Rejoining SAP Support After Third-Party: What You Need to Know
Rejoining SAP’s support program after a stint with third-party support can be complex and costly. Organizations often leave SAP maintenance to save money with third-party providers, but later find reasons to return.
The decision to resume SAP support should be made strategically, with a clear understanding of fees, risks, and negotiation tactics. Read our guide to SAP Third Party Support.
This guide outlines why companies consider returning to SAP maintenance and how to navigate SAP’s maintenance return policy to your advantage.
Why Companies Consider Rejoining SAP Support
Many SAP customers turn to third-party support (from independent firms) to cut costs.
After enjoying significant savings, there are scenarios where moving from third-party support back to SAP maintenance becomes appealing:
- Preparing for an S/4HANA migration: To transition to SAP’s next-generation ERP (S/4HANA), companies may need SAP’s official tools, conversion programs, and guidance. Being on SAP support eases access to these resources and upgrade paths.
- Needing official upgrades or patches: Third-party support keeps your system running, but it cannot provide new SAP software versions. If your business requires a major version upgrade or new functionality that only SAP provides, rejoining SAP support is the straightforward way to obtain it.
- Executive pressure for “safe” support: Leadership changes or risk concerns can drive a return to vendor support. Executives might feel more secure with SAP itself backing the software, especially for critical systems, even if third-party support was adequate. Rejoining SAP maintenance can be a politically safe choice to reassure stakeholders that you have the vendor’s full backing.
In short, the cost-saving phase with third-party support may come to an end once strategic needs arise. Access to SAP’s latest technology, official support infrastructure, and peace of mind often pull organizations back to SAP’s maintenance fold.
SAP’s Reinstatement Policy Explained
SAP’s maintenance return policy is notoriously strict. If you want to resume SAP support after time away, be prepared for SAP reinstatement fee surprises.
SAP typically requires payment of all the back maintenance fees for the period you were off support, plus a penalty for reinstatement.
In practice, if you left SAP support for three years, SAP will ask for those three years’ worth of support fees you “skipped” – often 20%+ of your license price per year – and tack on a surcharge (commonly an extra 10–20% of the total) as an SAP license reinstatement fee. This means the bill to rejoin can equal or even exceed the cost of buying a new license outright.
Why does SAP do this? It’s a deterrent. The policy makes it financially painful to take a maintenance “holiday.”
SAP does not offer an easy amnesty for those who left – they want to recover the fees as if you had never departed. From SAP’s perspective, you received support benefits via a third party without paying SAP, so now you must “catch up” on dues.
Unfortunately, this stance often negates any savings you enjoyed with third-party support in the first place.
Another wrinkle: SAP may review your license compliance before welcoming you back.
If your usage grew while off support (e.g., additional users or modules deployed without formal licenses), SAP could demand you purchase those licenses and even pay maintenance on them retroactively.
In other words, rejoining SAP maintenance might come with an audit. Companies should brace for this and ensure they are in full compliance with license terms (user counts, indirect access, etc.) before approaching SAP to rejoin.
Uncovering compliance gaps at reinstatement can create additional financial exposure beyond the back fees.
Read who are the best providers, Best SAP Third-Party Support Providers Compared: What to Consider.
Strategies for Rejoining SAP Without Paying Full Back Fees
Facing a massive reinstatement invoice, many companies look for creative ways to return to SAP support more affordably.
While SAP’s default is to charge every penny of back maintenance, there are strategic approaches to rejoin SAP maintenance on better terms:
- Purchase new licenses or subscriptions: Instead of reinstating old contracts, some companies simply buy fresh licenses (for example, licensing S/4HANA anew) or move to a subscription service like RISE with SAP. This route means you avoid paying back-maintenance fees since you’re technically starting a new contract. It’s effectively a “clean slate” approach. The downside is you are paying for software licenses again, but it can be financially attractive if SAP’s reinstatement quote is just as high (or higher). For organizations already planning a move to S/4HANA or cloud, buying new licenses as part of that migration might cost less than reinstating legacy support. Always compare the numbers: new license costs plus subscription fees vs. the lump-sum SAP maintenance return policy charge for reinstatement. In some cases, starting fresh with a new license can save money and simplify the contract.
- Negotiate an amnesty on back fees: SAP does not advertise “welcome back” discounts, but everything is negotiable if you’re bringing future business. Approach SAP as a customer who wants to come back and invest in new SAP products. Emphasize your planned spend on S/4HANA, cloud services, or other SAP offerings. With that carrot on the table, push for a SAP support amnesty – essentially a waiver or reduction of the back-maintenance fees. For example, if you commit to a sizable cloud subscription or a multi-year S/4HANA project, SAP may agree to forgive the years of unpaid maintenance to win that deal. This is not guaranteed, but some organizations have reported success in getting back fees reduced or dropped as part of a larger negotiation. The key is to position rejoining as a win for SAP’s future revenue, not just for you to come back for support. Be ready to walk SAP through your planned roadmap and how it benefits them, then request that they “reset” your maintenance status without the heavy penalties.
