Software Asset Management publisher pack for SAP

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 9 minutes to read
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    Summary of Software Asset Management publisher pack for SAP

    The Software Asset Management (SAM) publisher pack for SAP enables ServiceNow customers to manage and optimize SAP licenses effectively. It provides comprehensive visibility into SAP license compliance, helps uncover potential savings, and supports various SAP products including SAP NetWeaver 7.4, SAPBASIS 740, SAP ECC, and SAP S/4HANA applications. To use the publisher pack, the Software Asset Management Professional for SAP plugin (com.snsampsap) must be installed.

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    Supported License Types

    • Named Users: Supports licensing for SAP ECC and S/4HANA applications with various named user license types tailored to the application, including Professional, Developer Access, and Technical Use.
    • Engines: Optional SAP packages requiring additional licenses, with usage calculated through automated measurements, combined calculations, or manual self-declaration where automation is unavailable.
    • Digital Access: Covers indirect SAP usage via third-party applications without direct logins, licensing based on predefined document types created by these applications. Usage is calculated by multiplying document counts by specified multipliers. Tools like SAP Passport and SAP Estimation facilitate data extraction at no extra cost when purchasing Digital Access licenses.
    • Full Usage Equivalent (FUE): Applies to SAP S/4HANA Cloud users, with licenses allocated to four cloud use types (Self-Service, Core, Advanced, Development) each weighted by a factor to reflect access levels.

    SAP Connection and Data Integration

    To integrate SAP data into ServiceNow, customers deploy an ABAP program on their SAP systems and establish a connection via Remote Function Call (RFC). Data from multiple SAP clients is centrally fetched and stored in ServiceNow tables. Data synchronization occurs weekly for most SAP data and monthly for user and engine activity, with retention policies for activity data (90 days) and engine usage records (one year). Transform maps control data transfer from staging to final tables, with user activity transforms disabled by default to avoid performance issues but can be enabled manually.

    License Usage, Compliance, and Optimization

    • License consumption, costs, and compliance status can be viewed through the Software Publisher Analytics dashboard (classic application) or the publisher overview in the Software Asset Workspace.
    • Weekly or on-demand reconciliation compares purchased rights against actual usage to identify compliance gaps, unlicensed users, and potential optimizations like role reassignment.
    • License optimization includes mapping user roles to named user types and leveraging SAP USMM rules and user transaction activity data.
    • Self-declaration processes allow manual entry of engine license usage when automated measurement is not available, enhancing visibility and cost control.

    Key Configuration and Management Tasks

    • Deploy the SAP ABAP program to enable data sharing.
    • Create and manage software entitlements and software models for SAP products.
    • Define and import custom SAP named user types and price lists to align licensing with organizational contracts and SAP-specific licensing models.
    • Map SAP user roles to named user types to facilitate license optimization during reconciliation.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This publisher pack empowers customers to gain detailed insights into their SAP license usage, ensure compliance, reduce unnecessary licensing costs, and streamline SAP license management by integrating SAP data into their ServiceNow environment. The centralized approach to data collection and license reconciliation simplifies monitoring across multiple SAP clients and product types, enabling proactive license optimization and risk mitigation.

    Use the Software Asset Management publisher pack for SAP to manage and optimize your SAP licenses. Get comprehensive visibility into your SAP license compliance and uncover potential savings.

    Note:
    You can use the SAP publisher pack to manage and optimize licensing for SAP NetWeaver 7.4, SAP_BASIS 740, and later versions.
    Note:
    To use the publisher pack, install the Software Asset Management Professional for SAP plugin (com.sn_samp_sap).

    Supported license types

    The SAP publisher pack supports licensing for named users, engine measurement, third-party access, and full-usage equivalent.

    Named Users

    SAP named users are the members in your organization who use SAP applications. You can purchase different types of named user licenses and then assign each license to a named user.

    The SAP publisher pack supports named user licenses for both SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) applications and SAP S/4HANA applications. Different named user license types are supported based on the application type. SAP ECC applications support various named user license types, including Professional, Limited Professional, and Employee Self Service. SAP S/4HANA applications support only the Developer Access, Enterprise Management for Professional Use, Enterprise Management for Functional Use, Enterprise Management for Productivity Use, Technical SAP Engine User, and Technical Use named user license types. The ServiceNow AI Platform supports all named user types for both SAP ECC applications and SAP S/4HANA applications.

