, but you’ll need to watch for overlapping costs (if you move a function to the cloud, can you retire some on-prem licenses to save maintenance?).
- Named Users and Engines: SAP on-premise licensing usually has two layers: named user licenses and package (engine) licenses. Named user licenses are required for each person who uses SAP software, categorized by role. There are dozens of user types – e.g., Professional User (full operational access), Limited Professional (restricted to certain modules or tasks), Employee Self-Service (basic use like time entry or HR self-service), Developer, etc. The license cost varies by type; for example, a Professional user carries the highest fee, whereas an Employee or Warehouse Clerk license is lower. These named-user licenses often account for a large portion of SAP spending. Engine licenses are for specific SAP functional components measured by metrics (like number of orders, financial spend, company revenue, or CPU cores for SAP’s database). A multinational implementing a module like SAP Treasury or SAP Extended Warehouse Management might pay a license fee based on a metric (e.g., financial assets managed, or number of warehouses). Knowing your metric usage is crucial – if your business grows beyond the metric limits (for example, surpassing a revenue tier), you may need to purchase additional engine capacity licenses.
Real-world example: A global manufacturer running SAP ERP might have 10,000 named users (mix of Professional and Limited) and licenses for engines like SAP Human Capital Management (measured by employee count) and SAP Sales & Distribution (sometimes measured by orders or sales volume).
A Professional user license might range from ~$1,500 to $4,000 list price per user (one-time), whereas a Limited user could be roughly half of that. The enterprise also pays 22% yearly support on the net license cost.
In the cloud model, equivalent functionality for 10,000 users could be priced on a per-user subscription – potentially $100+ per user/month – or sometimes based on a business metric via the “Full Usage Equivalent (FUE)” model (for S/4HANA Cloud, where user roles consume portions of an overall capacity metric). The exact cost model can vary, so CIOs must clearly understand which metrics drive their SAP fees.
Global Licensing Challenges and Strategies
For CIOs of multinationals, a critical decision is whether to manage SAP licensing via separate regional agreements or a consolidated global agreement.
Each approach has implications:
- Separate Regional Contracts: Some enterprises let each subsidiary or region negotiate its own SAP licenses. This can lead to suboptimal volume discounts and inconsistent terms. One country might pay a higher price per user than another, or have a stricter contract. Moreover, moving licenses or users between entities becomes legally complicated (a user license bought under the German contract might not formally be usable in the Brazilian subsidiary, for example). Having staggered contract renewal dates across geographies means you are continually in negotiation with SAP somewhere in the world, reducing your leverage. In short, fragmentation often results in higher aggregate costs and administrative overhead.
- Consolidated Global Agreement: A Global License Agreement (GLA) or enterprise agreement with SAP encompasses the parent company and all majority-owned subsidiaries under a single master contract. This strategy aggregates your purchasing volume, which dramatically improves discount potential and simplifies compliance. SAP will treat a $ 10 million+ global deal differently than five separate $2 million deals. By negotiating as one unified customer, CIOs can eliminate the “divide and conquer” advantage that a vendor has when dealing with multiple smaller contracts.
Benefits of a global agreement:
- Deeper Discounts: By bundling all licenses into a single negotiation, you can reach higher discount tiers. For example, instead of each region only getting ~30% off SAP’s list prices on their smaller purchases, a single large deal might secure 50–60% off across the board. The table below illustrates an illustrative comparison:
Licensing Approach | Fragmented (5 separate deals) | Unified Global Deal |
---|---|---|
Total License List Value | $10M combined | $10M combined |
Average Discount Off List | ~30% | ~55% |
Net License Cost | ~$7.0M | ~$4.5M |
Annual Support (22% of net) | ~$1.54M/year | ~$0.99M/year |
Contract Renewal Dates | 5 different expirations | 1 co-terminus date |
Illustrative scenario: Both approaches license the same $10M worth of SAP software.
A global deal yields a net cost ~35% lower than separate regional deals, and saves over $500K per year in support fees due to the lower net cost.
In addition, a single renewal date means simpler management, and no region is caught paying maintenance on shelfware that isn’t needed enterprise-wide.
- Contract Consistency: A GLA lets you standardize terms globally. You can ensure that every country unit benefits from any concessions you negotiate (such as flexible usage rights or caps on support fee increases). No subsidiary is stuck with less favorable terms. For instance, if one regional contract had a clause capping support cost increases at 3% per year or allowing license transfers, you want that replicated globally.