- Bundle rejoining with a migration deal: One effective tactic is tying your return to support into a broader upgrade or migration agreement. For instance, you might negotiate a package where you return to SAP support as part of signing a new S/4HANA license contract or a RISE with SAP cloud contract. In a bundle deal, SAP can apply special discounts or credits that effectively offset the back support fees. They might, for example, include a “credit” for your previous license investment or offer a discounted first-year maintenance rate on the new contract. By folding the maintenance reinstatement into a bigger sale, SAP’s sales team has more flexibility to accommodate your situation. From your side, the goal is to make the overall deal (migration + support) financially palatable, even if line-item back fees are waived or reduced behind the scenes. Always get any such concession in writing. Bundling deals can be complex, but if you’re truly planning an SAP migration, this approach can turn a punishing fee into part of a new, value-adding project budget.
In all cases, do not simply accept SAP’s first quote to rejoin.
Whether through new purchases, amnesty negotiations, or bundle deals, there are ways to avoid writing a blank check for years of lapsed maintenance.
Use your leverage as a potential new revenue source for SAP to get a better outcome.
License Considerations When Returning
When you left SAP support, you did not lose your SAP licenses – those are perpetual. This means you always retain the legal right to use the software you paid for, even during your third-party support period.
Understanding this is important: your existing licenses are the foundation for any return. You are not a new customer; you already own the software.
Thus, rejoining support is about reinstating maintenance on those licenses (or swapping them for new ones), not buying the software again (unless you choose to).
Here are key license considerations as you return:
- Perpetual usage rights remain: While off support, you continued using SAP legally under your perpetual license agreement. There’s no “penalty” to your license validity for having been on third-party support. Any notion that your licenses expire without maintenance is a myth – they remain yours.
- Maintenance vs. subscription: Decide whether you will put your current licenses back under traditional maintenance or transition to a subscription model. Reinstating maintenance means you’ll pay annual support fees on your original license list in the future (after any back fees are settled). Transitioning to subscription (like moving to RISE) might involve trading in your licenses for cloud access. Evaluate which model fits your IT strategy. If you intend to keep running your systems on-premise, reinstating perpetual maintenance might make sense (if affordable). If you plan to go cloud or S/4HANA SaaS, a subscription could be more logical – just ensure you get credit for your existing licenses in the new deal.
- Watch for license growth during the gap: If you added users, expanded to new modules, or otherwise grew your SAP usage while off support, prepare to address that now. SAP will likely require you to properly license any expansions as part of returning. For example, if you deployed an extra SAP engine or doubled your user count without buying licenses (since you weren’t in an active contract), you’ll need to purchase those licenses upon re-entry. Additionally, SAP could insist on back-maintenance for that unlicensed use (since technically those licenses should have been maintained). This is a worst-case scenario, but it underscores the importance of a compliance self-audit. Before contacting SAP, do an internal review: confirm your user counts, module usage, and indirect access scenarios against what you have licensed. Being proactively aware of any compliance gaps puts you in a better position to negotiate and avoid nasty surprises. You might even choose to true-up licenses before or as part of rejoining to show good faith and have control over the pricing of those licenses (instead of waiting for SAP to discover it and charge list price and penalties).
In summary, rejoining SAP support isn’t as simple as flipping a switch back on. You must carefully consider how your existing licenses will be handled: reinstated as-is, traded in, or augmented.
Protect your rights by knowing your entitlements and ensuring any new agreement maintains or improves those terms (for instance, if you had a discount or special terms originally, try to preserve them).
Lastly, head off compliance issues by getting your license house in order before SAP does it for you.
System Currency and Upgrade Requirements
A practical challenge when coming back to SAP maintenance is ensuring your systems are “current” enough for SAP to support.
If you’ve been away for several years, your SAP software release might now be outdated or even past its supported life.
SAP typically will not provide full support for very old versions, so rejoining may require you to upgrade your software as part of the process.
Consider the following:
- Software versions: Check the version and patch level of your SAP ERP, database, and other components. If you left at ECC 6.0 on an older enhancement pack, that version might now be out of mainstream support. SAP might mandate that you apply all the latest support packs or upgrade to a minimum release before they’ll officially take you back on support. Essentially, they don’t want to support a system that’s years out of date. This means you may need a technical upgrade project before or immediately after rejoining.
