Sap license audit workbench

Related Questions. You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post. Ikhlaq Kazi. Like 0 Share. Right click and copy the link to share this comment. Kaushik Debnath Blog Post Author. Hi Kaushik, I have an issue, when I'm executing usmm on my system, the results is ok.

Thanks, Laia. Ozair Shaikh. Hi Kaushik, How do we identify what license type is to be assigned to which users. Regards, Ozair. Prashant Nagar. Edgar Kenny Makhanya.

Hi Edgar Kenny Makhanya, Maybe you can help with some screen-shots to give you better assessment on your issue Thanks, Kaushik. Surendra Shrotriya. Just for your understanding purpose, think like Consolidating all of the Users in your organisation in all Systems is like having all the Active Dialogue Users in a Single system, if that shed some light on your query Sorry, for late reply Thanks, Kaushik. Hello Kaushik Debnath, Thanks for the blog with detailed steps. Thanks, Cherry. Hi chunyan zheng, The good thing is that you only need to give accounting to SAP what Users they asked you.

In case, you have something to add up, We would be glad to hear such Thanks a Lot again for going through my blog Thanks, Kaushik.

HI Thanks for the blog with detailed steps. Gurjeet Kaur. Hi Kaushik, First of all Thanks for sharing your Knowledge. Could you tell something on that? Astron Gida Grubu. Hi Kaushik, Thx for the great info. The measurement results are Collected in the central LAW system and consolidated The consolidation is the automatic analysis and optimization of the individual user types. Send directly to SAP after release As a result, an anonymous combination of the same user types, as displayed in the results log, is transferred.

The LAW screen consists of two large subareas, where you can reduce the size of the upper area: Control LAW You can call all steps for user consolidation in order here. At the end, the auditors produce an SAP audit report that must be approved by the client with his signature. Reliable information about the SAP license portfolio in the company can then only be obtained with relevant investment of time and personnel, and all SAP agreements made with the company must be adhered to.

In small companies with a small number of SAP systems and users, the required information can still be gathered with the help of Excel tables or the company's own knowledge of the user base. But with several hundred users, this is no longer an option. In complex SAP landscapes, there is simply no precise overview of the current license inventory.

There are different procedures depending on the SAP product purchased. For ERP applications that are installed on the customer's premises and account for the largest share of SAP applications in the company, the measurement is performed annually. It is to be performed by the customer himself, for which he must use the tools provided by SAP.

It is worthwhile for companies and other organizations to introduce professional license management. After all, every investment in SAP licenses inevitably entails maintenance fees. Unnecessary license purchases should therefore be avoided at all costs.

In addition to automated measurement, however, there are also manual analysis procedures for other products in the form of self-reporting or questionnaires. For cloud solutions, SAP performs the measurement itself. SAP also conducts formal audits if a license violation is suspected. SAP always focuses on different points.

In most cases, some irregularities have been noticed or SAP recognizes that the company has no discernible transparency regarding SAP licenses. With the help of SAP license management tools, the audit preparation process can be conducted much more efficiently.

The company is licensed in such a way that SAP compliance prevails, has optimally designed license costs, thus does not pay too much, and permanently has possible requirements transparently available. This means that SAP can be approached proactively, the best discounts can be achieved, and the clear SAP licensing situation means that SAP has no basis for discussions about the audit findings.

Rights and authorizations depend on the SAP products and license types that the company uses and the time of purchase. It is vital that an SAP user is licensed in such a way that his or her license covers his or her real activities in SAP, or even falls short of this.

If they fall short, then his would then be overlicensing. And an opportunity to optimize costs. If a company uses this system, the licenses are assigned accordingly and directly during the measurement with the USMM.

For this reason, a company will probably achieve a state of permanent overlicensing, because actual usage is no longer base of the review, and excessive allowance of authorizations will inevitably lead to higher costs.

For effective license management, knowledge of the types, costs and risks is therefore just as essential as knowledge of current SAP guidelines.

Since these are constantly changing, it is advantageous to always be up to date. In the past, some of the guidelines have been relaxed, giving companies more leeway to optimize their license inventory. Unused package licenses can be credited when purchasing new products. Most companies often lack processes or ways to determine exactly how many licenses they have and how many are needed in the first place.

In complex SAP landscapes, there is almost always a gap between license inventory and license requirements. The following two manifestations occur:. Underlicensing occurs when there are more SAP users than licenses purchased, or functions are used that are not covered by the user's license. This is because data is frequently accessed from or delivered to SAP systems via third-party applications. But also an incorrect use of industry solutions, such as SAP Patient Management IS-H , often leads to claims from SAP, because insufficiently defined or documented licensing metrics and rules are occasionally cause for discussions between the client and SAP.

Overlicensing is much more common than underlicensing. It is characterized by the fact that more licenses were purchased by the company than were necessary. Often, to be on the safe side, the significantly more expensive license types were purchased, even though their functionality is not fully utilized. In addition, if a user has not been assigned a license at all, then the expensive Professional User category is automatically applied when measuring.

Although customers are not in breach of the SAP contract when they over-license, this results in unnecessary expenses in yearly maintenance. SAP contract when they over-license, this results in unnecessary expenses in yearly maintenance. Relevant savings potential is detected, when a client assigns his users inneceserily unnecessarily the most expensive license types.

The use of alternative types of licenses also offers potential savings. However, since many companies often do not know which license types are suitable for them, they always fall back on the expensive Professional license. Caution: overlicensing can also be risky if the existing licenses are incorrectly assigned. This is the case, for example, if a user uses the functions of a professional user but only has an employee license, or conversely, a user with an expensive professional license only uses employee functions.

The latter is of no interest to SAP. But if the audit finds users whose usage exceeds the scope of their license, SAP will insist on additional payment. As a result, a company may have to buy additional licenses despite overlicensing. This sounds paradoxical at first but is not uncommon. You might now think that overlicensing means that it no longer makes sense to optimize SAP licenses.

However, this is not true. Often new licenses are purchased every year and this without knowing the exact need. With the help of a proper license management tool, surpluses become visible, especially in the expensive license area, the company is put in a position to buy the cheapest licenses when there is a need and, if necessary, expensive licenses can be exchanged for cheaper licenses.

At first glance, underlicensing appears to be more threatening than overlicensing, as it has an almost percent probability of resulting in a penalty payment. Money that was not budgeted for in this way. SAP send out a measurement requests when the self-declaration is due which defines which SAP systems and products need to be measured. With every enhancement pack the measurement tool is updated as well as being updated with various support notes.

This means that previously unmeasured products can suddenly become measurable. If these products are unknowingly out of compliance but not previously measured, then seemingly non-existent SAP license issues can crop up completely out of the blue. Sadly not, is the simple answer. It is possible that issues can be missed, results may not even be read at all, or for strategic reasons issues may not be raised with the customer at the time.

You can go for years submitting annual license audit results to SAP without issue and then one day suddenly find yourself out of compliance.

Produce and maintain your own Effective License Position independent of the annual license audit process based on your exact contractual definitions and metrics. One issue is the constant changing of SAP license metrics. It will of course be counting the most up-to-date metric according to price list and enhancement pack updates.