SAP License Management – Market Guide
SAP software continues to dominate the eCommerce and ERP market segments worldwide. It remains the platform of choice for many large, global, organisations. As such, it is deeply-ingrained and essential to the business operations of those organisations.
From a software asset management perspective this reliance can be problematic, particularly due to highly complex licensing and very active audit activity. SAP have some of the most restrictive licensing requirements of all major vendors and put a huge burden on organisations to prove compliance on at least a yearly basis. Recent high-profile cases against brewing giants Diageo and InBev have highlighted the risk – with Diageo being fined (subsequently appealed) and InBev settling out of court. Additionally, SAP’s per-user licensing is amongst the most expensive organisations will purchase.
These factors – high cost, high value, complexity, uncertainty, and audit risk – mean that it is important for organisations to pay close attention to their SAP licensing and costs. This Market Guide sets out a number of offerings and provides guidance on what you should be managing, and how you should do it.
Requirements for SAP License Management
SAP License Management is a significant overhead for large organisations due to vague license and contract definitions set by SAP. All organisations using SAP software must submit a usage measurement to SAP on at least an annual basis, using the License Administration Workbench (SAP LAW) tool. The onus is on organisations to prove compliance and this leads to considerable inefficiencies in license allocation – “better be safe than sorry”. Whilst preparing an Effective License Position (ELP) for all your key publishers is an important foundational task for ITAM teams, the requirements for SAP compliance are effectively similar to handling an audit request every year. SAP LAW submissions are usually prepared by very expensive SAP BASIS admins, taking them away from their core competencies and deliverables for several weeks per year.
The ITAM Review SAP License Management Standard
In response to the considerable challenge of managing SAP Licenses , The ITAM Review have developed a certification standard for this market, available here https://marketplace.itassetmanagement.net/2017/10/05/sap-lm-standard/
In addition to this standard tools are also differentiated based on whether they run as an application within your SAP system or are a standalone app. Both approaches have merit but this is a question you should ask your potential provider.
Market Guide Participation
Inclusion in this guide is a result of original research by ITAM Review analysts. All listed products are able to detect SAP usage and track this usage against contracts & entitlements. All tools and services will make recommendations as to the most efficient allocation of available licenses. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. Vendors did not pay for inclusion and the intention is merely to provide you with a “shopping list” when looking for a suitable vendor. If you have an SAP License Management product and would like to be included, please contact us.
Products
Aspera LicenseControl for SAP
https://www.aspera.com/en/license-optimization/licensecontrol-for-sap/
Aspera LicenseControl for SAP claims to have the most “intelligent SAP rule definitions” in the SAM Industry. The product measures and optimises license allocation for both traditional and authorisation-based SAP licensing.
AuditBot SAP License Saver
https://www.auditbots.com/products/sap-license-saver-new/
AuditBot provide a range of SAP Administration tools, including license assignment automation and the License Saver product. License Saver analyses employee usage of T-Codes and provides recommendations for optimising license assignments.
Certero for SAP Applications
https://www.certero.com/products/certero-for-sap-applications/
Certero’s approach calculates SAP license optimisations in a secure environment, outside of your SAP system. This enables multiple SAP systems to be aggregated centrally – a key difference in approach to those systems that are deployed within SAP itself. License positions can be calculated on a baseline or optimised approach. The service is deployable on-premises or as a hosted application.
Circle Unlimited cuDetect
https://www.circle-unlimited.com/solutions/licenses/sap-license-optimization/
Circle Unlimited cuDetect captures how many users work with which SAP systems, clients and modules. It enables single-click calculation of SAP function usage, enabling automated classification of user types to aid identification and allocation of the correct license to a user.
Eracent CLR for SAP Applications
https://eracent.com/clr-for-sap-applications/
Eracent CLR for SAP is available in two editions – Base and Advanced. Base provides reporting for non-complex SAP license metrics such as per user and per device. Advanced provides capabilities for organisations need to manage complex license metrics and will make recommendations as to the right license to be assigned to a user based on fine-grained analysis of their usage of the system.
EY License Compliance Manager for SAP
EY License Compliance Manager for SAP is available as part of a managed services or consultancy engagement with the Software License Forensics team at EY. Cloud-hosted it provides a full range of discovery and optimisation services for SAP licensing with reporting available on any device.
Flexera Flexnet Manager for SAP
https://www.flexera.com/media/pdfs/datasheet_fnm-sap.pdf
Flexera FlexNet Manager provides a range of SAP license optimisations scenarios, including contractual optimisations – whereby the optimisation meets contract requirements pertaining to license ratios. This service is available on premises, cloud-hosted, or via managed service partners and Flexera also provide license optimisation services via Global Consulting Teams.
GreyMonarch ProfileTailor LicenseAuditor
http://www.greymonarch.com/SAPPTLA_Overview.html
GreyMonarch ProfileTailor LicenseAuditor analyses SAP user transaction usage to provide you with a recommendation of which SAP licence classification each user requires to perform their job. It will also tell you which user accounts can be reallocated due to under-use or misclassification. The service is available on premises, in the cloud, or as a packaged one-off service performed by consultants.
Ivanti Optimiser for SAP
https://www.ivanti.co.uk/products/optimizer-for-sap
Ivanti Optimiser for SAP provide license optimisation across multiple SAP systems. It is organisation-aware meaning, for example, it can treat licenses differently between engineering and sales. Each organisational unit can be managed separately which may be important to large, decentralized organisations. License Optimisation is based on analysis of actual activity & transaction usage.
JNC SAP License Management
https://www.jncconsultancy.com/sap-license-management/
JNC specialise in SAP License Management and offer a range of consultancy and engagement services including Audit Defence and Audit Simulation.
License Dashboard
License Dashboard provide SAP License Management capabilities via managed service engagements. Their approach is to recognise/discover usage, optimise license allocations, and manage and control ongoing license consumption.
Open iT Optimizer for SAP Licensing
https://openit.com/products/optimizer-for-sap-licensing/
Open iT Optimizer for SAP Licensing provides an enterprise-wide overview of all SAP license usage, including human and machine users with varying license types and authorization roles. It also tracks indirect access.
SecurityWeaver
http://www.securityweaver.com/solutions/license-optimization/license-management
SecurityWeaver approach SAP Management from a regulatory, security, and compliance perspective. They offer a full-service SAP Management solution including License Optimisation. Their service may be particularly suited to organisations operating in strict governance, risk, and compliance regimes such as financial services or healthcare.
Snow SAP License Management
https://www.snowsoftware.com/int/solutions/sap-license-management
Snow Optimizer for SAP License Management has been certified against The ITAM Review’s standard for SAP License Management. For further details of this standard and certification please see this article https://marketplace.itassetmanagement.net/2017/10/24/sap-license-management-certification-snow-optimizer-sap-software-v2-0/
Voquz samQ
https://www.voquz.com/en/voquz-topics/software-asset-management/samq-sap-license-management/
Voquz samQ offers cost reduction and license compliance through continuous optimisation of SAP Licenses. License allocations can be made automatically and dynamically. samQ is available as a standalone product (separate from other SAM capabilities) and integrates directly into your SAP environment.