- Upgrade project costs and timing: Planning an upgrade or patch catch-up can be a significant project. Factor this into your timeline and budget for returning to SAP. You might need several months to get systems up to a supported release, and potentially the help of SAP or a consulting partner to perform the upgrade. During third-party support, you likely didn’t receive new releases, so there could be a big leap to the current version. Make sure the cost-benefit analysis of returning includes these project costs. For example, if you must spend heavily on an upgrade and pay reinstatement fees, the justification for returning should be even stronger (like a pending S/4 migration).
- Testing and system stability: Any rushed upgrade just to satisfy support requirements carries risk. It’s wise to schedule necessary upgrades in a controlled manner. If possible, coordinate rejoining SAP support after you’ve upgraded. In some cases, companies negotiate a short grace period: they rejoin support and immediately undertake the required upgrade with SAP’s blessing. SAP may offer limited support during that interim if you agree on a plan to become current. Clarify these expectations in the contract. The key is to avoid a scenario where you pay to rejoin and then find out SAP won’t help you until you upgrade. Plan it out so there’s no gap in support coverage.
Overall, be realistic: coming back after a long gap isn’t just a financial exercise, but a technical one.
Ensuring “system currency” (being on a supported release) is part of the hidden cost of rejoining. Include the effort of making your systems compliant with SAP’s support requirements as part of your decision-making.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rejoining SAP
Before signing any agreement to return to SAP maintenance, step back and run a thorough cost-benefit analysis.
Rejoining SAP support is a significant financial decision, sometimes running into millions of dollars when all factors are included. A clear-eyed evaluation will tell you if it’s truly worth it.
Costs to consider:
- Back-maintenance fees and penalties: How much is SAP asking for in reinstatement? Calculate the total “catch-up” cost. For example, if your annual maintenance would have been $500,000 and you were off for 3 years with a 15% penalty, the rejoin cost might be $500k * 3 + $225k = $1.725 million. This is your baseline cost to come back.
- New license or subscription costs (if applicable): If, instead of paying back fees, you opt to buy new licenses or a cloud subscription, what is that cost? Perhaps SAP offers you a deal to purchase S/4HANA for $2 million with one year of support included, instead of $1.7M in back fees. You need to compare these scenarios side by side. Remember to include ongoing costs too (a subscription might be cheaper upfront than a lump-sum reinstatement, but over a few years, subscription fees could total more).
- Upgrade and project costs: As discussed, add the expense of any required system upgrades or migrations tied to rejoining. If returning to support is part of a larger S/4HANA migration, factor in that project budget (tens of millions possibly) – though that project has its own ROI beyond just rejoining support.
- Third-party support savings: Tally how much you saved during the years you were on third-party support. Typically, third-party maintenance costs about 50% of SAP’s fees, so you save roughly half the support money each year. For example, if SAP support had been $500k/year and the third-party had charged $250k, over 3 years, you would have saved $750k. This is money back in your IT budget. Those savings can offset some of the rejoining cost in an ROI sense. In the scenario above, you saved $750k but now face $1.7M to return – meaning net, you’d be down ~$950k over the whole period. If, instead, SAP agrees to lower the back fee to $750k, then your third-party detour essentially broke even financially while buying you time. Do these calculations.
Benefits to weigh:
- Access to new software and innovations: By rejoining, you regain the right to new SAP releases, patches, and enhancements (e.g., you could convert your ECC licenses to S/4HANA at a reduced cost if you’re on maintenance). How valuable is this to your business? If an S/4HANA upgrade will bring significant process improvements or a competitive advantage, that weighs in favor of rejoining (as a stepping stone to that upgrade).
- Risk reduction and vendor support: There’s intangible value in having SAP itself on the hook for support. If a critical issue arises, SAP’s engineers and development team can be called upon (something third-party firms cannot escalate to SAP). Also, some companies feel more secure knowing they won’t be in a gray zone if an audit or legal licensing question comes up – being a paying SAP customer can smooth those interactions. Consider how much risk mitigation and peace of mind matter, and whether they justify the cost.
- Opportunity cost of staying off support: If you remain on third-party support, you continue saving money, but what opportunities might you miss? For example, if your competitors are leveraging SAP’s latest tech while you sit on an aging system, there’s a strategic cost. If your business is fine with the status quo, that cost may be low. But if digital transformation is critical in the next few years, being tied to an older platform could be costly in its own way.
After crunching numbers and evaluating soft factors, you’ll often find that rejoining SAP support only makes financial sense if it’s enabling a larger initiative (like a major upgrade, cloud move, or merger that requires standardization).
Rarely is it worth paying a huge sum just to get back to steady-state support for an old system.
In many cases, companies conclude that staying with third-party support until a defined migration is more cost-effective, unless SAP offers a surprisingly good deal to return.
By performing this cost-benefit analysis, you can justify your decision to executives and stakeholders with hard data rather than gut feeling.
Negotiation Checklist for Returning to SAP
If you decide that returning to SAP support is the right path, approach the conversation with SAP as a negotiation.
