Top 10 SAP RISE Negotiation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

RISE with SAP – SAP’s all-in-one cloud offering for S/4HANA – promises to simplify your journey to the cloud. However, negotiating a RISE with a SAP contract is a complex endeavour.

CIOs, procurement leaders, IT strategists, and enterprise architects must navigate new subscription models, bundled services, and unfamiliar contract terms. Many organizations have learned that certain missteps in these negotiations can lead to overspending, inflexibility, or unpleasant surprises down the road.

In this advisor-style guide, we outline the Top 10 mistakes companies make when negotiating RISE with SAP contracts and how to avoid them.

By understanding these pitfalls and following best-practice approaches, you can secure a better deal that meets your organization’s needs and avoids future headaches.

1. Not Defining the Scope Clearly (Assuming Everything is Included)

Many customers assume RISE covers “everything” by default – only to find out later that critical services or components were not included. RISE with SAP is a bundled offering, but it is not all-inclusive. For example, the subscription includes the S/4HANA software licenses, standard infrastructure hosting, basic system administration, and standard support.

It does not include one-time or specialized services such as data migration, implementation consulting, extensive training, or support for highly customized integrations. If you don’t delineate the full scope of what you need in the contract, you risk scope gaps and extra costs.

One company learned this hard: they assumed SAP would handle the data migration to the new system. However, migration services were not in their RISE contract, resulting in an unplanned six-figure expense to cover that project separately.

To avoid this mistake, list every service and component you expect as part of the move to S/4HANA and verify which are included in RISE and which are not. Insist on documenting these details in the contract (or an attached statement of work).

For example, if you require a sandbox environment, advanced support tiers, or specific SAP modules (like Ariba, Concur, or SAP Analytics Cloud), ensure they are explicitly mentioned. If a needed item is ambiguous, get clarification or have it added in writing.

Setting clear scope expectations up front prevents misunderstandings and expensive surprises later on.

Practical impact: A clearly defined scope means no surprises mid-project. You won’t find yourself scrambling to fund a critical task that “everyone thought the other party would handle.” Instead, all parties (your team, SAP, and any implementation partners) know who is responsible for each aspect.

This leads to smoother implementation and protects your budget by ensuring the RISE contract covers all expected elements or that you’ve planned for those not included. In short, you maintain control over the project’s scope and costs rather than leaving it to assumptions.

Table: RISE with SAP – What’s Covered vs. What’s Not (ensure your contract addresses the “Not Covered” items if needed)

RISE Typically Covers	RISE Does NOT Cover (by default)
Software Subscription – S/4HANA licenses for the modules and user count you contract (via cloud subscription).	Implementation Services – e.g. system configuration, data migration, process redesign, and training are separate projects (SAP or partners can provide at additional cost).
SAP BTP Credits – Often, some credits for SAP Business Technology Platform (for extensions and integrations) are bundled.	Custom Code & Third-Party Integration – Adapting custom ABAP code or ensuring third-party apps work in the new environment is your responsibility or a separate consulting engagement.
Standard Support & Administration – Basis operations, monitoring, and a standard SLA (e.g. ~99.7% uptime) for the cloud environment.	Advanced Support/SLA – Higher support tiers or ultra-high uptime (e.g. 99.99%) typically cost extra. Also, end-user support and business process support are not included.
SAP BTP Credits – Often some credits for SAP Business Technology Platform (for extensions and integrations) are bundled.	Additional SAP Products – Products outside the core bundle (Ariba, SuccessFactors, Concur, etc.) must be added to the contract (they are not automatically included in RISE).
Technical Upgrades – SAP handles technical version upgrades and patching of S/4HANA.	Business Continuity/Exit – Services to migrate away from RISE (data extraction, re-implementation on another platform) are not included; you need to plan these separately if needed.

Using the above as a checklist, you can verify the scope of your RISE contract and negotiate to include (or at least plan for) anything missing.

2. Overcommitting to a Long Term or Fixed Volume Without Flexibility

Another common mistake is signing an overly rigid contract, such as locking into a long-term (5+ years) or many users (Full User Equivalents, or FUEs) that overestimates your actual needs without any flexibility to adjust.

