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The SAP Licence Optimization Playbook.

A forty-four page operational playbook for the SAP licence base. Rightsizing the named-user pool. Reclassifying users to lower tiers. Retiring unused entitlement. The nine moves that produce material, defensible savings across every audit cycle.

Research Paper44 pagesPublished May 2026Format: PDFAccess: Gated
What You'll Learn

Six learning outcomes from active optimization programmes.

  1. The nine optimization moves, ranked by typical value impact. Rightsizing, reclassification, retirement, consolidation, and the five less-obvious moves that produce the next twenty per cent of savings.
  2. How to read the SLAW report against the user master. The reconciliation that produces the optimization target list. The categories where the SLAW classification is wrong, and how to correct it without triggering audit risk.
  3. The user-classification framework. Professional, limited-professional, employee, developer, ESS — the rules SAP applies, and the evidence the customer needs to defend a lower tier.
  4. The retirement methodology. Identifying inactive users, dormant entitlements, and orphaned service accounts. The 180-day, 365-day, and 730-day decision points and the evidence each one requires.
  5. Engine-licence consolidation. Where the engine metrics produce double-counting, and how to defend a single-count position.
  6. The cost of doing nothing. What an unoptimised licence base looks like at the next audit, the next renewal, and the next S/4HANA migration.
Table of Contents

Seven chapters. Forty-four pages.

Chapter IThe nine optimization moves, rankedpg. 4
Chapter IIReading SLAW against the user masterpg. 10
Chapter IIIUser classification — rules and evidencepg. 16
Chapter IVRetirement: inactive, dormant, orphanpg. 22
Chapter VEngine-licence consolidationpg. 28
Chapter VIIndirect-use scoping for the optimization basepg. 33
Chapter VIICasebook: four documented optimization programmespg. 38
Who It's For

Four audiences. One reference.

SAM Practitioners

Software asset managers running the SLAW reconciliation and the user-master extract. The classification and retirement chapters are the operational core.

Procurement Leadership

Procurement teams sizing the optimization opportunity ahead of the next renewal. The ranking chapter establishes priorities and effort.

SAP Basis and Security

Basis and security teams executing the user-administration changes. The retirement methodology is the operational guidance.

IT Finance and Business

Finance and business stakeholders approving classification changes and retirement decisions, and underwriting the savings forecasts.

The first pass produced two point four million in annual savings against the named-user spend. The second pass — engine consolidation and indirect-use rescoping — added another one point eight. The optimization paid for the audit defence and the renegotiation combined.

Director, IT Asset ManagementGlobal Logistics Group · Closed Q4 2025
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