The SAP licensing landscape is undergoing one of its most significant shifts in years. With the introduction of the STAR measurement process for organisations moving to SAP Cloud ERP Private Edition, SAP has taken a major step forward. The use of a transparent, published STAR rule set provides a definitive basis for determining each user’s Full Use Equivalent (FUE) status.
However, many organisations are discovering that their existing SAP role designs were never created with licensing in mind. As a result, they frequently face substantial over-subscription of FUEs or, in some cases, find that the business case for migrating to SAP Cloud ERP Private Edition becomes difficult to justify.
To help address these challenges, Soterion recently hosted a webinar exploring SAP’s transition to FUE licensing, what it means in practice, and how organisations can refine their SAP authorisations to ensure FUE subscriptions are better aligned to actual usage. The aim is to make SAP Cloud ERP Private Edition migrations more achievable and financially viable.
The session also included a live demonstration of the Soterion SAP License Manager purpose-built to help organisations subscribe to the optimal number of FUEs and avoid significant over-subscription.
SAP’s Strategic Shift: Cloud Subscription and the Move to S/4HANA
SAP’s priority is clear: move the customer base from ECC to S/4HANA and accelerate adoption of SAP cloud solutions such as SAP Cloud ERP Private (RISE with SAP). The end of mainstream maintenance for ECC has created a defined timeline, while commercial incentives and feature differentiation have been used to encourage cloud migration.
One of the drivers behind this strategy is market valuation. Subscription-based revenue is viewed more favourably by financial markets than perpetual licensing. SAP’s share price performance over the past several years reflects strong market confidence in this approach, indicating that SAP is likely to continue—and intensify—its cloud-first momentum.
For customers, this means understanding the implications of moving from perpetual licensing to subscription licensing, particularly under the FUE model that underpins SAP cloud commercial constructs.
Understanding the FUE (Full Use Equivalent) Model
Under ECC, license types were broadly defined and open to interpretation. The lack of precise classification made optimisation difficult and often required subjective assessment and self-reporting.
The FUE model changes this. SAP now uses the STAR Measurement Program, which applies a published rule set of authorisation object values to determine user license types. User classification is derived from the roles and authorisations assigned, and assessments are carried out monthly rather than annually.
This shift provides greater clarity—but it also raises new challenges:
- Most organisations’ current role designs were not designed with licensing optimisation in mind.
- This often results in an inflated FUE count, meaning organisations may be paying for significantly more than they actually need.
- Role or authorisation drift can trigger mid-term contract true-ups, which become the new baseline for the remainder of the subscription period.
In other words: visibility and proactive control have become essential.
Where Soterion Supports the Licensing Journey
Soterion has more than 15 years of experience in SAP access control and GRC solutions. Building on this foundation, Soterion has developed an SAP licensing and FUE optimisation solution designed specifically for organisations evaluating or operating in SAP cloud subscription models.
Soterion assists organisations in two primary scenarios:
- Before migrating to SAP Cloud ERP Private (RISE with SAP) Edition
- After moving to a subscription model
To determine how many FUEs the organisation actually needs based on actual user usage statistics.
To monitor licensing consumption continuously, prevent FUE creep, and avoid unexpected mid-term true-up costs.
The Value of a Free Licensing Assessment
Soterion offers a no-cost licensing assessment that provides insight SAP cannot provide on its own. This includes:
- A comparison of current FUE consumption vs best-case FUE requirement based on real user activity.
- Identification of roles, users, and authorisations inflating license consumption unnecessarily.
- Clarity on the financial impact of optimising your licensing position.
- A defensible data point to support contract negotiation or RISE evaluation.
For many organisations, the difference between current consumption and optimised consumption can reshape the financial viability of a cloud migration strategy.
Demonstrating the Impact: Soterion’s SAP License Manager
In the webinar, Soterion’s SAP License Manager solution is showcased, which provides:
- Visibility into actual FUE consumption and usage patterns
- Identification of optimisation opportunities (inactive users, unused roles, excessive authorisations)
- Simulation of proposed role or user changes before they are made, to prevent unintended FUE increases
- Cost projection models to quantify financial savings over multi-year subscription periods
This enables both once-off optimisation projects and ongoing governance, ensuring the organisation maintains licensing efficiency long-term.
Watch the On-Demand Webinar
To deepen your understanding of the FUE licensing model and see Soterion’s SAP License Manager solution in action, you can watch the full webinar on-demand.
→ Access the On-Demand Webinar - Getting Your SAP Licensing (FUEs) Right: Optimise Before Moving to RISE and Stay Compliant After
About Soterion
Soterion is a specialist SAP security and SAP Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Licensing software provider, helping organisations simplify and enhance their SAP access control (GRC), risk management, emergency access, access provisioning, and SAP user licensing processes. Soterion’s capabilities fall into three core areas:
• Access Risk Management: Identifying and managing Segregation of Duties (SoD) and critical access risks, enabling controlled Emergency Access, and supporting periodic User Access Reviews. Soterion provides six modules specifically designed to help organisations understand, reduce, and govern access risk.
• User Provisioning: Streamlining SAP user access requests, approvals, and changes throughout the Joiner–Mover–Leaver lifecycle. This improves efficiency, ensures appropriate authorisations, and embeds governance into identity management workflows.
• SAP Licensing: Analysing and optimising SAP user license assignments to avoid unnecessary spend and true-up costs. This is particularly valuable for organisations considering or already operating under a RISE with SAP subscription model.
Soterion is a United VARs solution partner, supporting SAP customers globally through the United VARs member ecosystem.
About Author
Dudley Cartwright, co-founder and CEO of Soterion. With 20 years of SAP Authorisation experience, Dudley’s strong technical understanding combined with his practical business knowledge has allowed him to implement security solutions of the highest quality for companies all around the world.
Dudley has a passion for implementing “fit-for-purpose” value-added solutions – a philosophy that has become the cornerstone of Soterion’s mission.
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