RISE contracts are typically multi-year subscriptions, and SAP often encourages a longer commitment (three to five years is common) with promises of better discounts.

However, your business requirements might change. If you commit to 5 years and 10,000 users but only need 8,000 users in two years, you’ll be stuck paying for the unused 2,000 users for the remainder of the term.

Similarly, if you decide RISE isn’t working for you, a long-term agreement could make it prohibitively expensive to pivot or exit early.

Overcommitting often happens when organizations feel pressured to “go all-in” with SAP’s vision or to secure a bigger discount by signing a longer deal. However, the cost of that inflexibility can outweigh the upfront savings.

We’ve seen cases where companies significantly overestimated their growth and ended up with 20–30% of their purchased capacity going unused – essentially wasting that portion of the subscription fee each year.

In other cases, businesses that signed lengthy contracts felt trapped when new corporate strategies (like mergers or a change in IT direction) made the RISE agreement less ideal, yet they had no contractual way to adjust course.

To avoid this, right-size your RISE deal. Start with a realistic user count and scope based on current needs and reasonable growth projections – don’t let SAP’s sales team talk you into a bigger number “just in case.” If you anticipate growth, consider structuring the contract to allow incremental additions (for example, the ability to add users at predetermined rates) rather than overbuying on day one.

Keep the term as short as practical given your circumstances; a 3-year term provides more flexibility than 5 years, for instance, and you can always renew or extend later. If you go for a longer term to get discounts, negotiate flexibility clauses: a mid-term adjustment option or a partial termination for convenience (even with a penalty) if business conditions change.

Ensure the contract isn’t entirely “all or nothing.” Reducing the user count at renewal or swapping cloud services provides breathing room.

Practical impact: Maintaining flexibility means paying only for what you need and being able to adapt as your organization evolves. If your user count drops or you divest a business unit, you aren’t stuck overpaying for idle capacity.

Conversely, a well-negotiated contract will let you scale without punitive costs if you need more capacity. You also preserve strategic agility – if down the line you find a better solution or need to alter your IT strategy, a flexible contract makes it easier to realign without incurring massive fees or facing a multi-year wait-out.

In summary, avoid being handcuffed by your RISE deal—structure it so it serves your needs throughout its term.

3. Fixating on the Initial Price and Ignoring Long-Term Cost Drivers

Focusing too much on the upfront price (subscription fees in the first year or the headline discount percentage) while neglecting the long-term cost structure is a frequent mistake. It’s understandable – CIOs and procurement teams want to achieve a great first-year price or fit under budget.

However, an attractive initial price can blind you to terms that dramatically affect costs later, such as renewal rates, price escalation clauses, and usage overage fees.

SAP might offer a steep first-year or first-term discount to win your RISE business, but if the contract allows them to increase fees by 10-20% per year thereafter or re-price the deal at renewal with no protections, you could end up paying far more in the long run. In other words, don’t be seduced by year-one savings only to give it all back (and then some) in years four, five, and beyond.

A related pitfall is not analyzing the components of the RISE price. RISE bundles software, infrastructure, and services, making it hard to tell if you’re overpaying in one area. If you only focus on the lump sum number and getting a discount on it, you might miss that, for example, the infrastructure portion is priced much higher than the market rate, or the deal assumes an inflated usage level.

To avoid this, take a holistic view of cost across the full contract lifecycle:

• Negotiate price protections: Aim to include caps on annual price increases and caps on renewal rates. For instance, negotiate a clause limiting any subscription fee increase at renewal (e.g., no more than a 5% uplift or tied to an index) or lock in the pricing for an extended period. Without a cap, some clients face renewal quotes nearly double their initial fees, wiping out early savings.
• Scrutinize the cost breakdown: Ask SAP to provide transparency into what you’re paying for (licenses, cloud infrastructure, etc.). This lets you benchmark parts of the deal. If the infrastructure cost seems high, you can counter with data on cloud pricing or ensure you’re not paying for more hardware capacity than you need. If certain bundled services have costs you don’t need (e.g., you already have a monitoring tool), consider removing them for cost reduction.
• Plan for full-term TCO: Model out the total cost over the full term, including potential increases. Factor in things like needing additional users or extra storage (what will those cost?), and what happens after the initial contract period. Looking at a 5- or 10-year horizon (including renewals), you might find a slightly higher Year 1 price with fixed future rates cheaper overall than a rock-bottom Year 1 followed by uncapped hikes.

