SAP RISE – Is it really drive away, no more to pay?
Rick Porter, SAP IT Automation Specialist. Director, Leg Up Software
Is buying into an SAP RISE contact a ‘drive away no more to pay’ offering or more like buying a seat on a budget airline?
Oh, so you want movies AND a meal.
With SAP customers transitioning to S/4HANA, SAP RISE is attracting more customers than one might have expected. But then, when things like Infrastructure, hosting, managed services, and licensing are all bundled together in the one contract, SAP RISE does have an appeal.
Lots of IT operational costs are offloaded. CFOs are delighted with the idea, and CIOs see an easy way to meet their expenditure KPIs.
On the surface, the RISE offering looks very attractive. One contract, one invoice, no more to pay. But is it really?
SAP RISE
Firstly, SAP RISE is not a ‘set and forget’ service offering.
SAP RISE operations, administration, monitoring, and security are shared responsibilities. Although most CIOs are now aware, many went into RISE believing they could off-load most SAP resources, especially basis resources.
Much of this false expectation falls to SAP marketing and to SAP sales. SAP RISE was, and still is, being marketed and sold as a SaaS type offering in which SAP does everything.
Of course, if one pays enough, SAP will do everything. Only, the ROI won’t stack up as well if they do.
One can get an insider’s view of the details within the SAP document: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ("R&R"). RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition and SAP ERP, tailored option.
SAP RISE services
Next, not all services are included as standard.
To better understand where responsibility lies, one needs to understand the types of services described in relation to SAP RISE.
Standard Services – included ($0)
Optional Services – included or requested if required ($)
Additional Services – available, but upon request ($)
SAP Cloud Application Services – not included but can be performed by SAP ($$)
Excluded Tasks – unavailable and not included ($0)
Standard Services
Standard Services are tasks/services included and covered by the Service Fee and performed by SAP, as applicable to a customer.
There are services that come with every RISE contract as standard. These are the services performed by SAP to set up the systems and then to manage them ongoing.
There is no option for customer involvement in these services, some of which include:
Managing the data center
Hardware operations monitoring
Operating system management including system start up and shut down
Most data-base management tasks
Optional Services
Optional Services are tasks/services not covered in the Standard Services and are not and available as Cloud Application Services1 ("CAS").
These tasks/services must be specifically contracted for and itemized in the customer’s contract or requested as needed via an authorized change request. These incur additional fees and can only be performed by SAP.
Several examples include:
Scaling storage capacity
High availability set up
Homogenous system copies of some systems
System performance and benchmarking
Additional Services
There is little difference between additional services and optional services for these, too, are services that can be requested by the customer on an as needed basis. They can only be performed by SAP and incur additional fees.
Several examples include:
On demand back-ups
Service request acceleration
System copies beyond contracted number
System refresh for certain applications
SAP Cloud Application Services (CAS)
Cloud Application Services cover a set of tasks that remain the customer’s responsibility. Unlike Additional or Optional Services, SAP RISE customers can perform these services themselves.
If customers do not choose to perform these services, then they will need to include those needed in the RISE agreement to be performed by SAP.
Several examples of these include:
Almost all SAP BTP tasks and activities
Almost all SAP Solution Manager or Cloud ALM set up and configuration activities
Archiving
Most Fiori App activities
Security monitoring and management
Non-critical SAP security patch application
Overall monitoring
Excluded Tasks
There are lots of excluded tasks that can only be performed by the customer. These are areas that must be maintained by the customer’s own SAP team.
SAP will not perform these types of tasks.
Several areas include:
Validation of backed up or restored data
Post-restore task checking and connection of custom applications
Develop and maintain disaster recovery procedures
Testing and acceptance of object changes
Configuration - Fiori applications
SAP RISE service levels
Finally, SAP RISE service level agreements need to be considered.
Things like uptime (99.7% is standard), change request response times (even the very basic of requests may take some days to complete), and service delivery must be understood and clarified. If better service levels are anticipated, these are best negotiated upfront.
Other fees to consider are accelerated change request response fees, data storage increases, and temporary system needs. Word on the street is that these costs can add up very quickly.
SAP RISE offers 99.7% uptime as standard. This isn’t an issue if your business can withstand a couple of hours per month in downtime. However, if not, and the industry standard of 99.9% is important then you will have to pay. Gartner suggests this could be as much as a 30% to 50% premium.
SAP RISE is not a drive away, and no more to pay service
So, is SAP RISE drive away and no more to pay?
In short, no.
However, how much more there is to pay will depend on how well contract negotiators know what is required and how much is inserted into the contract.
Technical input is essential.
Firstly, the anticipated optional and additional services must be considered and costing agreed up front to minimize later surprises.
Next, Cloud Application Services need to be examined closely. It might make sense for SAP to manage some, and for others to be kept in-house. They need to be clarified, and costs agreed upfront.
Finally, expected service levels must be discussed upfront with changes documented and agreed.
Unanticipated and unbudgeted costs will never be nil, However, addressing these key areas during initial negotiations will go a long way minimizing many of them.