Negotiating BTP in Your SAP Deal
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) has become a pivotal component in SAP’s ecosystem, enabling integrations, extensions, and analytics across applications.
CIOs and CTOs negotiating major SAP deals, such as purchasing S/4HANA, should leverage BTP credits as a bargaining chip.
Negotiating free or discounted BTP credits when buying core SAP products can significantly reduce costs and accelerate innovation while ensuring you maximize the value of your SAP investment.
Why Negotiate BTP Credits in Your SAP Deal
SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) is SAP’s cloud suite for integration, extension, and analytics. Including BTP credits or services in your contract can significantly boost the value of your SAP investment.
It offsets the cost of the platform tools you’ll need to make S/4HANA (or any SAP solution) work seamlessly with your business.
With BTP capacity bundled in, your team can immediately build interfaces and custom apps without waiting for a new budget. SAP is often willing to grant these incentives because it encourages you to explore its ecosystem more deeply.
In short, negotiating BTP credits stretches your dollar and ensures you can fully leverage your new SAP system from day one.
Read SAP BTP Licensing Models: Pay-as-You-Go, Subscription, and CPEA Explained.
Strategies for Negotiating BTP Credits
- Bundle BTP with your purchase: Treat BTP as a required component of your S/4HANA deal. Ask SAP to include a block of platform credits or a key BTP service in the package.
- Time your ask strategically: Negotiate when SAP is under pressure (e.g., quarter-end). Reps often offer extra credits or discounts at these crunch times to close deals.
- Leverage alternatives: Consider using other platforms or tools as an alternative to BTP. If SAP thinks part of your project might go outside their stack, they’ll be more inclined to offer BTP credits to keep everything on SAP.
- Growth plan: If you anticipate high BTP usage, consider negotiating additional capacity or a discounted overage rate now to ensure optimal performance. It’s better to secure a deal upfront than pay premium rates later.
Real-World Examples
For instance, a company purchasing S/4HANA negotiated $50,000 in BTP credits at no extra cost as part of the deal. This covered their first year of integration and extension needs on BTP, directly saving approximately $ 50,000 in cloud expenses.
In another negotiation, an organization moving to RISE with SAP found the standard included platform credits insufficient; they secured an additional 50,000 BTP credits at a 30% discount.
That concession ensured they could run critical workloads on BTP without incurring surprise overage fees. These examples show that significant value is on the table if you bring BTP into the negotiation.
Recommendations
- Always negotiate BTP in large deals: Bring up BTP when you’re buying a major SAP product. SAP often will include BTP to sweeten the deal, but only if you explicitly request it.
- Align credits with real needs: Forecast how you’ll use BTP (for integrations, extensions, analytics) and request credits or services to cover those needs. Ensure the negotiated amount is substantial enough to be useful but not so large that it goes unused.
- Use timing and leverage: Engage SAP when they’re most eager to close (e.g., year-end) and mention that you’re considering other platforms. These factors can greatly improve the BTP concessions you receive.
- Monitor and manage usage: Once you have BTP credits, track usage closely. Avoid unwittingly exceeding your free allotment, and use consumption data to inform future negotiations (e.g., if you consistently need more, you have a case for additional credits or discounts later).
- Plan for the future: Before the free or discounted period ends, assess your BTP usage to determine how much you’ve used. Use that insight to negotiate the next phase – whether it’s extending credits, securing a better ongoing rate, or scaling back if you overestimate needs. Be proactive so you’re not left paying more than expected.
Read Allocating SAP BTP Costs Across Projects and Teams.
FAQ
Q1: What is SAP BTP, and why include it in an S/4HANA deal?
A: It’s SAP’s cloud platform for integration, extension, and other services. Including BTP with S/4HANA means you have those capabilities from day one, without needing a separate platform later.
Q2: Will SAP provide us with free BTP credits or discounts?
A: Yes – but only if you ask. SAP can include free credits or discounts in a large deal, but only if you request it and explain why you need BTP.
Q3: How much BTP credit should we negotiate for?
A: Aim to cover your first-year usage. Estimate the cost of your planned integrations and apps on BTP and request approximately that amount in credits.
Q4: Do BTP credits expire or have limitations?
A: Yes. Typically, they expire after about a year if not used (no rollover). Therefore, be aware of your credits’ validity period and plan to use them accordingly. Also, check if they’re a one-time grant or renewed annually as part of a multi-year deal.
Q5: What if we exceed the free credits or need more BTP capacity?
A: If you use up the credits, extra usage is billed at standard rates (which are high). To avoid that, negotiate a buffer or discounted overage rate upfront. If you haven’t and you’re nearing the limit, consider discussing with SAP the purchase of additional credits at your discounted rate before incurring significant charges.
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