CASE STUDY
SAP Audit Defense: €450,000 True-Up Claim Mitigated to Zero
How we audited a German manufacturing group's database usage, disputed indirect access claims, and resolved compliance exposure.
CLIENT INDUSTRY
Industrial Manufacturing
GEOGRAPHY
Bavaria, Germany
TOTAL SAVINGS
€450,000 Slashed to €0
ENGAGEMENT LENGTH
45 Days
The Challenge
The client, a mid-market German manufacturing group, received a formal notice of non-compliance following a routine annual SAP license measurement audit. The vendor claimed that data queries made via third-party web portals connected to the SAP database constituted "Indirect Access" (Digital Access). The vendor demanded a true-up fee payment of €450,000 for retroactive licenses.
The client faced significant risks:
- Opaque Licensing Terms: SAP’s definition of Digital Access was complex and hard to interpret.
- Retroactive Fees: The client was being billed for multiple years of alleged unlicenced access.
- Negotiation Pressure: The vendor threatened to suspend contract negotiations for an upcoming S/4HANA migration project.
The Sourcing Approach
Procuvance provided independent audit defense support to protect the client from these claims:
- Technical Sourcing Review: We analyzed the actual integration architecture between the web portal and the SAP database to measure transaction volume.
- Contract Audit: We conducted a review of the client's legacy SAP contract documents, identifying specific clauses that protected them from retroactive pricing modifications.
- Defense Strategy Formulation: We developed a structured defense response, proving that the queries did not create new database objects and fell within standard use rights.
- Vendor Negotiation: We represented the client in meetings with SAP compliance officers, presenting technical and legal evidence to dispute the €450k claim.
The Results
Our audit defense strategy yielded a complete resolution of the compliance dispute:
- €450,000 Claim Settled to €0: SAP withdrew the non-compliance fee demand entirely.
- S/4HANA Migration Protection: The dispute was resolved without affecting the timing or pricing of their migration project.
- Contract Alignment: We updated the client's master agreement to explicitly define integration boundaries, preventing future indirect access audits.