SAP License AuditsContact Us
Home/White Papers/SAP Indirect Access Economics

SAP Indirect Access Economics.

A thirty-six page economic analysis of indirect-use exposure. Cost models. Settlement value distributions. The buyer-side break-even on each lever. The ROI of defence at every claim size from one to one hundred million.

Research Paper36 pagesPublished February 2026Format: PDFAccess: Gated
What You'll Learn

Six learning outcomes from closed matters.

  1. The distribution of opening claims and final settlements. Five hundred plus matters consolidated into one statistical view. Opening-claim quartiles, settlement quartiles, and the variance drivers between the two.
  2. The cost model for the defence work itself. Source-counting, architecture analysis, contract review, and negotiation. Effort, duration, and the breakdown across counsel, advisor, and internal teams.
  3. The ROI of defence at every claim size. Break-even on the engagement at one million, ten million, fifty million, and one hundred million in opening exposure.
  4. The settlement-value distribution by lever. Category reclassification, tier renegotiation, architecture defence, bridging credits, and scope-of-use language quantified separately.
  5. The time-cost of delay. What happens to the offer when the customer waits ninety days, six months, or twelve months to engage the defence work.
  6. The economic argument for buying defence early. When the marginal value of the next dollar of defence spend exceeds the marginal value of the next dollar of claim reduction.
Table of Contents

Seven chapters. Thirty-six pages.

Chapter IThe opening-claim and settlement distributionspg. 4
Chapter IIThe cost model for indirect-access defencepg. 9
Chapter IIIROI of defence by claim sizepg. 14
Chapter IVValue attribution by settlement leverpg. 19
Chapter VThe time-cost of delaypg. 24
Chapter VIThe economic case for early engagementpg. 28
Chapter VIICase-file economics: five closed matters in detailpg. 32
Who It's For

Four audiences. One reference.

CFO and Finance

Finance leadership building the business case for indirect-access defence. The cost-model and ROI chapters are the foundation.

Procurement Leadership

Procurement teams sizing the indirect-access reserve and making the spend-now-versus-spend-later calculation on defence engagement.

In-house Counsel

Counsel evaluating settlement value distributions, the economics of each lever, and the strength of the customer-side commercial position.

Board and Audit Committee

Audit committees reviewing indirect-access exposure as a contingent liability and the economic case for reserving against it.

The board approved the defence spend on the strength of the ROI tables in chapter three. Six months later the claim closed at sixty-one per cent below opening. The economic case made the defence happen.

Chief Financial OfficerEuropean Industrial Group · Settled Q1 2026
— Subscribe

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.