Practical impact: By negotiating with the long game in mind, you protect your organization from cost shocks. The “great deal” you signed remains great in later years because you addressed the sources of cost escalation. This balanced approach yields a lower total cost of ownership for RISE.

Many experts note that the biggest savings in SAP deals often come from discounts and avoiding unforeseen costs like audit penalties or sudden price jumps. In practice, if you secure a predictable cost trajectory (through caps and clear terms), your CFO will have confidence that the cloud migration won’t bring budget volatility.

In short, don’t win the battle on upfront price only to lose the war on lifetime cost – negotiate for sustainable savings.

4. Not Defining Roles and Responsibilities (Assuming SAP Does It All)

RISE with SAP is sometimes sold as a “we’ll take care of everything” solution, leading customers to mistakenly assume that SAP will handle all aspects of running their ERP.

In reality, RISE shifts certain responsibilities to SAP (like managing the infrastructure and system uptime), but many responsibilities remain with the customer or require active customer involvement. Failing to clarify “who does what” is a serious negotiation mistake that can result in operational gaps and finger-pointing later.

For example, under RISE, SAP manages the underlying cloud platform and basic tasks (such as system patches and technical upgrades to S/4HANA). However, your internal IT and support teams (or your chosen partners) are still responsible for various activities: testing and validating those upgrades, maintaining custom code, managing business user support and training, handling configurations and enhancements, and overseeing integrations with other systems.

If these responsibilities aren’t explicitly assigned, you may encounter situations where something critical isn’t done because each side thought it was the other’s job. Consider a scenario where SAP applies an update. If no one planned who would test the impacted business processes or adjust custom reports, the system might go live with issues that disrupt operations. This kind of gap happens when roles are not documented.

The solution is establishing a detailed RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix or similar responsibility chart during the negotiation.

Insist that the contract (or an accompanying service description) spells out responsibilities for both SAP and your organization across areas like security management, disaster recovery drills, functional support, change management, integration maintenance, etc.

Ask questions such as: Who is responsible for security patches at the application level? Who handles performance tuning if users experience slow reports?

What exactly does SAP’s “standard support” cover regarding response times and issue resolution? Get clear answers and have them written down. If SAP uses partners or contractors to deliver RISE services, understand their role and ensure accountability for their performance.

Additionally, involve your technical and support teams in the contract discussions, not just procurement and legal. Those who run the system daily can identify if something essential is being overlooked. Sometimes, during negotiations, the SAP sales team may gloss over these details; don’t let the deal close until you’re confident you know who will do each critical task once you’re on RISE.

Practical impact: Clearly defined roles mean no operational black holes. Post-go-live, when an issue or need arises, everyone knows whether SAP handles it or your team does. This prevents downtime and frustration, as the right party promptly addresses issues.

Moreover, by dispelling the myth that “SAP will handle everything,” you can plan your staffing and support model appropriately – perhaps retaining an Application Management Services (AMS) partner or reassigning internal staff – rather than underestimating the effort required on your side.

Ultimately, a smoother-running system and a better partnership with SAP will result because expectations were set correctly. Clarity in the contract translates to stability in operations.

5. Neglecting Service Level Agreements and Performance Clauses

Service quality is a make-or-break factor for any cloud ERP. Yet, a mistake we often see is customers accepting SAP’s standard Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at face value and not negotiating them or aligning them to their business needs. RISE with SAP comes with predefined SLAs (for example, a certain uptime percentage for production systems and support response targets for incidents).

However, these default SLAs might be lower than the service levels your business requires, or they might lack specific guarantees that were present in your on-premise model.

For instance, SAP’s standard uptime SLA for RISE might be around 99.7% for production. On paper, this sounds high, but 99.7% uptime still allows for significant potential downtime over a year (roughly 26 hours of unplanned downtime annually, not counting scheduled maintenance).

If your enterprise previously operated at 99.99% uptime on-premises with clustered systems, you could be surprised by more frequent downtime windows in the cloud.

