Since SAP raised its monthly maintenance fees from 17% of license base to 22%, the reaction has been predictably sour, and all the worse because nothing new is coming back to clients in return. Not improved maintenance support or an easier-to-deploy Solution Manager or, as suggested by Josh Greenbaum (http://ematters.wordpress.com/), some sort of return credit for future software purchases.

Since SAP raised its monthly maintenance fees from 17% of license base to 22%, the reaction has been predictably sour, and all the worse because nothing new is coming back to clients in return. Not improved maintenance support or an easier-to-deploy Solution Manager or, as suggested by Josh Greenbaum (http://ematters.wordpress.com/), some sort of return credit for future software purchases. Josh is not the only SAP industry analyst to aggressively weigh in on SAP’s smugness regarding the rate hike. Jon Reed (www.jonerp.com), Dennis Howlett (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/) and others have contributed some amusing-even-as-it hurts observations. Ray Wang of Forrester (http://blog.softwareinsider.org/) has recently revived “The Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights”) partly in response to this move. Forrester, Gartner, and other analyst firms have recently come out with solid advice to clients about how to reduce maintenance costs and I advise you to check these out. In parallel, I would like to propose to SAP that they revive an older program by which clients could again qualify for a maintenance fee reduction by demonstrating a high level of autonomy (and a consequent reduced maintenance burden for SAP). Clearly, SAP’s maintenance burden varies from client to client so why should they uniformly pay at the same rate? The old program that was phased out some years ago was admittedly applied somewhat haphazardly. The gist of it was that clients who could demonstrate the existence of an internal “SAP Competence Center” received a reduction from 17% to 15%. The demonstration did not have to include the existence of a physical center; organizational attributes and assets were examined and satisfaction of a multi-page “SAP Competency” checklist got you in. Currently, one nub of this issue is the status, cost, and usability of Solution Manager. When it was initially announced, SAP touted it (as it still does today) as the “… application management solution facilitates technical support for distributed systems – with functionality that covers all key aspects of solution deployment, operation, and continuous improvement.” Behind the scenes, it was also intended to reduce the maintenance burden carried by SAP. Therefore, doesn’t it stand to reason that a client with a fully functioning Solution Manager is less of a burden on SAP maintenance staff than a client without it? Doesn’t it also stand to reason that clients with the following attributes should be given a break? * Outsourced help desk – reduces the volume of annoyance calls to SAP through improved routing and service * High level or outsourced Basis administration – idem * Internal Center of Excellence with a strong focus on user competency and robust functionality * High level of participation in ASUG or ASUG-like client-to-client support and sharing of best practices * Full compliance with SAP upgrade policy (it is obvious that a 4.7 client is more of a burden than a 6.0 client) In the SAP client base, as in the U.S. financial community, some firms are playing within reasonable boundaries and others are a shameless mess. Short of instituting an as-you-go maintenance fee (dream on), SAP should strongly consider rewarding its best and most disciplined clients with some sort of break. Clients, ask your SAP rep about this and see if you get a better answer than those given the analysts.

Written by :

Michaeldoane