Welcome to LISA
KELLY YIP from LISA & SHARON RYAN from XACTITUD
Earlier this year, SAP announced they would be shifting away from AI subscription pricing, towards AI usage billing. This move towards consumption based pricing, adds huge complexity to an already challenging vendor.
If you’ve followed SAP licensing for any length of time, this pattern will feel familiar. New capability arrives with the promise of simplicity, then, a year or two later, the commercial model catches up, and suddenly there are a bulk of new metrics to get your head around. From understanding what’s included, and what requires additional licensing, to learning how to manage AI Units, entitlements and Consumption pricing, it’s all an absolute minefield.
If you, like many of us, are feeling unsure about what SAP AI licensing looks like today, then Sharon Ryan is here to help, with part two of her SAP series. “Getting to Grips with SAP’s AI Licensing Models” runs on 15th July at 4pm, and is completely free to attend.
Back in February, Sharon Ryan joined us for the first session in this licensing series, focused on RISE with SAP.
Sharon’s line has stuck with me: “fantastic clauses get negotiated and then forgotten, and that’s when costs quietly creep back in”. Negotiation leverage disappears the moment you sign. Ramp-up clauses, remix rights, and CPI caps only help if your technical teams actually know they exist
Furthermore, the paperwork is bigger than it looks. A Master Cloud Agreement can run to eight documents, each with its own supplemental terms, and those terms change more often than most customers realise.
Sharon’s advice was simple: pull down the current versions yourself, rather than relying on whatever your account manager hands you on the day.
The roles and responsibilities matrix deserves far more attention than it gets. It can run to around 1400 line items, splitting out exactly what SAP covers, what falls to you, and what needs a bespoke partner. Most customers only look at it once negotiations are already underway, if at all.
Full Use Equivalents (FUEs) are won or lost in the roles and authorisations, not the bill of materials. Decades of ad hoc access changes mean many organisations are paying for advanced users when self-service would do. Running your own STAR simulation, rather than waiting for SAP to run one for you, is the difference between negotiating from evidence and negotiating from guesswork.
It was the kind of session that turns a notoriously complex topic into something you can actually act on. Which brings us to part two.
In part-two of this series, Sharon is going to give a clear, practical overview of how SAP’s AI licensing works today. You’ll learn how SAP prices and packages its AI features – from generative AI to embedded intelligence – and what’s included versus what requires extra licensing.
By breaking down AI Units, entitlements, and consumption‑based pricing, you’ll learn how to see what you already own, what you may need to buy, and how to avoid unexpected costs.
If part one taught us anything, it’s that the cost of not understanding SAP’s licensing model rarely shows up straight away. It shows up at renewal, or during an audit, when it’s much harder to unwind.
Sharon Ryan is a Partner at Xactitud and has specialised in SAP licensing since 2014. During this time, she has successfully delivered both SAP licensing optimisation projects and license audit programs for some of SAP’s largest customers globally.
Having worked in both SAP licensing consultancy and license audit roles, this affords her a practical understanding and fact-based approach to the options and rights SAP customers can expect in their business dealings with SAP. Xactitud is a specialist SAP licensing consultancy that delivers projects spanning license optimisation, license transformation and license restructuring globally, empowering customers with SAP license intelligence, enabling them to achieve their business goals.