Here’s a checklist of tactical steps to prepare for and execute a favorable deal:
- Audit your licenses and usage: Inventory all your SAP licenses, the modules/components in use, and your current user counts. Identify any areas where usage exceeds entitlements. Also note any licenses you aren’t using (shelfware). This knowledge is power – it lets you address compliance issues proactively and decide which licenses truly need to be reinstated. For instance, you might choose not to reinstate maintenance on a component you no longer use. Be ready to present a clean and updated license position to SAP, which can expedite negotiations and avoid drawn-out audits.
- Model different scenarios: Don’t go into talks with just one plan. Calculate the costs for multiple options: paying full reinstatement fees, buying new licenses instead, sticking with third-party support longer, or migrating to a cloud subscription. Having these comparisons allows you to counter SAP’s proposals with data. If SAP’s quote is higher than a new purchase scenario, you can point that out and push for a better offer. Show that you’ve done the math – it signals that you won’t accept an unreasonable deal.
- Propose a back-fee amnesty tied to new investment: Clearly communicate your plans with SAP (e.g., “We intend to start an S/4HANA project next year”). Use that as leverage to request a waiver or reduction of back-maintenance fees. Essentially, trade your future business for leniency on past fees. For example, “If we commit to a $X million cloud contract, we expect SAP to eliminate the $Y in back support fees.” Make the ask explicitly – SAP won’t offer an amnesty unless you prompt it. The worst they can say is no, but often if there’s a significant sale on the line, they’ll find a way to meet in the middle.
- Get all terms in writing: Once you start reaching an understanding with SAP, ensure every element is documented in the contract. This includes any reinstatement fee waivers, credits for old licenses, specific software versions you’re entitled to, and any promises around support for your current systems. If SAP is providing an “amnesty” or special conditions, these must be clearly written into the agreement (verbal assurances won’t protect you later). Also, document any compliance settlements – for instance, if SAP agrees not to charge back-maintenance on newly purchased licenses for past use, have that clause explicitly stated. Clarity now prevents disputes later. Remember, when you left SAP support, you likely issued a termination letter; when you return, essentially, you are signing a new contract – treat it with the same rigor as any new deal.
- Secure protections against future cost spikes: One reason you left SAP support might have been the escalating cost. Don’t rejoin only to face the same problem a few years down the road. Negotiate price protections on your renewed maintenance. While SAP’s standard support fees increase annually (inflation or fixed uplift), you can attempt to cap this. For example, push for an agreement that maintenance fees won’t increase more than a certain percentage per year, or get a fixed fee for a set term. If you’re moving to a subscription model, negotiate caps on renewal rates. SAP sales reps might claim they “can’t change support fees,” but exceptions have been made for large deals. Even a letter from SAP committing to hold your support percentage rate steady can be valuable. The goal is to avoid repeating the same trap that led you to third-party support initially. Lock in a sustainable cost structure for the future, so you’re not forced to consider leaving again in a few years.
Approaching rejoining as a negotiation rather than a formality will significantly improve your outcome.
Do your homework, leverage your value to SAP, and don’t be afraid to ask for concessions. SAP wants your long-term business – use that fact to balance the scales in your favor as you come back on board.
Five Recommendations for CIOs Considering Rejoining SAP Support
Finally, here are five high-level recommendations for CIOs, IT procurement leads, and IT asset managers weighing a return to SAP maintenance:
- Treat rejoining SAP as a negotiation, not a default. Don’t assume you must accept SAP’s terms – approach the situation like any major vendor contract negotiation where you have leverage.
- Use your S/4HANA roadmap as leverage for better terms. If you plan to invest in S/4HANA or SAP cloud products, let SAP know and use that future business to negotiate discounts or fee waivers now.
- Never accept back-maintenance at face value — model alternatives. Challenge the back-fee quote by exploring other options (new licenses, staying on third-party longer, etc.). Showing that you have alternatives gives you bargaining power.
- Align timing with SAP’s fiscal year to maximize discounts. Plan your approach around SAP’s sales calendar. SAP is often more generous with discounts and deals as quarter-end or year-end approaches when they need to hit targets.
- Document all terms — reinstatement, upgrades, and compliance protections. Ensure every promise and condition is written into the contract: the fees being waived, any required upgrades, and assurances that you won’t be penalized for past compliance issues once resolved. Clear documentation is your safety net.
Rejoining SAP support after third-party maintenance is a significant decision. By staying strategic, focusing on your leverage, and planning the move like a tactical negotiation, you can minimize costs and risks.
The key is to be in control of the process – do it on your terms, aligned with your business roadmap, rather than as an emotional or rushed reaction.
With careful planning and negotiation, you can return to SAP support in a way that supports your organization’s goals without breaking the bank.
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