Some customers have experienced that planned maintenance under RISE (like quarterly updates or patches) can lead to multiple short outages, all within SAP’s rights under the SLA but disruptive to 24/7 business operations. The standard SLA must be adjusted or supplemented by additional provisions if you have critical periods where downtime is unacceptable (financial closes, holiday retail peaks, etc.).

Additionally, the SLA typically offers service credits if SAP fails to meet it, but these credits may be modest compared to the business impact of an outage. Certain performance aspects (like the application’s response time, not just uptime) may not be covered at all in standard SLAs.

How to avoid this:

Treat SLA and performance terms as negotiable. Communicate your uptime and performance expectations during negotiation. If 99.9% or 99.99% uptime is needed for your mission-critical operations, see if SAP can accommodate that (often, higher SLAs may be possible at a higher cost or with architecture adjustments – e.g., additional failover provisions).

At a minimum, ensure that maintenance windows are predictable and coordinated with your team’s schedule. You might negotiate advance notice requirements for downtime or limits on how/when SAP can schedule maintenance on your production system.

It’s also wise to include response time and issue resolution commitments. For example, define a “Priority 1” issue and the expected response and resolution time from SAP’s support for such P1 tickets. If your business can’t tolerate more than 1 hour of critical system unavailability, ensure the contract reflects how SAP will respond to severe incidents.

Moreover, consider including a “step-in” or escalation clause: if SAP consistently misses service levels or an outage extends beyond X hours, perhaps you have the right to invoke additional support or request on-site assistance.

While SAP may not agree to heavy penalties, having tighter SLAs and clarity on remediation steps is valuable. Remember to align these with any internal or customer-facing SLAs you have – if your IT department has commitments to your business units, you need SAP to support you in meeting those.

Practical impact: By actively negotiating SLA terms, you ensure RISE’s performance meets your enterprise’s requirements. This reduces risk: Your users and customers won’t be caught off guard by lengthy downtimes or slow issue response.

In case of problems, you’ll have clearer recourse – perhaps faster escalation to SAP’s senior engineers or defined service credits – rather than just hoping SAP will fix it quickly. In short, a well-crafted SLA means fewer unpleasant surprises and stronger service quality once you’re live, keeping your business running smoothly on the cloud.

6. Ignoring Indirect Access and Compliance in the Contract

SAP’s licensing complexity doesn’t disappear with RISE. One of the most notorious issues in SAP licensing has been indirect access (now often addressed via “Digital Access” documents licensing).

This refers to scenarios where third-party systems or external users interact with SAP data, such as an e-commerce platform creating orders in SAP or a CRM system reading customer info from SAP. In traditional licensing, indirect access could trigger additional fees or audits if not properly licensed.

A major mistake is assuming that moving to RISE with SAP (a subscription model) automatically resolves or includes rights for all indirect usage. If you ignore this area during negotiation, you could face a nasty surprise later: an audit or compliance claim from SAP for activities that weren’t explicitly covered.

For instance, imagine you integrate a Salesforce CRM or a supplier portal into your SAP system on RISE. If those integrations cause SAP documents to be created (sales orders, invoices, etc.), SAP might consider that unlicensed use unless you have something in your RISE agreement covering digital access.

There have been cases where customers who neglected this demanded additional licensing fees in the middle of their subscription because an audit found extensive document creation via third-party apps.

To avoid this, address indirect usage head-on during the RISE negotiation. List all third-party applications, interfaces, and partners/users that will interact with your SAP system. Discuss with SAP how these are to be licensed under RISE.

In some RISE deals, SAP is willing to bundle a certain amount of Digital Access (e.g., a document count or an add-on license) or offer a flat fee for unlimited indirect usage – but this is not automatic; it must be negotiated. If SAP does not include it by default, consider negotiating a separate clause or addendum covering your known indirect scenarios.

For example, you could secure an agreement that your RISE subscription includes the necessary rights for XYZ interfaces (perhaps by listing them or via a blanket digital access license). At a minimum, ensure you understand the cost if you need to license this later, and get any special pricing or discount for it spelled out now rather than after an audit when leverage is low.

Beyond indirect access, review other compliance-related terms. Even in a cloud model, SAP likely retains the right to audit your usage (e.g., to ensure you haven’t exceeded user counts or are only using entitled components).