- License Pooling: With a unified contract, you can freely reallocate unused licenses across the organization. If one division has 100 unused SAP user licenses, these can be assigned to users in another country without the need to purchase new licenses, as all usage falls under the same agreement. This helps eliminate shelfware (licenses paid for but not used). Overall utilization improves when licenses aren’t siloed by region.
- Administrative Efficiency: Managing one contract (and one compliance audit) for SAP is far easier than juggling dozens. It reduces the risk of missing a renewal deadline or failing to notice a non-compliant usage in a far-flung affiliate. A centralized view means the CIO’s team can proactively optimize licenses enterprise-wide.
Negotiation strategies for global agreements:
When pursuing a global deal, preparation and timing are crucial. Bundle future needs into the negotiation – if you anticipate requiring additional SAP modules or more users in the next 1-2 years (for example, rolling out SAP to a new subsidiary or implementing Ariba or SuccessFactors), negotiate those licenses now as part of the package.
This not only gives you a better price via volume, but you can often lock in today’s discount for those future purchases (price protection). Be strategic about timing: SAP (like many vendors) has annual sales targets – deals closed near the end of a quarter or fiscal year often yield extra concessions.
Many CIOs plan their major SAP renewals or expansions for Q4, when SAP’s urgency to meet targets is highest. It’s not uncommon to see an initial offer of, say, 35% off improved to 50–60% off by year-end with savvy negotiation and some competitive pressure.
Speaking of competition, even if you intend to stay with SAP, it’s wise to benchmark against alternatives. Obtaining quotes from Oracle, Microsoft, or other ERP competitors for an equivalent scope can give you negotiation leverage.
If SAP knows you have viable alternatives, they are more likely to extend aggressive discounts to keep your business. Emphasize to SAP that your global spend is substantial and that you expect “most-favored customer” pricing in return for consolidating with them.
Finally, negotiate flexible terms in the contract, ensuring you have the right to adjust and optimize it over time.
For example, try to include a clause allowing a periodic “true-down” or rebalancing – the ability to swap or drop a certain percentage of licenses at renewal if they’re not needed, or to convert some old licenses into new SAP products as your strategy evolves.
Also seek caps on any maintenance or subscription price increases (e.g., no more than 3% annually) for the term of the agreement, so savings don’t erode later.
Controlling SAP License Costs and Compliance
After negotiating the best deal, CIOs must implement robust license management practices to keep SAP costs under control and prevent compliance surprises.
Here are the key focus areas:
- Indirect Access & Digital Integration: This has been a compliance hotspot for SAP customers in recent years. Indirect access refers to using SAP’s data or functions through a third-party application or interface, rather than logging in directly to SAP. For example, if your sales team uses a non-SAP CRM (like Salesforce) that creates orders in SAP, those CRM users might be considered “indirect users” of SAP. In a now-infamous 2017 legal case, the UK High Court ruled that global beverage company Diageo had to pay around £54 million in additional SAP fees because Salesforce users were indirectly accessing SAP without proper licenses. Around the same time, SAP audited Anheuser-Busch InBev and other large firms, seeking tens of millions for unlicensed indirect use through e-commerce portals and supply chain systems. These high-profile cases shocked CIOs worldwide — a seemingly innocent integration can trigger massive financial exposure. SAP’s response was to introduce a new Digital Access licensing model that charges based on specific document transactions (such as sales orders and invoices) created by external systems, rather than requiring a named user for every indirect user. Multinational customers should carefully assess their indirect use: inventory all interfaces to SAP (including customer portals, mobile apps, IoT sensors, and partner systems) and determine if those interactions are properly licensed. You may opt for SAP’s Digital Access licenses (which bundle a quantity of document creations) or stick with user-based licensing, depending on which is more cost-effective. The main point is to proactively address indirect usage – don’t wait for an audit to reveal a compliance gap. Many enterprises conduct internal audits or use tools to simulate indirect usage counts so they can remediate in advance (either by purchasing the necessary licenses or shutting down unneeded connections).
