Locking into SAP RISE: Three Critical Considerations Before Taking the Plunge
Locking into SAP RISE: Three Critical Considerations Before Taking the Plunge
For many at the top of an organisation, RISE sounds like something heaven-sent: no more infrastructure costs, IT team reductions, ongoing innovation and flexibility, and SAP TCO reductions.
However, it's not that simple.
Real-world RISE experience is immature, and understanding all the nuanced costs is difficult. The long-term effects of forgoing ownership and control are unknown.
Therefore, customers need to have a comprehensive evaluation strategy to make an informed decision that’s in their interests and not their vendor’s.
Before committing to SAP RISE
Before committing to RISE, SAP customers would do well to consider the following three elements: cost, control, and certainty.
Costs: What are the actual costs?
SAP promotes a TCO saving of 30%; however, due to a lack of overall transparency, actual RISE costs, and thus long-term TCO, are challenging to confirm.
Today, SAP customers can negotiate terms, rates, SLAs, workload credits and flexibility options with a range of infrastructure and service providers in addition to SAP. They can negotiate the lowest cost and best outcomes with each to their own benefit.
The question SAP teams must ask is to what degree can the individual elements of the RISE offering be negotiated and what will the actual cost be?
One important consideration is that once committed to RISE, competition ceases to exist. You are locked into one vendor for everything. Ongoing costs are unknown, and there will be no way back.
Control: What is being given up?
Today, SAP customers control their SAP systems and infrastructure and how these are managed.
For better or for worse, once an SAP customer commits to RISE, a significant portion of what is in their control now will be gone.
If critical infrastructure and services controls are being given up, one must understand the potential limitations that come with it.
Certainty: What is being provided in return?
There must be substantial benefits to giving up control and locking into one vendor.
From SAP’s perspective, the three main customer benefits are the simplicity of one commercial agreement, 99.7% SLA, and a 30% reduction in TCO.
However, SAP customers must satisfy themselves regarding the benefits and what they can rely upon receiving in return.
For example, can they expect a lower TCO, better system stability, improved reliability, or increased flexibility?
For many, relying on SAP to deliver on its promises is more of a risk than a benefit; SAP’s customer-centric track record is far from impeccable.
Final word
A commitment to RISE is a commitment to an uncertain future unless SAP customers have their eyes wide open and know enough about RISE nuances to negotiate a healthy, long-term contract.
A lack of intimate knowledge of RISE and a lack of independent advice makes this very difficult.
We can help.
Leg Up Software is an expert in SAP IT automation.
We know the SAP operations and infrastructure automation solutions landscape and have already done the legwork identifying the best solutions for most repetitive IT tasks.
We have excellent relationships with many software vendors and can negotiate an evaluation process that best suits your circumstance and budget.
For customers looking to gain expert insight into S/4 HANA options, including RISE, we work with Invictus Partners and VOQUZ Labs, who can provide SAP customers with amazing insight to help make informed decisions. They understand SAP ECC, S/4 HANA and what RISE offers (or doesn’t).
Why not set up a time to start the conversation by putting something in our calendar?
Alternatively, to learn more about IT automation for SAP teams, see www.legupsoftware.com/solutions
