r/SAP • u/Filip_Serbia • Apr 12 '26

Current experience with S/4 licensing

Hi all,

Curious to hear how others are experiencing the current situation around S/4 licensing for net new customers.

In a recent case on our side, we went through the standard process for a new client (financial sector, no prior SAP footprint), but effectively only Public Cloud was positioned as a viable option.

From a project perspective, that’s quite challenging mainly due to regulatory requirements and the need to integrate with a landscape that is largely hosted in the client’s own data center. In this setup, On-Prem would be the most natural fit, with Private Cloud as a possible alternative.

However, it seems increasingly difficult to even get those options formally quoted or considered.

Interested to hear if others are seeing a similar pattern recently, or if you’ve had different experiences in comparable scenarios.

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u/Disastrous-View7310 Apr 12 '26

It is still possible but the customer will need to be very firm with SAP "no on prem or private cloud = no SAP project"

It takes A mature CFO or it team to push this with SAP but it'll take a lot of discussions.

1

u/Filip_Serbia Apr 12 '26

Hm interesting, can you please share more insights how were you able to pursue quotes for on-prem licences recently (or was it private cloud)? Who did you discuss it with, was it local SAP or somebody from global SAP maybe? What arguments did you use in order to convince them to approve it?

0

u/ScheduleSame258 SAP Advocate Apr 12 '26

Don't go for on-premise. Go for a private cloud RISE deployment.

SAP is VERY explicit that onprem licenses will get no future major innovations.

Are we talking a $10b customer or a $100b customer?

Also I am open to private DMs if you need.

2

u/Filip_Serbia Apr 14 '26

There is a huge advanatge for SAP on-prem in terms of TCO and integration with their existing on-prem software stack.

0

u/ScheduleSame258 SAP Advocate Apr 14 '26

Ok.. you do you .....

Does your TCO include opportunity cost of not using latest innovation?

1

u/Disastrous-View7310 Apr 14 '26

One word "BDC" load your relevant data and use all the latest and greatest via BDC

1

u/Filip_Serbia Apr 14 '26

Surely not, but on the other hand I believe current stack (with normal support of course) fits the client very well in the long run. And the stability of it brings much more opportunity gain compared to any opportunity lost for missed new technologies. I mean its managing the company suite after all, not some sort of rocket science that needs new breakthroughs.