Negotiate the audit clause to be fair and not disruptive. For instance, you might add that SAP must give adequate notice, audit at most once yearly, and get a chance to remediate any overuse before financial penalties kick in.

Some customers request that SAP’s license measurement tools be used to proactively monitor usage so that there are no surprises.

Practical impact: Covering indirect access and compliance in your negotiation protects you from future compliance penalties, which can be substantial. By being proactive, you eliminate a major source of risk that has trapped many SAP customers in the past.

In effect, you’re immunizing your RISE deal against one of the biggest budget-busting scenarios (a compliance audit finding you out of bounds). This also brings peace of mind: your team can integrate SAP with other systems freely (to drive business value) without constantly worrying, “Are we allowed to do this under our license?”.

In summary, baking compliance protections into the contract ensures your savings from RISE aren’t wiped out by unforeseen license fees, and you maintain a healthy, transparent relationship with SAP.

7. Lacking an Exit Strategy (Lock-In without a Backout Plan)

Signing a RISE with an SAP contract means moving to a subscription-based, cloud-hosted model for your SAP software. A mistake that can have long-term strategic consequences is failing to plan for what happens at the end of the contract or if RISE doesn’t meet expectations.

In other words, getting effectively “locked in” without an exit strategy. Under the traditional on-premise model, if you owned perpetual licenses, you could theoretically keep running your SAP system indefinitely (even if you stopped paying maintenance, you at least had the right to use the last version you paid for).

With RISE, if you decide to terminate the subscription, you lose access to the software and infrastructure, meaning your business could be dead in the water unless you have an alternative ready.

A classic mistake is surrendering your existing perpetual licenses as part of the RISE deal without considering the implications. SAP often allows (or even requires) customers to convert their old licenses into new cloud subscriptions.

While this can be financially attractive in the short term (and SAP may give credits for it), remember that if you’ve given up those licenses and later want to leave RISE, you no longer have the legal right to run SAP on-premise unless you purchase new licenses. Essentially, you’ve put all your chips on SAP’s cloud. This is not to say you shouldn’t convert, but you should do so with your eyes open and a plan.

Avoiding lock-in pitfalls: First, understand the exit terms in your RISE contract. Typically, there’s a clause about what happens upon termination: SAP will likely give you a data dump or export of your data, but they won’t provide services to transition you off.

There may be no option to terminate early for convenience (aside from paying the remainder of the subscription fees). Know how much notice you must give if you choose not to renew at the end of the term—and diary that well in advance so you don’t unintentionally auto-renew.

If maintaining a fallback is important to you, discuss options with SAP. In some negotiations, large customers have asked for a contingent reversion right – for example, if RISE doesn’t work out, the ability to revert to an on-premise model with equivalent licenses.

SAP is reluctant to provide this, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, especially if you have significant leverage. At a minimum, keep a copy of your last on-premise system (and licenses) running during the transition period if possible (SAP sometimes grants “dual use” rights for a limited time during migration – use that to create a safety net system).

It’s also wise to think ahead about data and custom developments. If you had to leave RISE after 5 years, how easily could you port your data to another system (SAP or otherwise)? Ensure your data extraction rights are clear. For any new custom extensions you build on SAP’s Business Technology Platform as part of RISE, consider how you would migrate those if needed, perhaps favouring portable technologies when possible.

Finally, keep alternative options visible. Even if you fully intend to stick with SAP, being a smart consumer would mean periodically evaluating the market. For example, if, at renewal time, other cloud ERP providers or a different deployment model offer better value, you’d want to know. You don’t want to be in a position where SAP assumes you have no choice but to renew with them at whatever price/terms they dictate.

Practical impact: Having an exit strategy means you retain negotiating power and strategic flexibility. If SAP knows you can and will walk away (because you’ve kept that door open), they are far more likely to offer competitive renewal terms and responsive service throughout. In contrast, if you’re completely dependent on RISE with no plan B, SAP holds all the cards at renewal time.

In terms of business continuity, an exit strategy ensures that even in a worst-case scenario, you can keep your business running, whether by falling back to an on-prem system, extending the contract short-term, or transitioning to another solution.