- Optimize User License Allocation: In any large SAP deployment, it’s common to find that some users have been given higher-level licenses than their actual usage warrants. For example, a contractor or temporary employee might only use SAP to enter timesheets, yet an administrator accidentally assigned them a Professional license. Regularly review user roles and their assigned license types. Adjusting license types to match actual usage can yield significant savings – some studies have found that 20–30% of users are over-licensed in typical scenarios, meaning the company pays for more expensive license types that aren’t needed. By downgrading those users to a cheaper license category (or removing dormant users), you free up costly licenses for reuse. Implement governance so that whenever a user’s role changes or an employee leaves, their SAP access is updated or retired promptly. A centralized licensing team or an automated user management process can enforce these controls across all regions. This is especially critical in multinationals where a user base may be in the tens of thousands – small per-user inefficiencies add up quickly at that scale.
- Monitor Usage Metrics: For engine or package licenses based on specific metrics (such as transactions, revenue, or number of employees), establish a process to track these metrics periodically. If your enterprise is growing, you might approach a license threshold faster than expected. For example, if your SAP contract allows up to 1 million sales orders per year and your new online channel causes orders to spike, you’d want to know before you exceed your licensed quantity. By monitoring key usage KPIs, you can plan true-ups or additional licenses (possibly negotiating better terms) rather than getting a surprise bill. This metric tracking is part of effective IT asset management for SAP – treat it with the same rigor as financial management.
- Shelfware and Contractual Flexibility: Despite their best efforts, large companies sometimes purchase more SAP licenses than they ultimately use – perhaps due to project delays, acquisitions of companies with their own SAP licenses, or a shift to new technology. To mitigate shelfware risk, negotiate contract terms that allow for some rebalancing. Some enterprises negotiate the right to swap a limited number of unused licenses for different products or credits. Maintain an up-to-date inventory of all SAP licenses worldwide and compare it to the actual deployment. If you find hundreds of unused licenses in one region, consider consolidating or terminating those at the next renewal. Don’t pay maintenance on software that isn’t bringing value.
- Audit Readiness: SAP license audits (formal compliance checks) are a regular part of the vendor relationship – typically, SAP can audit a customer every 1-2 years. Preparation is key, especially for a multinational. Maintain up-to-date records of license entitlement and deployment. Use SAP’s measurement tools (LAW/SLAW) to run your compliance reports across all systems. Resolve any discrepancies (such as users missing a proper license assignment or third-party interfaces not accounted for) internally first. Having clean, consolidated usage data means that if SAP initiates an audit, you can provide accurate information with confidence. It also positions you to negotiate any findings. If you know an audit will reveal 100 extra users are needed, you might proactively approach SAP for a deal on those additional licenses rather than waiting to be invoiced at the full list price plus back maintenance.
- Centralized Governance: Given the scale of SAP operations in global firms, many CIOs establish a central SAP license governance board or team. This team establishes policies (e.g., guidelines for classifying a user’s license type, procedures for requesting new licenses), monitors global usage, and serves as the liaison during vendor negotiations and audits. They also educate local IT and procurement teams about the importance of compliance. Central governance ensures that one part of the company isn’t unknowingly creating risk for the whole enterprise (for example, a regional office integrating an unapproved app with SAP). It also means opportunities for savings (like consolidating contracts or leveraging volume discounts) are identified and acted upon enterprise-wide.
Read SAP Partner Licensing Models.
Cloud Transition and RISE Considerations
As SAP pushes its customers toward cloud solutions and S/4HANA transformations, licensing strategies must adapt.
Many multinationals are evaluating SAP’s RISE with SAP offering or other cloud migration paths:
- Evaluating RISE vs. Own Licensing: RISE with SAP can simplify a global SAP deployment by bundling software, infrastructure, and services. It’s essentially a comprehensive SAP-as-a-service model. For a CIO, this means fewer contracts to manage and a single point of contact (SAP) for any issues. The cost model shifts entirely to a subscription-based model. However, one must consider the total cost of ownership over the contract term and beyond. Often, SAP might offer incentives or credits if you move to RISE (for example, crediting some unused on-premise maintenance payments towards the RISE subscription). Scrutinize these offers: sometimes the initial few years look attractive, but what about years 4, 5, and the renewal after that? Ensure you understand how RISE fees might increase after the initial term and what your exit strategy would be if you needed to switch solutions or bring operations in-house.
- Data Residency & Cloud Regions: Multinationals have to consider where their SAP cloud systems will be hosted. SAP has data centers in various regions; you may need multiple cloud instances to meet data sovereignty laws (for example, separate instances for EU and US data). Licensing-wise, the main effect is potentially duplicating some subscription costs for separate regions. Ensure the contract allows for flexibility in distributing your users across global data centers as needed, without incurring additional license charges. Also, clarify the process if you need to migrate users from one region’s instance to another (for example, if you reorganize and users in Asia need to use the EU instance, is that permitted under the license?).
