What needs to be considered during an S/4HANA transition with regard to user license agreements?
An S/4HANA migration project presents SAP customers with major challenges.
These are not only of a technical and process-related nature. They also have a significant commercial dimension: it concerns the license contracts. Knowing and respecting your contracts can have a significant impact on the profitability of your migration project. Thus, the license contracts entail significant risks.
We have, together with our partner Flexera (one of the largest international providers of SAM – Software Asset Management solutions) a perfect and efficient approach for you.
It is crucial to enter the analysis phase and the status quo survey of your existing licensing environment at an early stage. This applies in particular to your user licenses. Here you need to know all the details: What have I agreed contractually, how are licenses currently being used, do I have unused optimization opportunities there? Are there errors in the license assignments or processes? Have I agreed on special features in my old contracts that are worth preserving?
Only on the basis of this knowledge does it make sense to enter into contract negotiations with SAP for your future S/4HANA world. Only then can you evaluate appropriate offers. Even the choice of the right user license model under S/4HANA is not possible without this knowledge and is by no means recommended.
A further and essential dimension in these projects is the knowledge and elimination of grievances in user authorizations. Authorizations and license types are directly related. This is especially true when it comes to SAP’s future auditing approaches – depending on the license model in question.
Keep in mind that this preliminary work should be addressed very early in the S/4HANA migration project. For example, the necessary coordination with the business departments cannot be completed in a very short time. However, the discussions are absolutely necessary if you want to ensure – also for the future – a suitable and correct mapping of the appropriate user license model with a suitable authorization concept.
