At a glance
Customer
Industry
Food
Background
18,000 employees, 12,000 SAP users
USU SAM products
Challenge
In the past, annual SAP audits for software measurement as well as a constant growth of systems caused high, partly manual efforts for the responsible team due to still expandable structuring and insufficient transparency. To make this process much more efficient, even in a complex infrastructure, a tool specializing in SAP license management was to automatically assign the existing licensing variants to the various user requirements. This was intended not only to ensure compliance at Südzucker AG, but also to achieve optimal software utilization in accordance with the applicable SAP contracts and thus noticeable cost savings.
The Solution
Initial tests in the pilot phase already showed promising results. During the implementation of the USU Optimization for SAP® Software module the initial focus was on authorization issues. Roles, rights, and processes were partially revised and redefined and mapped in the application. This made it possible, for example, to identify inactive users and, above all, to assign users to license types in a practical and correct manner.
The Results
Today, USU Software Asset Management provides a detailed, comprehensible, and transparent overview of the entire SAP portfolio and forms the basis for the best possible economic and legal license usage - including for SAP's new complex digital access licensing. In addition, the service management processes related to SAP authorization allocation and billing were optimized. Südzucker has been using USU Managed Services on a regular basis since 2021 and thus benefits, for example, from high-quality customized analyses, simulations, and evaluations.
What does the customer think?
The partnership with USU is a success story. Because thanks to the SAM know-how of the experts and the use of USU Software Asset Management, we are able to exploit the full potential of our SAP software every day while ensuring compliance and cost transparency.
Additional project description
Transparency instead of a black box
Südzucker Group produces 4.4 million tons of sugar each year. But that's just one of the nutrition conglomerate's product lines. The transformation from a major processor of agricultural raw materials to a leading partner for plant-based solutions is in full swing. To implement this, IT implemented a digitization strategy in various focus initiatives. A continuous process for efficient software use plays an important role in this. One of the central software applications for Südzucker is SAP. Its licensing models have become increasingly complex over the years. Accordingly, the manual effort required to create transparency about the SAP portfolio acquired and used and to adequately prepare for system integrations, optimizations, and the manufacturer's annual survey, among other things, increased. In addition to compliance, the focus was on the best possible economic use of the SAP systems, and Südzucker therefore evaluated the market for a special license management solution that could, on the one hand, create transparency and, on the other, provide support in structuring and optimally allocating the various license types. Due to the software's performance and the experts' strong SAP expertise, Südzucker opted for USU.
Correct license assignment with high savings potential
Creating transparency and thus significantly better allocation of users and the different license types - that was the first goal of the SAM project. After all, proactive management of better user allocation and identification of inactive usage were seen as the greatest levers for realizing cost benefits, even in the short term, within the framework of SAP licensing guidelines. Even in the test phase leading up to the project, the results with the USU application were promising. And the team also achieved measurable successes very quickly in practice. Tool support with USU significantly increased the degree of automation and transparency. The associated adjustments, but also simplifications of authorizations, were initially a challenge - but were mastered through good communication and the technical embedding of the new scenarios in the tool.
Well-positioned for the future
After successive adjustments and updates, SAP license management at Südzucker is running at a stable, professional level. It was possible to significantly reduce the complexity of the heterogeneously distributed and diverse SAP systems and thus also the workload. On the one hand, Südzucker can demonstrate compliance with the SAP portfolio at any time, and on the other hand, the group-wide use of software and the processes behind it are economical and effective in the best sense. This is because the optimized license inventories can also be used, for example, to generate invoices at the push of a button, which can be allocated to the departments together with the usage data according to the source. Südzucker also considers itself well-positioned for the complex SAP licensing model "Digital Access" for the use of third-party systems. This is because USU has been providing comprehensive "Managed Services" since 2021 as a result of the intensified cooperation with Südzucker. This also includes, among other things, the commercial analysis of SAP contracts, the technical usage analysis - if required also regarding indirect usage, the demand analysis, and the legal review of SAP claims.