 SAP lets users move from on-premises licenses to cloud
In an effort to expedite and simplify adoption of its cloud
software, SAP today launched a new licensing policy by which customers can
terminate existing on-premise licenses to adopt cloud ones.
In effect, customers can eliminate maintenance payments on
the software they’re no longer using, and use that money instead to pay for
cloud software.
While each customer scenario will be taken on a case-by-case
basis, there aren’t any restrictions on how customers can apply the new policy,
says Augusto Abbarchi, SAP’s head of maintenance go-to-market. It is open to
any maintenance level or license type, and even potentially to shelfware.
But there is one caveat: The new subscriptions for cloud
software, which include SAP’s homegrown software as well as Ariba and
SuccessFactors, have to add up to more than the customer is paying in
maintenance and support for the eliminated on-premise licenses. (This is SAP’s
way of trying to ensure that while maintenance revenue shrinks, cloud revenue
balances it out). And the policy is not retroactive.
“We are trying to make it simpler and faster for customers
to adopt cloud solutions,” Abbarchi says. “We know our customers have invested
heavily in the on-premise platform and are paying a maintenance fee to SAP, and
this can prevent a customer from considering the move to the cloud.”
For several months now, SAP has promised that it will
simplify its licensing terms. This new policy is a step in that direction, as
partial license termination was something SAP has never allowed. >> READ MORE |