- Cloud vs. On-Premise License Management: During a transition period (which can last several years), many large SAP customers run hybrid environments – some users on S/4HANA Cloud (or other SAP SaaS solutions, such as Ariba and SuccessFactors) and others on legacy SAP ECC on-premise. Beware of overlap: if you move a function to the cloud, can you retire the equivalent on-prem licenses to save costs? Sometimes, you can reduce your annual maintenance by dropping modules you no longer use. However, be cautious – a gradual migration may require you to keep both environments licensed concurrently for a while. SAP’s cloud contracts generally don’t automatically reduce your existing maintenance footprint; you have to actively negotiate changes. An important tip is to align cloud adoption with maintenance renewals. For example, if you plan to start a RISE subscription next year, negotiate how your existing on-premises licenses will be handled. SAP may allow a conversion (swapping perpetual licenses for cloud subscriptions at a calculated ratio) or, at the very least, ensure you’re not paying double. Always run the financial model: the goal is to avoid a scenario where you’re paying significant cloud subscriptions while still carrying full maintenance on old licenses that you’re phasing out.
- Staying Informed: SAP’s licensing policies and offerings continue to evolve (e.g., new SaaS products, changes to digital access rules, new bundles). CIOs and CTOs should stay connected with SAP user groups, industry analysts, or licensing advisory services to stay informed about changes that could impact their agreements. For instance, SAP may introduce a new metric definition or a licensing option that could benefit your organization, but you’ll only leverage it if you know about it. Conversely, if SAP plans to end support for a specific license type or raise fees, you should anticipate this. For a multinational, even small changes can have a big dollar impact when scaled across global operations.
Read Global Trends in SAP Licensing.
Recommendations
- Centralized SAP License Management: Establish a global team or process to manage the SAP licensing strategy. Consolidate contracts wherever possible to leverage volume discounts and simplify compliance.
- Conduct Regular Internal Audits: Don’t wait for SAP’s audit – perform your license compliance checks at least annually. Identify indirect access, inactive users, and metric consumption issues early and remediate proactively.
- Optimize and Recycle Licenses: Continuously tune your license assignments. Reassign or downgrade licenses that are not fully utilized, and eliminate unused accounts. This practice can reduce costs by 20% or more by avoiding paying for shelfware.
- Negotiate Global Agreements Strategically: When renewals or expansions are due, negotiate as a unified enterprise. Time major negotiations with SAP’s year-end or quarter-end, bundle all anticipated needs, and insist on enterprise-level discounts (50%+ off list) for large deals.
- Secure Flexible Contract Terms: Push for provisions like co-terming (a single renewal date), rights to adjust licenses (adding or removing a percentage at renewal without penalty), and caps on support or subscription fee increases (e.g., no more than 3-5% annually). This protects your organization as business needs change.
- Address Indirect Usage Upfront: Inventory all systems interfacing with SAP and decide on a licensing approach (user licenses vs. SAP’s digital access documents). If you adopt the digital access model, carefully count documents and purchase a buffer to avoid incurring overage fees. Ensure all third-party integrations are known to your license team.
- Leverage External Benchmarking: Know what other companies are paying. Utilize industry benchmarks or competitive ERP quotes to bolster your position with SAP. Let SAP know that you expect a “most favored” rate, given your global spend, and be prepared to walk away if the economics don’t make sense.
- Plan for S/4HANA & Cloud Transition: If you’re moving to S/4HANA or considering RISE, model the costs of different scenarios (on-prem vs. RISE vs. third-party hosting). Negotiate conversion credits for existing licenses and ensure that no double payments are made during the migration. Don’t assume the default offer is the best – everything is negotiable if you have leverage.
- Stay Educated and Engage Experts: Ensure your team stays current on SAP’s licensing updates. Consider participating in SAP user groups or hiring independent licensing advisors for large negotiations – their insights on the latest licensing trends and “gotchas” can save significant costs.
- Maintain Executive Oversight: Given the financial stakes, keep SAP licensing on the CIO’s radar. Regularly report the status of SAP usage and costs to executive leadership. This helps in securing budget for optimization efforts and underscores the importance of compliance and strategic vendor management at the highest level.
FAQ
Q1: What’s the difference between SAP’s perpetual licenses and subscription (cloud) licenses?