By avoiding total lock-in, you ensure that adopting RISE drives your transformation on your terms, not SAP’s. The best time to negotiate exit options is before signing, not when you want to exit.

8. Negotiating Without Leverage (Not Utilizing Timing and Alternatives)

SAP has strategic goals tied to RISE with SAP adoption, which can be used to your advantage. Procurement teams sometimes make a mistake by approaching the RISE negotiation like a standard software purchase without leveraging timing and competition for leverage.

Unlike perpetual license deals of the past, SAP’s sales teams today are under intense pressure to book cloud subscription revenue. They have quarterly and annual targets, and RISE deals are often showcased as key wins. If you ignore these factors, you might leave significant discounts and concessions on the table.

One key lever is timing. SAP (like many enterprise vendors) is often willing to offer better pricing and terms as quarter-end or year-end approaches to close the deal and hit its quota. We’ve observed companies that timed their final negotiations around SAP’s fiscal year-end (typically December) secure substantially larger discounts.

For example, one firm achieved an extra 15% cost reduction compared to earlier offers by aligning the deal’s closure with SAP’s Q4 deadline. The sales team was motivated to “make the number” and pulled out all the stops. Missing this opportunity (for instance, by finalizing a deal in the middle of a quarter with no internal urgency on SAP’s side) can be costly.

Another lever is demonstrating alternatives. SAP needs to believe that you have options other than RISE—whether staying on your current system longer, moving to S/4HANA differently (like infrastructure-as-a-service hosting without RISE), or even considering a competitor’s software. If SAP thinks RISE is your only plan and you’re fully committed to it, their incentive to give concessions decreases.

We often coach clients to politely make it clear that they are evaluating multiple paths. For example, you might let SAP know that you’re also assessing a “build your own” S/4HANA on Azure or AWS or looking at other ERP solutions for cloud migration. This isn’t to sour the relationship but to ensure SAP understands that they must earn your business with a compelling offer.

How to apply this: During negotiations, manage your timeline to coincide with a seller’s urgency whenever possible. Engage early enough to not rush (so you can walk away to the next quarter if needed), but aim to conclude when SAP is hungriest.

Monitor SAP’s fiscal calendar and communicate internally so your approvals and decision-making align with those crunch times. When discussing proposals, ask questions like, “What can be done if we were to sign by the end of the month?” to invite a better offer.

Additionally, prepare a credible story about your plan B. Even if you fully intend to choose RISE, have your team do some due diligence on alternatives (e.g., get a rough cost estimate for running S/4HANA on another cloud or renewing your ECC for a couple more years).

You can reference these in conversations: e.g., “We have budgetary quotes for running this on our own in AWS, and we need the RISE proposal to be financially attractive in comparison.” This reminds SAP that your deal is not a given. It’s also perfectly reasonable to ask SAP to match or beat certain benchmarks (cost or terms) you’ve seen elsewhere.

Practical impact: Using timing and competitive leverage can significantly improve the deal you get. The immediate benefit is often a lower subscription price or extra services included at no charge (for instance, SAP might throw in additional BTP credits or a longer dual-use period if they sense it’s needed to close the deal).

Beyond price, you might also get more favourable terms in areas we discussed (caps, flex, etc.) because SAP is more amenable when they’re eager to close. Essentially, you can bend the RISE contract closer to your requirements by being a savvy negotiator and not a passive buyer.

Over a multi-year contract, that initial 10-20% improvement in terms can translate to millions saved or a more successful implementation. And importantly, you’ll demonstrate to SAP that your organization is an informed customer that expects a partnership, setting a tone for better treatment throughout the relationship.

9. Overlooking SAP’s Incentives and Conversion Credits

When moving to RISE, SAP often offers various incentive programs, credits, or transition offers to sweeten the deal, especially since they want to encourage customers to move off-premise licenses into the cloud. A mistake is not fully exploring or leveraging these incentives during negotiation. If you don’t ask, SAP might not volunteer all the options, and you could end up paying more than necessary or not getting valuable perks that others are receiving.

For example, SAP has recently offered substantial migration credits for customers transitioning to RISE. In 2024, some customers reported receiving credits worth a significant percentage of their first-year RISE subscription fees that could be applied to other SAP services or subscriptions.

