SAP Effective License Position

Review the client’s SAP master agreement and support maintenance contract(s) including annual invoices and order forms. JNC will determine terms of software use and quantify entitlements in the form of a Bill of Material (BoM).

In order to deliver a detailed and accurate software licensing bill of material (BoM), the review will specifically focus on the clients use rights of the SAP software. Including a detailed overview of the associated metrics to measure software use. This will also entail a total cost of ownership summary.

The named-user licensing (NUL) measurement stage is a key step in establishing your SAP effective license position. It provides an accurate view of the named-user licensing your business needs, compared to the assets you currently hold. By establishing the total number of unique named-users, the process identifies surplus or shortfall against each named-user license type within your contract (as documented in the BoM) or other applicable license types.

It also helps identify and remove duplicated users. We convert contractual definitions to technical definitions according to your contract, and then perform a measurement per individual named-user license type. For each user we review their authorisations and compare that to historical usage. The measurement itself depends on the client’s contractual definitions.

While named-user license metrics are more or less consistent for all organisations, SAP packages are licensed based on business metrics. For many core and non-core SAP products, you need a package to use that solution. Due to the SAP marketplace being easy for organisations to use SAP system functionalities, and as your organisation expands, you might unknowingly exceed your entitlement, leading to non-compliant use. The SAP packages measurement detects unlicensed package usage and determines over or under-use of package licenses. It does this by comparing your consumption against your entitlement.

Indirect Access is a user or third-party application creating, manipulating, or viewing data in SAP Systems via an interface. Unlike direct use such as users working with the software using the SAP GUI with a user ID and password, detecting indirect use is not so straight forward. Using SAP software processes and capabilities is licensable regardless of how the software is accessed.

The indirect software use review can be performed in many ways depending on the specific client and SAP landscape. Such ways include; utilising the standard SAP license audit tools, specialist tools, SAP landscape documentation and business process documentation.  Once the areas of potential unlicensed software use are identified, the review quantifies the potential risk. Once the concerns have been identified and quantified, the consultants will propose risk mitigation plans and licensing options.

License Optimisation can be conducted in a multitude of ways; commercially and technically with the aim of reducing the Total Cost of Ownership.

Technical optimisation is primarily based on reviewing authorisations granted to users and comparing that to historical usage and may involve some redesign of roles.

Commercial optimisation focuses on the redundant software and whether associated support can be cancelled or those products credited against future purchases.