Pressure is rising steadily for companies to keep costs down and information technology has not escaped this. In the SAP environment, licensing costs make up a particularly sizeable share of the overall IT costs and they are now being reviewed once again by many companies.

Our tip today will show you how to take the first step to reducing licensing costs yourself.

We know from experience that it is often the smallest of steps that increase security, or in this case reduce costs. And yet, many companies do not take advantage of these, whether out of ignorance or lack of resources.

A closer look at SAP licensing shows the area with the greatest potential: How many employees at your company truly use SAP in their day-to-day work? And, to what extent do these users use the SAP accounts provided? It is surprising how often this data is out of date.

The reason we point this out is because it is the users who are NOT active, but are still counted during SAP license monitoring, who represent the greatest potential for saving money. Here are just a few examples:
– former employees
– employees who are away for a longer period of time (for example, parental leave)
– current employees who have not used their SAP user for a long time
– etc.

During our authorization management projects, we find that changes in personnel are not always taken into account in license management, meaning that the user headcount no longer reflects reality.

As a result, user masters that are no longer needed continue to be included during SAP monitoring, leading to unnecessarily high licensing costs. In some cases, this can reduce costs significantly – you many want to check whether this is the case at your company, too.

Our tip:
Check your SAP users on a regular basis (e.g. semi-annually) to regularly identify the inactive users in your systems. One way to do this is to execute the SAP standard report “RSUSR200”. This lists users with their last login date.

 

Serdar Gencoglu
SAP Security Consultant at AKQUINET

Do you have any questions on defining an efficient procedure for monitoring inactive users? We would be happy to support you while you monitor your SAP system, to create transparency and to help you find the best way to reduce your licensing costs during monitoring.
Contact us: knowhow@akquinet.de