Hypothetically, an ECC customer might get a credit equal to ~45% of year-one RISE fees, and an existing S/4HANA on-prem customer might get an even higher credit (say 60% of year-one fees) to encourage the move, effectively funding things like implementation services or supplementary software.

There are also often cloud extension policies where the remaining value of your on-prem licenses/maintenance can be converted into cloud subscription value, and dual-use rights allow you to run legacy systems in parallel with RISE for a limited time during migration.

If you overlook these, you might sign a contract and later discover that you could have gotten a large one-time discount or budget offset for migration, making your project easier to fund.

Similarly, SAP sometimes has bundle offerings (including certain SAP Cloud products at a reduced rate as part of RISE), such as bundling Signavio (for process analytics) or Security/Identity services. Failing to discuss these means you might miss out on beneficial extras.

To capitalize on incentives: Ask your SAP account team early about any conversion programs, trade-in credits, or special offers for RISE. Don’t be shy – SAP frequently updates its incentive programs, so inquire about the latest.

If you have a lot of money sunk into existing SAP licenses and maintenance, bring that up: “We’ve spent $X over the years on maintenance – what can SAP do to recognize that investment if we move to RISE?” Often, this opens a conversation about credits or flexible arrangements.

Ensure that any credit or incentive is documented in the contract or order form (for example, if you’re promised BTP credits, the contract should specify the amount and how you can use them).

Also, think creatively: if SAP isn’t offering an incentive you think is fair, propose one. Perhaps you want a discount on a related SAP product as part of the deal or a free service period. If you know other companies got a certain deal (maybe through user groups or independent advisors), bring that knowledge to the table.

Lastly, be aware of the conditions attached to incentives. Some credits might expire if not used in a timeframe, or dual-use rights might only last 12 months. Plan accordingly so you fully utilize what you negotiate.

Practical impact: Using SAP’s incentive programs can significantly reduce the cost and risk of your RISE transition. A migration credit, for example, directly lowers your effective cost and frees up a budget to invest in a smoother implementation (perhaps hiring expert consultants or additional training, ensuring you’re successful on the new system). Dual-use rights can reduce downtime and stress by allowing a grace period where both old and new systems run concurrently.

Taking advantage of these offers means you’re not wasting money—you are maximizing the value received for every dollar committed to SAP.

In an era where every CIO is balancing transformation ambitions with tight budgets, these incentives can be the difference between a feasible business case for RISE and an expensive one. Leverage what’s available – it’s there to help both you and SAP succeed in this transition.

10. Skipping Independent Expert Advice (Going It Alone)

RISE with SAP deals combine software licensing, cloud hosting, and managed services, which introduces complexity beyond a typical software purchase. One mistake is for enterprises to navigate these negotiations independently without tapping into independent expertise.

SAP’s sales reps and solution engineers will guide you from their side, but remember, their job is to close the deal for SAP. Without an experienced advisor or licensing expert, you might miss subtle but important details or fail to benchmark your deal against industry standards.

Independent SAP licensing and contract experts (for example, specialist advisory firms like Redress Compliance, among others) are familiar with the fine print and the negotiable levers in RISE contracts. They have typically seen many contracts and know where pitfalls tend to lie.

For instance, they would know if SAP’s proposed user count metrics seem inflated, if the contract language on indirect access is insufficient, or if the discount offered is below what similar clients have achieved.

They can also help decode SAP’s pricing structure and service descriptions, translating jargon into plain English and options for you. Without such insight, even a savvy CIO or procurement lead might overlook something simply because this might be their first time dealing with RISE, whereas SAP does it daily.

To avoid this mistake, consider bringing in an independent advisor or consulting with one during your negotiation process. This doesn’t mean you hand over the negotiation – rather, augment your team with someone who has done it before. They can provide behind-the-scenes guidance or even front-line support in discussions if appropriate. Key areas where experts add value include:

• Contract review: spotting red flags or unusually restrictive terms in SAP’s drafts.
• License entitlement analysis: ensuring you’re not overbuying and that conversions of existing licenses are done optimally.
• Benchmarking and strategy: knowing what a “good” discount or term looks like, given current market conditions, so you know when to push back.
• Negotiation coaching involves planning the sequence of negotiations and the messaging to SAP, including the use of leverage, as discussed in point #8.
• Technical planning: validating that the proposed solution (infrastructure size, etc.) is right for your needs (neither undersized nor padded with unnecessary cost).

