Rise with SAP: how to juggle FUE metrics

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A guide to counting FUE (Full Use Equivalent) users.

A guide to navigate the licensing of the “Rise with SAP” program to migrate to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud: the FUE (Full Use Equivalent) metric, how to calculate it, and points of attention to consider if you are making the transition.?

SAP is pushing hard for existing ECC customers to migrate to the S/4 HANA solution in the cloud and is doing so through Rise with SAP, the program that simplifies the technology conversion through a package provided by SAP and supported by a network of SAP partners that brings together in one place the solutions and services needed to support digital transformation on the cloud.?

The advantage lies in having everything in one place (“One offer, one contract, unmatched TCO”): the necessary products are bundled together and customers sign a single contract to manage the various aspects of their SAP program. This also leads to a more streamlined implementation: implementation and management services are agreed with the application vendor and the rest is handled by SAP, reducing SLA contracts and optimizing time to resolution due to fewer parties involved.?

In addition to a cloud solution, “Rise with SAP” includes other components such as SAP Business Technology Platform (Platform Services), SAP Business Process Intelligence (Discovery Reports), SAP Business Network, and SAP Build.

Licensing direct access: the FUE

“Rise with SAP” involves a subscription-based licensing model, and this represents a major change from the perpetual on-premise licensing model that SAP customers are accustomed to.

While SAP previously used different types of named licenses (Named Users) to license direct access to the digital core, SAP S/4 HANA Cloud uses Full Use Equivalents (FUE) as a metric, the number of which depends on user access levels. In SAP S/4 HANA Cloud contracts, therefore, reference to two new elements will be found in the description of Cloud Services:

• Usage metric: FUE
• Amount: the number of FUEs purchased and that you are entitled to use within the validity period (remember that these are term licenses)

The term FUE refers to the unit of measure used by SAP to license its S/4 HANA Cloud applications. This new metric counts users based on the type of use being made of the system in order to obtain the cost of licenses. Specifically, FUEs align with four types of S/4HANA Cloud users (Professional, Functional, Productivity, Developer), which refer to Use Type, or the capabilities and permissions they have to directly access and use the system.

As the SAP S/4 HANA Cloud subscription model is based on consumption, the calculation of FUE licenses, divided among SAP users, is essential to establish access rights and verify compliance adherence.

Let's look in detail at the intended use types:

• Advanced Use Type (Professional User): this type of FUE grants users full access to applications, allowing them to create and edit data, run reports and use the full range of business processes. It is usually assigned to people who require advanced functionality and play a key role in managing critical business operations.
• Core Use Type (Functional User): this type of FUE is assigned to users who require limited access to the S/4 HANA application because they perform tasks only on specific forms and reports.
• Self-Service Use Type (Productivity User): this type of FUE is designed for those who use the S/4 HANA application through self-service portals and therefore only need to view data and access basic business processes.
• Developer Use Type (Developer): this is a use type related to figures such as programmers who need access to development and testing environments.

To see the roles and responsibilities of each authorized user related to each Use Type, one has to consult the SDG (Service Description Guide) for private editions or the SUD (Service Use Description Document) for public editions: you can find for each Use Type (e.g., SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Core) the associated system capabilities (e.g., sales order management and processing).

Let's see an example taken from the SUD where the different capabilities for the Type of Use (in this case Self-Service Use) are shown.

To gain a granular understanding of what a given feature allows the user to do within the system, then refer to the Feature Scope Description (FSD) document available on the SAP Help website of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud version in use.

FUE and Use Type: a close link

We remind you that FUE is a flexible user and can correspond to different user types depending on the type of use. It is as if it were a token that gives the possibility to buy a certain type of user (so 1:1) or more than one among the lower level ones, converting them with a specific ratio, as reported on the SAP blog. Below we see the various ratios:

Let's look at an example of how to count FUEs for different usage types: a company that would like to use different SAP solutions as part of the RISE with SAP S/4 HANA Cloud service has Named Users licenses that it would like to count according to the updated metric.

The first step is definitely to match existing authorizations in SAP ECC to the new SAP S/4HANA types: to facilitate the conversion to the new SAP S/4 HANA metrics, SAP has made available S/4HANA Trusted Authorization Review (STAR), a service that leverages Object Analyser, which helps determine the appropriate FUE levels.

To count the total amount of FUE, consider the following ratios for each type of use:

If the system records uses equal to 50 Advanced Use, 200 Core Use, 90 Self-Service Use, 10 Developers Use, the total requirement for FUEs for 350 users divided into the following users (50 Professional Users, 200 Functional Users, 90 Productivity Users, and 10 developers) is 113 FUEs.

Remember that SAP has imposed minimum requirements for purchasing FUEs within Rise with SAP, so let's make sure we fall within them:

Below is a report from the SAM Snow Optimizer for SAP by Flexera tool that helps us quickly calculate the amount of licenses.

The advantage of using FUEs is that, as long as you do not fall below the minimum purchase requirements, it allows you to flexibly change user types during the time of the contract (see example below taken from the SAP guide): they do not need to be fixed in advance so you can revise them according to the needs of the moment.

The re-allocation of licenses allows shelf-ware to be managed in a world where users are constantly changing (exits, role changes, etc.).

?The to-do-list before the transition to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud

We have already mentioned that the SAP S/4 HANA Cloud subscription model is consumption-based: since FUEs align to four types of S/4 HANA Cloud users, the biggest difficulty is definitely mapping named users to FUEs.

Permissions for ECC users such as Professional, Limited Professional, Employee, Worker, etc. must be mapped to the Use Type/Utilities provided by the FUE metrics. The aforementioned STAR is a valuable ally in determining appropriate FUE levels.

At WEGG, we are experienced SAP licensing consultants and we have found from our experience that many customers simply convert the utilities already in the system into the total amount of FUEs to be counted under the contract, without making accurate prior analysis.

This is an activity that needs to be done because miscalculations could lead to waste due to non-optimization (e.g., inactive users, duplicate users, etc.) and disputes with SAP in the future for non-compliant users accessing the system so we recommend paying special attention to this issue BEFORE signing the “Rise with SAP” contract.?

We therefore suggest:

• Check how users are currently using the system

We first recommend getting a complete view of user profile and usage activity data, as well as user access to self-reported modules, engines, and products: SAM analysis tools such as Snow Optmizer for SAP by Flexera, which are natively integrated into SAP, make it easy to get this information into exportable reports.

Estimating the FUE count for SAP S/4 HANA Cloud based on data that includes inactive users, duplicate licenses on multiple systems, or users who are assigned a usage type that exceeds the activities recorded in the system risks being counterproductive. To this end, it is useful to have a dual view: from the perspective of licensing and actual usage.

The optimization of licenses according to actual system usage must be done BEFORE implementation in SAP S/4 HANA where users will be assigned their respective roles.? In fact, we know that in the SAP S/4 HANA system, the permissions and capabilities granted to a user are determined by the roles assigned to that business user's record-so we need to decide this upstream, not postimplementation, where more difficulties may arise in their review.

• Check for compliance

Having complete reports of both behavioral and authorization models allows us to verify that the roles and authorizations to be “fed” to the STAR simulation tool for FUE counting are set up correctly and also check for non-compliant users accessing the SAP system.

This preventive check allows companies that perform it to take corrective and proactive measures prior to the vendor's compliance audit and avoid incurring additional costs.

For more details on how to manage the transition to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud with the “Rise with SAP” program, we refer to the in-depth webinar on the topic with P4I and Accompany experts scheduled for May 22 (go here to sign up!)!