    Engines (automated, calculated, and self-declared)

    SAP engines, also known as packages, are optional applications that require additional licenses. Every engine has a unique license metric that is used to calculate the license usage for the engine. Examples of license metrics include the number of employees or number of contracts.

    License usage is calculated through either an automated SAP engine measurement, calculation based on multiple engine measurements plus an indicator, or a manual self-declaration process.
    • If an engine is supported by the SAP engine measurement process, Software Asset Management automatically calculates the license usage for that engine.
    • If an engine is identified to be composed of multiple engine measurements, Software Asset Management calculates this value if the indicator license metric is also available.
    • If an engine isn’t supported by the SAP engine measurement process, you must manually enter the license usage information for that engine using the self-declaration process. For information on how to self-declare your SAP engine license usage, see Self-declaring SAP engine license usage.
    To view the complete list of engines that are supported by each process, see Engine & Self-Declaration Product Measurement in the SAP Support Portal.
    Important:
    You must have an SAP Support Portal account to access the SAP Support Portal.

    The SAP publisher pack supports engine licenses for both SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) applications and SAP S/4 HANA applications.

    Note:
    Starting with the Yokohama release, revenue-based licensing support is enabled for SAP Engine products. You can use higher value revenue-based products for purchased rights and unit cost. For details on enabling the support for revenue-based licensing, see the knowledge base article KB1641524.
    Digital Access
    The Digital Access license applies to indirect usage of SAP systems by people or third-party applications without logging in to the system directly. A few examples for indirect usage of SAP systems are as follows:
    • Using a third-party application to perform actions in the SAP system
    • Entering data into the SAP system from a third-party application
    • Viewing data in the SAP system from a third-party application

    When you have many third-party product integrations with SAP systems, you can avoid unnecessary consumption of your named user license by purchasing Digital Access licenses. In this licensing model, the usage of SAP applications is licensed by the count of the predefined documents created by the third-party application. The details of the predefined document types are stored in the SAP Document Type [samp_sap_document] table that's installed with the Software Asset Management Professional for SAP (com.sn_samp_sap) plugin.

    Table 1. SAP Document types
    Document name Document multiplier
    Sales document 1
    Purchase document 1
    Invoice document 1
    Manufacturing document 1
    Material document 0.2
    Quality Management document 1
    Service and Maintenance document 1
    Financial document 0.2
    Time Management document 1
    The SAP system stores the digital access data of the supported document types for different users and client systems. Make sure you have any of the following tools to pull the digital access data from the SAP system to your ServiceNow instance:
    • SAP Passport tool
    • SAP Estimation tool
    Note:
    When you purchase an SAP Digital Access license, these tools are available for installation without any additional cost. For details on the SAP tools, see SAP Help Portal.

    When any of the predefined document types are created in the SAP system through a third-party application, the Digital Access licensing cost is applicable. However, there are no additional charges associated with reading, updating, or deleting these documents.

    For the SAP Digital Access software model, digital access usage is calculated as follows:
    1. The total count of documents of a particular document type created on each SAP system by all your users is calculated.

      Consider a scenario where User A created 5 Material documents, and User B created 5 Material and 10 Sales documents on an SAP system. The total count of Material documents is 10 and Sales documents is 10.

    2. The license consumption is calculated by multiplying the total count of a particular document type by the Document multiplier.

      Based on the scenario mentioned in the preceding step, licenses consumed by Material documents is 2 (10*0.2) and by Sales documents is 10 (10*1). So, the total Digital Access license consumed is 12.

    Note:
    The SAP Digital Access software model is installed with the Software Asset Management Professional for SAP (com.sn_samp_sap) plugin.

    Reconciliation for the SAP Digital Access software model is done by comparing the Purchased rights with the licenses that you consumed.

    Full Usage Equivalent (FUE)

    The FUE license applies to the users of SAP S/4HANA Cloud applications. FUE is granted to the number of users that are authorized to access specified solution capabilities. A single FUE can be allocated to different use types with a specific weighting factor.