If budget is a concern, note that the cost of such expert help is often tiny compared to the potential savings or risk avoidance. Even avoiding one costly mistake (like an uncapped renewal or a compliance exposure) can justify the expense many times over.

Practical impact: Engaging independent expertise tilts the playing field back in your favour by making you as informed as SAP in the negotiation. You’ll negotiate with confidence, knowing the common tricks and fallbacks. This often results in a better contract, both financially and in terms of protection and clarity.

It’s like having a seasoned coach in your corner for a championship match. CIOs and procurement leaders using independent advisors often report smoother negotiation processes and outcomes they likely wouldn’t have achieved alone.

Furthermore, it reassures internal stakeholders (your CFO, legal team, etc.) that the deal has been vetted thoroughly. Ultimately, you sign a RISE contract that you fully understand and are comfortable with, eliminating blind spots that could have hurt you later. It’s a powerful way to de-risk a significant investment and ensure the cloud transformation starts on solid footing.

Summary and Key Takeaways

Negotiating a RISE with a SAP contract is a high-stakes endeavour that requires diligence, foresight, and savvy.

By learning from industry best practices (and the hard lessons of others), you can avoid the most common pitfalls.

In summary, here are the key takeaways for CIOs, procurement leaders, IT strategists, and enterprise architects:

• Define Everything in Writing: Never assume a service or component is included – explicitly confirm and document the contract’s full scope (software, services, responsibilities) to prevent costly scope gaps.
• Maintain Flexibility: Right-size your contract term and user volume, and negotiate options (adjustments, exit clauses, or shorter terms) to avoid overcommitting. Flexibility ensures you only pay for what you need and can adapt as things change.
• Think Long-Term, Not Just Year-One: Don’t chase a low first-year price at the expense of future costs. Negotiate price protections (caps on increases, predictable renewal terms) and consider the total cost of ownership over the entire contract period.
• Set Clear Roles & SLAs: Clarify your team’s and SAP’s responsibilities—know exactly who handles which tasks. Likewise, ensure the service levels (uptime, support response) meet your business requirements and push for SLA terms that safeguard quality.
• Address Compliance Upfront: Proactively cover indirect access, license usage, and audit rights in the agreement. Make sure your RISE subscription accounts for third-party integrations and includes any needed digital access licenses to avoid surprise fees later.
• Plan for Exit (Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst): Even as you embark on RISE, have an exit or transition strategy. Understand what happens if you leave the cloud subscription, and avoid giving up all leverage (e.g., retain some rights or at least awareness of alternatives) so you’re not fully locked in.
• Leverage Timing and Competition: Use SAP’s quarter-end/year-end pressures to your advantage and make it clear you have alternatives. Savvy timing and showing SAP that it must compete for your business will result in a more favourable deal (better discounts and terms).
• Use SAP’s Offers to Your Benefit: Inquire about and utilize any migration incentives, credits, or special programs. These can significantly offset costs (such as funding part of your implementation or dual-running systems) and improve the value of your RISE contract.
• Get Independent Insight: Don’t go it alone on complex cloud contracts. Engage independent SAP licensing and negotiation experts (e.g., firms like Redress Compliance) or advisors who know the terrain. Their expertise can help identify hidden risks, validate your strategy, and strengthen your negotiating position.
• Align the Deal with Business Goals: Finally, ensure every aspect of the RISE agreement aligns with your strategic objectives – flexibility for innovation, cost efficiency, global expansion, or improved resilience. A well-negotiated contract will support your IT and business goals, whereas a poorly negotiated one can hinder them.

By avoiding these top 10 mistakes, you set your organization up for a successful RISE with SAP journey, where the contract enables your transformation rather than constrains it.

With clear scope, flexible terms, proper protections, and expert help when needed, you can confidently embrace SAP’s cloud offering while steering clear of the common traps. The result will be a partnership with SAP that delivers true value to your enterprise on your cloud migration adventure.