In part 1 of this SAP blog series, we covered SAP’s older indirect use licensing model and some of its shortcomings. To recap, many customers were dissatisfied with SAP’s licensing model, complaining that indirect use was not clearly defined, and that this led to unfair licensing practices and enforcement. Pushed by these complaints, and the visibility around lawsuits involving Diageo and Ab InBev, SAP changed their indirect use licensing model in April of 2018 to the Digital Access Model (DAM).
So what’s new about the Digital Access Model, and did it ameliorate some of the issues with the previous model?
There are two major changes in the DAM. First, the new model focuses on measuring the use of the Digital Core. The new SAP digital core platforms have been updated from SAP ECC to include the SAP HANA in-memory database, SAP S/4HANA and S/4HANA Cloud. SAP also offered a definition of indirect use, grounding the definition in the use of the Digital Core:
“Indirect/Digital Access is when people or things use the Digital Core without directly logging into the system. It occurs when humans, any device or system, indirectly use the Digital Core via non-SAP intermediary software, such as a non-SAP frontend, a custom-solution, or any other third-party application. It also occurs when non-human devices, bots, automated systems, etc. use the Digital Core in any way.” (Source: SAP ERP Pricing for the Digital Age).
By basing indirect use on the Digital Core, customers now have a clearer understanding of the specific instances of indirect use that needs to be licensed. At the same time, SAP remains somewhat vague on how far indirect use extends using all-encompassing phrases such as “in any way” and “any other third-party application.” We’ll cover some potential ramifications of these terms in part 3, but in the meantime, try to grasp Digital Core use in your environment and how your SAM tools can be leveraged to measure such usage.
The second major change that the DAM made was to shift away from user-based licenses, to a document-based model. Instead of licensing the number of users using SAP systems, the DAM calculates licenses based on the number of documents created, regardless of who created them.
The DAM outlines nine (9) system-generated document types that are considered relevant for licensing. The 9 document types are:
- Sales Order 2. Invoice 3. Purchase Order 4. Service & Maintenance Document 5. Manufacturing Document 6. Quality Management Document 7. Time Management Document 8. Financial Document 9. Material Document
To count the necessary licenses, SAP multiplies the number of documents by a corresponding multiplier, 1.0 for document types 1 through 7, and 0.2 for types 8 and 9. For example, 10 sales orders would be calculated as:
10 Sales Orders * 1.0 (document multiplier) = 10 licenses,
whereas 10 Financial Documents would be calculated as:
10 Financial Documents * 0.2 (document multiplier) = 2 licenses.
Importantly, license calculations are based on the initial document created, rather than documents read, updated, or deleted.
To give a more concrete example, imagine a customer using a sales management application to store sales, purchase orders, and payment data. Payment data is automatically transferred to the ERP, resulting in the creation of accounting records stored in the SAP system. Since only the financial module is updated through the third-party application, SAP will charge for the total number of accounting documents created in the system and license them based on the “Financial Document” document type.
But let’s alter scenario a bit and imagine that sales orders are registered on a web platform and are ultimately stored in an ERP. In this scenario, the initial sales order generates an invoice order first, and then an accounting entry in SAP. In this scenario, because SAP’s licensing rules specify that only the originally created document is counted, the customer would not get charged for all documents created in SAP (i.e. the sales doc., invoice doc, or financial doc.), but only the original sales order document.
To sum up, the key takeaways are:
- Digital Access is based on usage of the Digital Core (S/4HANA).
- Digital Access licenses documents, rather than licensing users.
In other words: Digital Access-Digital Core-Document Based
Currently, SAP customers can choose to license their software by named user (the old model) or by the DAM. But how do you know which option is best, and more importantly, less costly for your organization? In part 3, we’ll point out some potential pitfalls of both licensing models to help you make an informed decision about which licensing model is best suited for your organization.
If you want to learn more about how SAP’s licensing models, and how to protect against SAP audits or prepare for an upcoming contract renewal, contact Connor at info@connor-consulting.com today.