Quality-assured SAP system monitoring, license compliance, transparency, and cost optimization for UKB
UKB has set itself the goal of carrying out efficient and quality-assured SAP system monitoring
several times a year. In doing so, it wants to facilitate optimum allocation of its contractual user types without spending a lot of time.
The system landscape at UKB has grown over many years. As a result, Scheer faced hurdles in analyzing and evaluating this heterogeneous IT environment in terms of compliance gaps, as well as in creating transparency with regard to UKB's current SAP license stock and how it was being used. In particular, planned changes to the IT landscape, such as the transformation to SAP S/4HANA and the introduction of new cloud products, had to be taken into consideration. Attention was also paid to the associated effects on indirect use (digital access).
In addition, the project focused on developing a recommended course of action for establishing optimal SAP license compliance.
In summary, this presented the following challenges:
- The need for efficient and quality-assured SAP system monitoring
- Transparency regarding the current SAP license inventory, along with gap analysis
- Establishment of an SAP license strategy that would also accommodate future changes (e.g. S/4HANA, add-ons)
- Identification of optimization potential
In order to maintain SAP license compliance and provide a constant overview of your license situation, the Scheer license lifecycle concept is applied. Across its four different phases (license evaluation, license strategy, license optimization, system monitoring), this concept creates a holistic, 360-degree view of the licenses in your current system landscape, along with your contracts and processes.
To provide the relevant internal information (processes, systems, interfaces, SAP users, ...) required for analysis and optimization, we conduct workshops with the heads of your IT and business departments.
We were able to create and implement a licensing strategy based on the data and information obtained in workshops. This SAP licensing strategy also factors in future changes such as an eventual transition to SAP S/4 HANA, non-SAP applications, and cloud or on-premise arrangements. Furthermore, optimizations and more efficient system monitoring were implemented in order to improve the quality of UKB's systems, ensure SAP compliance, and relieve employees (through user administration, centralized monitoring, and adaptation of processes and user authorizations).
Our license advisory project with Scheer has enabled us to obtain detailed information about the current use of our SAP licenses, recognize the effects of future projects on SAP licensing at an early stage, and thereby develop and implement an optimum licensing strategy.
The benefits of the project far outweigh the costs, and I'm quite sure that other Scheer customers would say the same.
Michael Ralph Neumann, Head of IT – SAP/Business Management Applications
University Hospital Bonn
Usually, a holistic license advisory project takes about six to 12 months in order to also take into account non-everyday activities, such as a year-end closing. In this project, however, the results and implementation had to be delivered in just four months, as the contract negotiations with SAP had to be concluded before the end of the year.
In summary, UKB has enjoyed the following benefits:
- Establishment of SAP license compliance
- A constant overview of its license situation
- Early transparency and identification/elimination of risks in SAP licensing (users, indirect use/digital access, other products, etc.)
- Proactive management of UKB's license stock that takes into account planned projects and future organizational changes and investments
- Cost-optimized license stock
- Tailor-made strategy for future license-relevant changes and projects
