By September 30, many SAP customers need to retain SAP Enterprise Support at 22% of license contract price,1 or save 50% of that support price, and up to 90% of overall support costs with third-party support?
It is no news that 2020 has turned out to be an unusual year! For IT leaders, this means grappling with the new reality of remote work caused by the pandemic, with 61% of companies surveyed by ASUG responding that they were delaying projects.2 According to a 2019 survey conducted by Rimini Street, 80% of SAP licensee respondents plan to continue to run their SAP systems beyond 2025.2 Earlier this year, SAP also predictably extended the deadline for mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite from 2025 to 2027.3
With all these dynamics, “third-party support,” according to the Gartner Predicts 2020 report, can be used as a “safe haven while evaluating … long-term plans.”4 The same report predicts a 200% increase in the third-party software support market.
So instead of being automatically bound for yet another year at a typical 22% of license contract pricing for SAP Enterprise Support, now (until September 30) is the time to investigate third-party maintenance.
Investigating Independent, Third-Party Maintenance
Independent, third-party support is a viable and cost-effective option for a range of SAP customers — in terms of size, number of users, and the complexity of their SAP landscape. Third-party support from leading vendors also includes support for custom code at no extra cost. Addressing tax and regulatory updates, supporting legacy and highly customized SAP instances, plus receiving highly-skilled and experienced engineer support on the first call are all benefits provided by the leading third-party support provider for SAP products.
Increasing Negotiation Leverage for Future Support Contracts and Software Purchases
A discussion about third-party maintenance often equates to leverage in contract negotiations, offering the opportunity to gain improved terms for maintenance renewal and/or new software purchases — or the much better value of a move to independent, third-party support. Consider not bundling existing contracts and keeping them separated: Resisting the “easy” path to contract consolidation can allow incremental renegotiation of licenses. It’s good to have options and flexibility.
Avoiding the “Wait Until Next Year” Deferral
An automatic box-check for continued support from SAP for another year may extend the maintenance value problem into the future, with no solution to less-comprehensive service at exorbitant prices. Controlling the support window should be the customer’s right, not the provider’s. Too often, motivated SAP licensees speak up in October, November, and December as they finally realize the better value of independent, third-party support — but they have already been locked into another year with SAP.
Act now to allow for time to better understand how support from Rimini Street, the leading third-party support provider, can optimize current SAP releases and unlock resources for the innovation businesses demand today.
Sources
1 https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/enterprise-support.html
2 ASUG Business as Unusual for SAP customers during Covid 19, ASUG Pulse Check – Week 7 (May 1, 2020) (https://blog.asug.com/hubfs/2020%20ASUG%20Pulse%20Check/ASUG-Pulse-Check-Week-7-May-2020.pdf)
3 How SAP Customers are responding to Planned 2025 End of ECC6 Mainstream Maintenance deadline (https://www.riministreet.com/Documents/Collateral/Rimini-Street-Research-Report-SAP-Customers-Respond-ECC6-Deadline.pdf)
4 Gartner, Predicts 2020: Negotiate Software and Cloud Contracts to Manage Marketplace Growth and Reduce Legacy Costs, 18 December 2019 (https://www.riministreet.com/info/gartner-report-reduce-legacy-software-costs-to-drive-innovation/?src=blogfeb20)
