Application Development Discussions
Join the discussions or start your own on all things application development, including tools and APIs, programming models, and keeping your skills sharp.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Regarding SAP User License Fee Calculation

0 Kudos

Hello,

Can someone explain in detail; how SAP user license fee is calculated( preferably by giving an eg ), please?

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

steverumsby
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Your SAP account manager can explain this. Nobody else can, because your contract could well be different from everybody else's.

Steve.

19 REPLIES 19

steverumsby
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Your SAP account manager can explain this. Nobody else can, because your contract could well be different from everybody else's.

Steve.

0 Kudos

Hi Steve,

Yes, it is contract dependent. However can you please explain the same by giving an eg; might not be from real life?

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

It varies also between products and between different functional areas within products. Some users will have a "named user" licence and a licence category determined by their level of usage. Some users will use functionality that falls under an "engine pricing". Some software has per-CPU pricing as well as per user pricing. Some software is licensed based on your organisation's revenue. Some will be users of non-SAP software connected to your SAP systems, and they'll need an SAP licence because of that indirect usage.

The details of which functionality is licensed which way is determined by your contract and how that was negotiated. There is no simple example that applies universally. You need to speak at least to the person within your organisation that manages the contract, if not to your account manager at SAP.

Steve.

0 Kudos

Hi Steve,

Thanks for this information.

Actually we( SAP Security team ) are trying to ensure; SAP users in our systems have correct license type, before doing USMM+SLAW. It should not happen; users, who can be say ESS..... have been classified as Professional.

Is it possible for you to throw some light on this? How to achieve this?

Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

Vinay,

If you are lucky, your SAP account rep can give you at least some information so that in some systems, you can map your security roles to your license categories. Perhaps, for example,  your organization has bought a certain number of licenses for display only users; your roles were built with a strong naming convention so that it is easy to identify display-only roles, and you have a strong governance model and oversight process so that update transactions/ authorizations are not sneaking into those display-only roles, right? Yes, of course, so that makes the job somewhat less painful.

Good luck!

Gretchen

0 Kudos

There are software packages out there that do this analysis and will assign the appropriate licence type to each user. Of course they cost money and take time to implement and configure to match your specific contract. But there's a reason they cost money - doing it by hand takes a lot of effort and organisation.

Gretchen has already pointed out the need for discipline in building and naming roles so that you can tell for sure which functionality is available to each user and map it to a licence type. This is important for ESS/MSS but possibly for other types also.

You also need to do analysis of frequency of use - the difference between the standard "professional" and "limited professional" licence types is just how much the user uses the system. We have other custom licence types for less frequent users still. You can base decisions about this on data from ST03 or SM20. I see spreadsheets in your future. Having a justifiable means of deciding between licence types is important if SAP challenge your licence audit submissions.

As I keep saying, though, before doing anything like this, you need to check the details of your contract as it may be different from the "usual" contract (if there is such a thing). You might have your own custom licence types, you might have different definitions of the standard types. You need to be aiming at the right thing!

Steve.

0 Kudos

and map the license type against the role via PFCG

0 Kudos

Hi Steve,

I came to know about following three methods of classifying SAP users.

1) Amount of Activity( ST03N ),

2) Number of Different Activities &

3) Type of Access( PFCG )

Please tell me;

1) these are methods to be used separately, or elements to be considered together while classifying users.

2)( assuming they are methods ) is there any other method. Do we need to specify method( we are going to use ) in contract? Which one is best?

3)( assuming they are elements ) is there any other element.

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

This depends on the details of your contract (I sense a theme in my replies), but typically you'd use a combination of those things to determine an appropriate licence type. How they combine will depend on what your contract says. This really is a job that should be done in conjunction with somebody who understands your contract.

Steve.

0 Kudos

In support of Steve's point about differences in contracts, the last couple of licence agreements I have seen that included Ltd Pro (not all do) have defined it based solely on access & with no mention of frequency.  Other versions have included frequency to differentiate between classifications.

0 Kudos

Hi Alex,

Is it possible for you to share, how Ltd Pro had been defined in terms of access? I haven't got chance to read SAP contract.

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

I keep saying this - you need to look at your own contract or work on this with somebody who has. Asking other people how their contract works won't help you, because that's not the contract you are bound by. It sounds to me like you have been asked to do a job without being given all the information you need. Seriously, you need to talk to somebody who knows your SAP contract. You can't do this job without that information. You just can't. There is no standard SAP contract - you can't assume yours is the same as somebody else's. That can lead to expensive mistakes.

Steve.

0 Kudos

Hi,

For client confidentiality reasons I can't share  details but taking this as the general description, the "limited operational roles" referenced below have been defined on themes based on activities such as managing projects & contracts, limited transaction data creation/change in support of operational activities, perform limited approval/release activities.

The variation between licences (definition and cost) can be huge and what is negotiated for one company is not necessarily comparable with what is applicable to another.

"SAP Application Limited Professional User is a Named User authorized to perform limited operational roles supported by the licensed Software (excluding SBOP) and also includes the rights granted under the SAP Application Business Information User. The license agreement has to define in detail the limited use rights being performed by such Limited Professional User."


Cheers

0 Kudos

Hi Steve,

Yes, contract plays a big role. So we are trying to get required details with SAP Operations Manager's help.

At the same time I'm trying to get additional, useful information through this forum. So asking some general queries.

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

Hi Alex,

If I'm not wrong; then

1) translating these definitions( provided by SAP ) into technical terms( authorisations, roles etc ) is very difficult.

2) as mentioned by Gretchen making sure change authorisations are not sneaking into display only roles is also difficult.

So can we say, Amount of Activity method( though less logical comparatively ) is better than Type of Access for deciding users' license type. Seems to have more clarity.

Thanks & Regards,

Vinay Gaddam

0 Kudos

No, you can't say that. It depends on what your contract says. That doesn't work for everyone, and may not work for you. You may even have a mix of "frequency of access" and "type of access" licence types. I do. In a comment just above, Alex mentioned having seen a contract where "Limited Professional" was not based on amount of activity at all.

Steve.

Jelena
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

First rule of the SAP club: don't talk about the SAP license fees.

0 Kudos

Bernhard_SAP
Employee
Employee
0 Kudos

discussion locked, as it goes in cycles. Bernhard