A global media and publishing group reset its annual SAP self-measurement, reclassified six thousand eight hundred users on transaction evidence, and removed five point one million dollars from the audit position.
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The media group ran a long-established SAP ECC environment with Concur expense and Ariba sourcing layered on top. The annual USMM and LAW self-measurement submission had been prepared by the internal SAM function for several years, using the role-collection methodology that SAP's standard configuration produces.
The most recent submission showed a Named User population substantially heavier than the prior year — the Professional band had grown by 2,300 users in twelve months. The growth was an artefact of two factors: a role-collection refresh that had broadened several Professional-grade roles, and an organisational restructure that had moved certain users into role groups they did not transactionally need.
SAP's audit team had received the submission, opened a review, and signalled an opening compliance position of approximately seven point eight million dollars in additional Named User licence requirements. The position was based on the submitted USMM output, treated as the authoritative measurement.
The media group's procurement function engaged us to validate the submission, reclassify on evidence where defensible, and contest the audit position.
We took the engagement and re-opened the submission line by line, using a twelve-month transaction-history window as the evidence base for classification. The methodology was the same we had refined across other USMM remediation matters: cross-reference each user's role-collection assignment against the actual transactions executed in the period, classify on activity rather than on assignment, and document the evidence trail in a defensible form.
The analysis identified approximately 6,800 users where the role-based classification was higher than the activity-based classification supported. The breakdown was: 2,900 Professional-classified users with no Professional-grade transactions over twelve months; 2,400 Limited Professional-classified users with only Employee Self-Service activity; and 1,500 various other reclassification reductions.
We rebuilt the USMM submission with the corrected classifications and prepared the supporting evidence file for SAP. The evidence file included a per-user transaction summary, the role-collection assignment, the reclassification basis, and a procedural note documenting the twelve-month window and the methodology.
We then opened a written request to SAP to withdraw the original submission and replace it with the validated submission. SAP's audit team contested the methodology for several rounds; we held the position and cited the SAP licence definition language that supported activity-based classification. The corrected submission was accepted after three negotiation rounds with minor evidence-window adjustments.
The audit position was reduced from seven point eight million dollars to two point seven million dollars in additional Named User entitlement — a saving of five point one million dollars. The reduction was achieved entirely through reclassification on evidence; no additional licences were purchased outside the original entitlement schedule.
The internal SAM function adopted the activity-based classification methodology as the standard for future submissions, with the documentation template and the evidence-file format we had built. The media group's procurement leadership recorded the saving against the year's compliance-cost budget.
Total elapsed time from engagement to accepted submission was ten weeks. The matter closed within a single quarter.
Role-based classification puts you in the highest band you might use. Evidence-based classification puts you in the band you actually use. The difference is five million dollars.
The measurement report is the entire audit. We validate the configuration, clean the user classifications against transaction evidence, and prepare the submission that goes to SAP.
Read the brief →Reclassify users. Retire shelfware. Right-size engine metrics. The continuous reduction programme that runs between the audit cycles, year after year.
Read the brief →The five most common mis-classifications in role-collection-based USMM runs, and how to correct them.
Professional, Limited Professional, Employee Self-Service. The band definitions and the reclassification thresholds.
How a Fortune 500 industrial group reduced an $18.7M audit claim to $6.0M in twelve weeks.
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