    The FUE framework for licensing provides the required level of access and flexibility to different cloud use types. An FUE license can be distributed to any of the four different cloud use types that have a specified weighting factor.
    • Self-Service Use: This FUE applies to users that are using the SAP S/4HANA Cloud application through self-service portals, providing access to basic business processes, data viewing, and report generation. This use type is intended for users who mainly access information or engage with the application via predefined self-service features. Additionally, it’s used to display and manage use rights, data consumption, and lightweight tasks.
    • Core Use: This FUE includes all rights from the Self-Service use type and is designed for users who need restricted access to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud application. Core users can view data, run reports, and run basic business processes. This use type is ideal for users who require access to specific information or perform routine tasks without needing comprehensive functionality.
    • Advanced Use: This FUE includes all rights from the Core use type and grants users full access to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud application. This type of access enables users to create and edit data, run reports, and use all available business processes. It’s assigned to users who need extensive functionality that is crucial for managing key business operations.
    • Development Use: This FUE grants authorized users the license to access the development tools provided with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP Environment.

    The details of the predefined cloud use types are stored in the SAP Cloud Use Types [samp_sap_cloud_use_type] table that's installed with the SAP S/4HANA spoke plugin. For more information, see License calculation for SAP cloud use types.

    Table 2. SAP S/4HANA cloud user types and weighing factors
    Cloud user type Weighing factor
    Development User One FUE = 0.5
    Advanced User One FUE = 1
    Core User One FUE = 5
    Self-Service User One FUE = 30

    An example of FUE license allocation to different cloud user types:

    40 SAP S/4HANA Cloud users for advanced use = 40 FUE licenses

    75 SAP S/4HANA Cloud users for core use = 15 FUE licenses

    270 SAP S/4HANA Cloud users for self-service use = 9 FUE licenses

    SAP connection with the ServiceNow AI Platform

    To start connecting your SAP systems and your ServiceNow instance, deploy the ABAP program for SAP. Then, follow the steps to establish an SAP connection.

    The Software Asset Management publisher pack for SAP uses a centralized design. When you import transport files into an SAP client that is considered a central system, the client uses the custom program-selected Remote Function Call (RFC) connection list to connect all other clients through RFC from the central system. It then fetches data to store in central system custom tables. To import the transport files, use either the SAP Solution Manager or another SAP client that has RFC connections activated to fetch data into a central system.

    After the connection is established, data is pulled into your ServiceNow instance from your SAP system. For a list of all data that is pulled, see Tables installed with the SAP publisher pack.

    SAP data is scheduled to be pulled weekly. User activity data, web activity data, and engine usage data are pulled monthly. All user and web activity is deleted after 90 days. Engine usage measurement records in the SAP License Metric Measurement table [samp_sap_license_metric_measurement] are deleted after one year.

    When SAP data enters the ServiceNow AI Platform, it’s initially stored in staging tables before it’s transferred to the final SAP tables. To edit the tables where data transfer takes place or to view the transfer logic, see transform maps.

    Note:
    The user activity and web activity transform maps aren't enabled by default because they may cause performance issues due to the large amount of data. However, you can manually enable these transform maps. To enable the activity transform maps, navigate to All > Software Asset > SAP Compliance and Optimization > SAP Connections and select the connection. In the Configuration section, set the Fetch activity field to True and then select Update.

    View SAP license usage and compliance

    View your SAP license costs, usage, and compliance using the Software Publisher Analytics dashboard (Software Asset Management classic application) or publisher overview (Software Asset Workspace). The dashboard and overview also show how you can optimize license consumption by reassigning user roles in your SAP system. You can view the license optimization details in the Software asset analytics view. For more details, see Publisher optimizations for SAP.

    Reconciliation runs weekly or on demand to determine your license compliance position for all of your SAP products. Reconciliation compares your purchased rights recorded in software entitlements with actual usage data pulled from your SAP systems. You can view reconciliation results for SAP in the License usage view of the Software Asset Workspace. The License usage view shows unlicensed users and engines, digital access licenses available and required, and remediation options to make your license position compliant, potential savings, and more. For more information on the License usage view, see License usage view.

    To view Software license compliance position reports for SAP, navigate to License usage > Reports > Software license compliance position in the Software Asset Workspace.