Our SAP licensing consultants are independent SAP licensing experts who work only for the buyer. We build your true license position across named users, engines, and digital access, then use it to size RISE, S/4HANA, and renewals. License reviews are a fixed fee agreed up front, and you can expect an audit ready baseline and a lower number.
Optimize the Estate First: The SAP Work That Pays for the Negotiation
SAP prices your future from your present, so a bloated estate converts into a bloated subscription. The user cleanup, engine and shelfware rationalization, resolving indirect access on your terms, and converting clean with the credits you earned.
An SAP licensing consultant establishes what you own, what you use, and what SAP can fairly charge, then turns that into a position before any number reaches SAP. At Redress that work is done by SAP licensing experts who sit only on the buyer side.
The work covers RISE with SAP terms and the digital access document model, not just user counts. A typical scope includes:
A system integrator earns on the implementation and often resells SAP. A buyer side consultant earns nothing from SAP, so the number favors only your position.
Bring in SAP licensing experts before an S/4HANA conversion, before a RISE proposal lands, or the moment SAP asks for USMM and LAW measurements. The leverage sits before the conversion math or the measurement is fixed, not after.
SAP can claim indirect or digital access for third party systems touching SAP data. Experts classify the documents and cap the exposure before it is priced, because the first volume you license becomes the floor for the term.
RISE rolls infrastructure, support, and license into one figure. Experts unbundle it to see the true license cost and the escalator, which our 2026 RISE analysis found stepping up 4 to 7 percent a year.
An SAP license review runs in four steps, each with a written deliverable, and the first deliverables land within 10 to 15 business days of complete data.
SAP licensing experts cut cost by correcting the inputs SAP prices from, then sequencing the conversion credit, the indirect access position, and the renewal so SAP cannot trade one against another.
The counter is built on the validated document and user baseline, not the SAP quote. This sits at the core of our SAP licensing services, and the negotiation itself runs through our SAP negotiation advisors or RISE with SAP advisory.
Where SAP licensing work moves the number, with a published example of each
| Lever | Where it applies | Published example |
|---|---|---|
| Digital access document count | Indirect access claims and DAAP offers | 89 percent of an indirect access claim removed |
| User classification | Named user mix and FUE sizing | 31 percent cut in SAP licensing costs |
| RISE unbundling and CVR rebuild | RISE proposals and renewals | 30 percent below the opening RISE proposal |
| Escalator cap | Subscription renewals | Annual uplift cut from 5 to 1 percent in the same RISE renewal |
| Maintenance base cleanup | ECC support renewals | $8M saved over five years |
We draft the counter, the document classification, and the side letter, and we brief the steering committee, not just deliver a report.
Published SAP licensing outcomes include a 31 percent cut in licensing costs, $8M saved on support, and a 90 percent reduction in audit exposure. Each came from correcting the license position before negotiating.
Fredrik Filipsson, co founder and Group CEO, leads SAP licensing work with Mietske van Ravesteijn, our SAP Commercial Lead. Both come from the vendor side of SAP deals.
Fredrik co founded Redress Compliance in 2018 after more than two decades at Oracle, IBM, and SAP, beginning in Oracle license management services running audit and compliance engagements. He advises enterprise buyers on SAP, Oracle, and Java licensing and personally runs a small number of senior engagements each year.
Read Fredrik’s profile or meet the management team.
An SAP license review is a fixed fee, scoped to your estate and agreed up front, and we never bill by the hour. When the review leads into a negotiation, you can choose a fixed fee or a success fee of 25 percent of what we save you.
On a success fee you keep 75 percent, and if we save nothing you pay nothing. Audit defense stays fixed fee.
The standard SAP pitch is that RISE simplifies the estate and lowers total cost. We disagree. In roughly 6 of 10 RISE proposals we have benchmarked, the bundle raised multi year cost and handed SAP control of sizing and renewal.
The buyer side move is to unbundle RISE into its license, infrastructure, and support parts, price each independently, and keep an exit path, rather than accept the headline simplification.
The difference is who pays the advisor and how often they see SAP deals. Each option can work, so pick on independence, SAP commercial depth, and fee structure.
SAP licensing consultants compared: Redress, Big Four, SAP partner or reseller, in house
| Test | Redress | Big Four consultancy | SAP partner or reseller | In house team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independence | 100 percent buyer side, no vendor affiliations | Independent of SAP sales; other units may hold SAP alliance work | Part of the SAP sales channel | Full |
| Conflicts of interest | None; the fee is the only revenue | Worth checking before engaging | Earns margin or implementation revenue on the outcome | None, but project deadlines push toward signing |
| SAP licensing experience | Former SAP commercial staff; RISE, audit, and indirect access files | Strong technical benches; commercial depth varies | Deep product knowledge from the sell side | Knows the estate; limited view of peer pricing |
| How fees work | Fixed fee; 25 percent success fee option on negotiations; never hourly | Usually day rates or time and materials | Often folded into license or project pricing | Staff time |
For a neutral checklist, read our guide on how to choose a software licensing advisor.
Four changes affect an SAP license position this year. Each one rewards a buyer who knows the baseline before SAP does.
Source: Redress Compliance advisory engagement file, 2024 to 2025.
Start with the evidence you already hold. Every step below feeds the counter or the defense.
White Paper · SAP
The SAP contract. The buyer side fundamentals
Nine buyer side fundamentals for an SAP contract: discount baselines, indirect access caps, price protection, audit clauses, and clean exit terms. Read it free.
An SAP license review from Redress is a fixed fee, scoped to your estate and agreed before work starts, and we never bill by the hour. If the review leads into a negotiation, you can switch to a success fee of 25 percent of what we save you, keeping 75 percent, with nothing to pay if we save nothing.
First deliverables land within 10 to 15 business days of complete data. A full named user review with audit ready evidence on every change ran sixteen weeks in the published Massachusetts university case.
Yes. We have zero vendor affiliations, no reseller agreements, and no referral fees, and we do not implement SAP. Our only income from an engagement is the fee you pay.
Only if you tell them. Your team keeps all communication with SAP, and we work from your own contracts and measurement data. SAP sees the result as better prepared counters and corrected classifications.
Engage before an S/4HANA conversion, before a RISE proposal, or as soon as SAP requests USMM and LAW measurements. Once a measurement is submitted uncorrected, it becomes SAP's opening number.
Contracts and order forms, maintenance schedules, recent USMM and LAW output, user role and transaction data, and a view of the interfaces that write into SAP. We tell you exactly what to export in the first call.
Yes. Indirect and digital access is often the largest single SAP exposure, and we count it against the nine chargeable document types before SAP does. Live claims run through our SAP indirect access defense service.
A licensing consultant establishes the true license position; a negotiation advisor uses it to move price and terms. At Redress the same senior team does both, so the baseline and the counter stay consistent.
An SAP reseller or implementation partner cannot be your buyer side advisor. They earn on the SAP sale. The independence test fails before the RISE conversation opens.
Engage independent buyer side SAP negotiation advisors. We do not resell or implement SAP, and we sit on your side of the table.
See how our SAP negotiation advisors run renewals, cloud orders, and RISE deals.
Visit page →Engage our SAP licensing consultants for a RISE proposal, a conversion, or an indirect access claim. We validate the baseline and reset the deal on a buyer side basis. See all SAP licensing services.
Independent. Buyer side. Zero reseller margin, zero referral fee, zero vendor influence.
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