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Volume VIII · No. 215 · Spring 2026

When the audit letter arrives, read this first.

Independent SAP licence audit defence, indirect-access strategy, and post-audit contract negotiation. Five hundred matters closed. Sixty-eight per cent average claim reduction.

A practice by specialists · Not affiliated with SAP SE · New York · London
Contact Us → Read the Playbook
Boardroom analysis
Cover Story
The defence of a $22M claim, reduced to four point eight.
Client Savings
$180M+
across active SAP matters since 2018
Engagements Closed
500+
all SAP product lines, three continents
Average Reduction
68%
on the opening audit claim value
Practice Experience
20+
combined years inside SAP licensing
Section I · The Practice

Eight services. One vendor.

I.

SAP Audit Defence

An audit letter has arrived. We take control of the matter, define the scope of the engagement, validate every measurement SAP relies upon, and negotiate the settlement.

Read the brief
II.

License Compliance Assessment

A pre-audit examination of named users, engine measurements, and indirect access pathways. We surface the exposure before SAP does, and we quantify the remediation cost.

Read the brief
III.

Contract Negotiation

Post-audit settlement and renewal restructure. We rewrite the order form, the schedules, and the audit-rights clause. Price is one of seventeen levers we negotiate.

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IV.

Indirect Access Advisory

Salesforce, ServiceNow, custom portals, RPA, EDI. Every interface into SAP that does not run through a Named User. We defend, requalify, and where useful convert.

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V.

Digital Access Negotiation

Should you convert? At what document price tier? We model the nine document types against your real transaction volume, and negotiate caps, floors, and re-measurement protection.

Read the brief
VI.

USMM & LAW Advisory

The measurement report is the entire audit. We validate the configuration, clean the user classifications, and prepare the submission that goes to SAP.

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VII.

License Optimization

Reclassify users. Retire shelfware. Right-size engine metrics. The continuous reduction programme that runs between the audit cycles, year after year.

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VIII.

S/4HANA Migration Compliance

Model the conversion. Negotiate the credits. Defend through the migration window — the moment when SAP's audit and pricing leverage is at its highest.

Read the brief
— Featured Matter · The Cover Story

The defence of a $22M indirect-access claim, closed at four point eight.

A Fortune 100 manufacturer received an SAP audit notification quoting twenty-two point four million dollars in indirect-use exposure across Salesforce, ServiceNow, and three custom portals.

We took the matter. We rebuilt the user-counting model from the architecture upward. We challenged the document classification. We settled at four point eight million dollars and rewrote the audit-rights clause for the remaining contract term.

Read the case file →
Opening
$22.4M
SAP's first written position
Settlement
$4.8M
final agreed value
Reduction
78%
below opening claim
Duration
11wk
from letter to signed settlement

They understood our SAP estate, our contract, and our auditor better than we did. The opening claim was twenty-two million dollars. We settled at four point eight.

VP, Global ProcurementFortune 100 Manufacturer · Q1 2026
Section II · The Method

Four phases. Twelve weeks, typical.

— Phase i.

Contain

Engage SAP on procedural terms. Define the audit scope in writing. Establish the data exchange protocol. Stop the clock on the discovery phase before it spreads.

— Phase ii.

Validate

Independent measurement. Reconstruct USMM and LAW outputs from the source data. Quantify the real exposure rather than accepting the position SAP has claimed.

— Phase iii.

Negotiate

Counter-position. Document defence. Settlement architecture. Future protection clauses written into the agreement so the next audit starts from a defensible position.

— Phase iv.

Protect

Settlement closure and contract execution. Internal compliance programme handover. Preparation for the next audit cycle window, typically two to three years out.

Section III · The Reading Room

From the research desk.

— Featured · Audit Defence

An SAP audit letter has arrived. Read this first.

The first seven steps every CIO and procurement leader must take in the seventy-two hours after an SAP audit notification lands. Sequence matters. So do the things you must not say.

May 2026 · 12 min read · Free
— Indirect Access

SAP Indirect Access, explained.

The complete 2026 field guide. Diageo, Anheuser-Busch, and what the case law actually means for Salesforce, ServiceNow, and RPA in your estate.

May 2026 · 18 min · Free
— Digital Access

Digital Access pricing, decoded.

The nine document types, the volume tiers, and the negotiation levers most procurement teams never use. Real numbers from real settlements.

Apr 2026 · 14 min · Research

An audit notification is not an invoice.

It is the opening position of a negotiation. Speak with a specialist before responding. The first conversation is at no cost and under privilege.

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SAP Audit Alerts · The weekly briefing

Every Wednesday. Field reports from active matters, decoded SAP communications, and what to look for in the next audit cycle. Work email only.