How Redress Compliance helped a leading French energy and utilities company negotiate 35% savings on RISE with SAP, secure contractual French data residency guarantees, and build per-division flexibility into the agreement.
A leading energy and utilities company in France, serving millions of customers across generation, distribution, and retail divisions, was negotiating a move to RISE with SAP for its SAP ECC systems.
The company’s SAP landscape spanned finance, asset management, and customer billing. SAP’s RISE offering promised a cloud migration to S/4HANA under a single contract.
However, the utility was concerned about handing over control of sensitive infrastructure and customer data, as well as the cost-benefit analysis given its existing optimised private cloud setup.
The initial RISE quote was much higher than the company’s current SAP running costs. The package bundled SAP’s cloud infrastructure at a premium, charging for capabilities the utility already had in its optimised private cloud. Without a clear financial upside, sticking with in-house infrastructure or a local sovereign cloud provider made more sense.
By French law and company policy, certain customer and grid data must remain within French territory. The standard RISE contract did not explicitly guarantee local data residency or EU-only support. The company required assurances that moving to RISE would not violate data sovereignty rules or result in support being handled outside Europe.
SAP’s offer included components (SAP Analytics Cloud, SuccessFactors) that the company either had separately or did not plan to use, inflating the cost. The contract was also rigid: a single agreement for multiple business units. The utility operates three divisions and wanted flexibility to scale services per division, not a one-size-fits-all subscription.
Redress performed a detailed cost-value analysis, demonstrating that much of SAP’s cost was cloud infrastructure markup and redundant services. They pressed SAP to remove those charges and apply steep discounts to meet market rates. Benchmarks from other EU deals informed a target of more than 30% off. Redress made clear the client was ready to stick with its private cloud if SAP did not significantly improve the financials.
For a full cost comparison framework, see Cost Comparison: RISE vs. Own Infrastructure.
A critical achievement was securing SAP’s contractual commitment to French data residency. Redress negotiated clauses specifying that all client data would be hosted in EU/France data centres and governed by EU privacy standards. The contract stipulated that support would also be handled from within the EU. These guarantees allowed the company to adopt SAP’s cloud without violating local regulations or compromising oversight.
Redress tailored the RISE scope to the client’s needs. They negotiated out unnecessary components, removing SuccessFactors (already licensed separately) and adjusting pricing accordingly. Critically, Redress structured the agreement so each major division’s usage could be scaled independently. This modular approach enabled the utility to allocate SAP resources and costs by division, rather than being locked into a single aggregated allotment.
Redress built clear renewal terms and an exit strategy into the contract. They secured a cap on annual price increases (no more than 5%) to prevent cost creep. They also inserted a clause allowing the client to adjust the contract or revert to on-premise systems later without punitive fees, should regulations or needs change. This “escape hatch” gave the risk-averse utility confidence that it was not irreversibly tied to SAP’s cloud.
For RISE exit terms and licence conversion mechanics, see RISE with SAP: Impact on Existing On-Premise Licences and Shelfware.
Negotiating a RISE with SAP agreement? Redress Compliance provides independent advisory on RISE pricing, data residency, contract flexibility, exit terms, and migration risk. We work for you, not SAP.
SAP RISE Advisory →SAP conceded a substantial price reduction, about 35% lower than initial, bringing the 5-year cost down below the company’s in-house projections. The cloud migration became financially attractive, freeing budget for other digital initiatives.
Written guarantees of French/EU data residency and locally governed support. The utility gains SAP’s cloud benefits (automatic updates, scalability) without compromising compliance. Auditors and regulators are satisfied.
By dropping unused services and enabling per-division scaling, the utility will not pay for shelfware or one business unit’s excess on behalf of another. Each division (generation, distribution, retail) can ramp up or down independently.
Annual escalation capped at 5%. Exit clause allows reversion to on-premise without punitive fees. The utility is not irreversibly tied to SAP’s cloud, a critical requirement for risk-averse regulated utilities.
For the utility’s leadership, the outcome is a win on multiple fronts: cost efficiency, compliance assurance, and operational flexibility. SAP’s offer was transformed into a true solution for the business rather than a rigid vendor mandate.
“Our non-negotiables were clear: cost savings and data staying in France. Redress made sure SAP listened. They slashed the price and built in the guarantees we needed on data sovereignty. We got a tailored solution rather than a generic package, and that is 100% due to having Redress as our advocate. It is a cloud deal we can sign with confidence.”CIO, French Utility Company
Yes, but it requires explicit negotiation. SAP’s standard contract does not guarantee data residency in a specific country by default. In this case, Redress secured contractual clauses specifying French/EU data centre hosting and EU-only support. This is particularly important for regulated industries (energy, healthcare, financial services) where data sovereignty laws apply. Always insist on written guarantees. Verbal assurances are insufficient.
RISE bundles infrastructure, platform management, and S/4HANA under a single subscription. For companies with already-optimised private clouds, RISE often costs more because you are paying for capabilities you already have. The key is negotiating out redundant components and ensuring RISE pricing undercuts your current total cost of ownership. See our cost comparison guide for a full framework.
Absolutely. SAP’s initial RISE quotes frequently bundle modules like SuccessFactors, SAP Analytics Cloud, or Business Technology Platform that the client does not need. Removing these reduces cost significantly. In this case, dropping SuccessFactors (already licensed separately) immediately lowered the subscription price. An independent advisor can identify which bundled components are redundant.
Best practice is to negotiate a hard cap on annual price increases, typically 3 to 5%. Without this, SAP can apply inflation-based or “standard list price” increases at renewal that compound quickly over a 5-year term. This case secured a 5% cap. Some clients have achieved 3% or even fixed pricing for the initial term.
It is possible but requires advance negotiation. SAP’s default terms typically do not provide exit credits. In this case, Redress secured a clause allowing the client to revert to on-premise without punitive fees. These protections must be negotiated before signing. They are extremely difficult to add retroactively.
Whether you are concerned about cost, data sovereignty, or contract flexibility in a RISE with SAP agreement, we will help you negotiate terms that protect your budget and your data.