A1: A perpetual license is a one-time purchase that lets you use the software indefinitely (common for on-premise SAP). You pay an upfront fee per license plus annual maintenance for support. A subscription license (common for SAP cloud services, such as S/4HANA Cloud or SuccessFactors) is similar to a rental – you pay a monthly or yearly fee per user or per usage, which includes software updates and support. Perpetual models require more capital upfront but offer ownership; subscriptions provide flexibility and lower upfront costs but can total more over a long period. Many enterprises are now combining both models, retaining core systems on perpetual licenses while utilizing subscriptions for new cloud modules or during a transition to the cloud.
Q2: How can we effectively manage SAP licensing across multiple countries?
A2: The key is to consolidate and standardize. Aim for a Global License Agreement that covers all your subsidiaries, ensuring a single set of terms and a centralized license inventory. Centralized license management – have a single team or tool tracking all SAP usage worldwide. This team can reallocate licenses between regions as needed and ensure each location is compliant. Also, be mindful of local needs: budget for any country-specific SAP add-ons (e.g., local fiscal reporting modules) and include them in the global agreement. By negotiating at the global level, you ensure no country is left paying higher prices in isolation. Regular communication with regional IT heads is also important – they should understand that any new SAP deployment or user onboarding must go through the centralized licensing team.
Q3: What is SAP indirect access, and should CIOs be concerned about it?
A3: Indirect access (also called digital access) refers to using SAP’s data or functionality via a non-SAP system or third-party software. CIOs should be concerned because SAP requires licenses for this kind of use, even if users never log into SAP directly. High-profile cases have shown companies hit with huge fees when audited for indirect usage. For example, if your e-commerce website or CRM system isn’t properly licensed for its behind-the-scenes connections to SAP, you could be out of compliance. To manage this, identify all systems that read and write SAP data. SAP now offers a Digital Access document licensing model – it might make sense if you have many indirect transactions. Alternatively, you might license those external users with named-user licenses. The best approach depends on your scenario, but the worst move is to ignore it. Proactively address indirect access by setting a policy and obtaining the necessary licenses. This way, you avoid nasty surprises in an audit.
Q4: How can we reduce our SAP licensing costs without violating compliance?
A4: There are several legitimate strategies to optimize costs. First, right-size your licenses – ensure each user has the appropriate license type and eliminate any duplicate or unnecessary users. Second, consider consolidating contracts if you have multiple; a larger deal often brings bigger discounts. Third, time your purchases strategically (vendors like SAP are often more generous with discounts at fiscal year-end or when launching a new product incentive). Fourth, negotiate maintenance terms – for example, negotiate a cap on annual maintenance increases or even a discount on maintenance if you’ve been a long-time customer (SAP occasionally agrees to lower maintenance % as part of a big deal). Another avenue is to evaluate whether you’re using all the software you pay for; if not, consider dropping certain licenses or modules at renewal. Some companies also evaluate third-party support providers to replace SAP’s maintenance for older systems, which can cut support fees by 50% or more. However, it means forgoing official SAP support on those systems. Lastly, maintaining a competitive mindset (comparing SAP’s offer with other options) gives you leverage to negotiate a better price.
Q5: How should we prepare for an SAP license audit in a multinational environment?
A5: Preparing for an SAP audit should be an ongoing process, not a one-time scramble. Start by implementing SAP’s measurement tools (like LAW – License Administration Workbench) across all your SAP instances globally. Consolidate the data to get a single view of your license compliance position. Ensure that all user accounts are assigned to the correct license type and that inactive accounts are properly cleaned up. Document your interfaces and usage of SAP data by external systems – decide how you will present indirect usage to SAP (and ensure you have the licenses for it or a strong justification under SAP’s current rules). It’s also wise to maintain an internal audit trail: for example, keep records of when you did internal true-ups, how you calculated license needs, and any correspondence with SAP reps about ambiguous areas. If SAP audits you, having a well-organized report ready to go can shorten the process and demonstrate that you are a responsible customer. Also, know your contracts – understand your entitlements and any special terms you negotiated (like legacy definitions of user types or specific usage rights). Sometimes SAP’s audit scripts might not account for a custom term you have; you’ll need to point it out. Finally, consider engaging a licensing expert or legal counsel if the audit gets contentious. But in many cases, if you’ve done your homework, an audit can be a non-event – you confirm you’re compliant or negotiate a straightforward purchase of the few licenses you are short of, without drama.
Read more about our SAP Licensing Services.