SAP Licensing Advisory
Pay only for the SAP you use, and be ready when the auditors call.
Talk to a Licensing ExpertWhat Is SAP Licensing Advisory?
SAP licensing advisory is expert help to understand what your SAP contract covers, measure what you actually use, and close the gap before SAP does it for you in an audit.
SAP licensing is complex and keeps changing. User types are tied to authorizations, interfaces and EDI can count as indirect or digital access, and the move from ECC to S/4HANA raises the choice between owning licenses and subscribing to the cloud. Over-licensing wastes money every year in maintenance. Under-licensing shows up later as an unplanned bill. CONTAX helps you get it right, with both the technical skills to measure your systems and the commercial knowledge of an SAP Gold Partner and authorized reseller.
Our SAP Licensing Services
Practical help with the licensing questions SAP customers face most.
License Audit Support
Preparing for and responding to SAP license audits, including measurement runs, user classification and the follow-up questions from SAP's compliance teams.
User Right-Sizing
Matching every user to the right license type using SAP's Trusted Authorization Review (STAR) tool, and finding inactive and over-licensed users.
Indirect and Digital Access
Finding where interfaces, EDI and third-party systems create documents in SAP, estimating the exposure, and choosing how to license it.
Ownership or Subscription
Comparing perpetual licenses with SAP's cloud subscriptions for your S/4HANA move, including what happens to the licenses you already own.
Contract and Maintenance Review
A clear inventory of what you've bought, what you're paying maintenance on, and what you no longer use.
Buying SAP Software
When you do need more, we quote and supply SAP licenses and cloud subscriptions as an authorized SAP reseller.
SAP SolutionsHow It Works
A short, fixed-scope review that ends with clear recommendations.
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Review
- Your SAP contract, entitlements and maintenance
- Your systems, users and interfaces
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Measure
- Run SAP's measurement tools and the STAR tool
- Estimate indirect and digital access
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Recommend
- Savings from right-sizing users
- Compliance risks and how to close them
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Act
- Reclassify users and clean up accounts
- Plan purchases, renewals or your S/4HANA move
Why CONTAX
SAP Licensing Guides from Our Experts
Optimizing Licensing with the STAR Tool
A step-by-step guide to aligning S/4HANA licenses with actual use.
Ownership vs. Subscription
Rethinking the on-premise or cloud question for S/4HANA.
SAP Increases Scrutiny on License Audits
What SAP's compliance teams are asking customers now.
Document-Based Licensing
How SAP Digital Access counts documents.
The Problem with Indirect Access
Why interfaces to SAP can create licensing exposure.
EDI and SAP Licensing
How EDI may put SAP customers offside on licensing.
SAP Licensing FAQ
What is SAP indirect access?
Indirect access is when people or systems use SAP through another application, such as an interface, a web portal, a third-party tool or EDI, instead of logging in to SAP directly. SAP expects this use to be licensed, and today that is usually done with Digital Access licenses.
What is SAP Digital Access?
Digital Access is SAP's document-based license model for indirect use. Instead of counting users, it counts documents created in SAP by external systems, such as sales orders, invoices and purchase orders, across nine document types.
Does EDI count as indirect access?
In many cases, yes. Orders and other documents created in SAP by EDI can count as digital access, so EDI should be part of any licensing review.
What is the SAP STAR tool?
The Trusted Authorization Review (STAR) tool maps each user's roles and authorizations to S/4HANA license types, such as Professional, Functional and Productivity. It helps find over-licensed users and supports audits and negotiations with data. It needs S/4HANA 1909 or higher and works for on-premise and RISE systems.
How should we prepare for an SAP license audit?
Know your contract, classify users correctly, remove inactive accounts, and understand your interfaces before the audit starts. SAP's compliance teams now ask detailed follow-up questions, such as who creates sales orders and whether you use EDI, so it pays to have the answers ready.
What happens to our ECC licenses when we move to S/4HANA?
SAP offers ways to carry the value of existing licenses into S/4HANA, either as on-premise licenses or as credit toward a cloud subscription. The best option depends on your contract and plans, and we compare them for you.
Can CONTAX also sell us SAP licenses?
Yes. CONTAX is an SAP Gold Partner and authorized reseller, so once the review is done we can quote and supply any licenses or subscriptions you need.
Get a Clear Picture of Your SAP Licensing
Tell us about your SAP contract and systems, and we'll show you where you stand.