Introduction – RISE Migration Considerations for Existing SAP Customers
SAP markets RISE with SAP as a “smooth transition” to the cloud, but for existing on-premise customers, it can become a financial trap. Most SAP ECC or on-prem S/4HANA customers have already invested heavily in perpetual licenses and annual maintenance.
If you move to RISE without careful planning, you risk double-paying – once for the licenses and maintenance you’ve already bought, and again for the new RISE subscription covering the same software. In effect, RISE can become a repurchase of what you own, disguised as an upgrade.
Read our overview article, RISE with SAP Contracts: Negotiation Guide & Key Considerations.
The key is to negotiate credits and timing so you retain the value of your prior investments.
This guide lays out how to preserve credit for your existing licenses, avoid overlapping maintenance fees, and time your move to minimize financial exposure. Be strategic and skeptical of SAP’s “easy transition” pitch – a seamless migration is possible, but only if you address the fine print.
Framing Insight: “RISE isn’t an upgrade — it’s a repurchase disguised as a migration unless you negotiate credits and timing carefully.”
Understanding License Conversion Mechanics
When converting ECC licenses to RISE, SAP offers programs to apply your on-premise license value toward the new cloud subscription. Under SAP’s Cloud Extension or Contract Conversion policies, you can exchange some or all of your perpetual license investment for credits on the RISE subscription.
However, these conversions are not 1:1 – SAP typically grants only a partial credit for your existing licenses.
How Credits Are Determined: The credit value SAP offers depends on several factors:
- License Age & Usage: Newer or actively used licenses hold more value; older licenses may be heavily depreciated in SAP’s eyes.
- Product Type: Core ERP modules might get higher credit than niche or sunset products. Some on-prem modules have no direct cloud equivalent, complicating their trade-in.
- Support Tier & Spend: Your annual maintenance fees (usually ~22% of license price) factor in. A high support spend can influence credit calculations, especially if you’ve prepaid for support.
In practice, customers often see 40%–70% of net license value offered as credit towards RISE. For example, if you have $10 million in license value, SAP might initially credit only around $5 million of it.
Without negotiation, you are effectively paying for at least half of your software again. Don’t assume SAP will automatically credit the full value of what you own.
Before engaging in a RISE migration discussion, prepare these essentials:
- ✅ Full Entitlement Inventory: Gather a detailed list of all your existing SAP licenses and user counts from the SAP Support Portal. Know exactly what you own.
- ✅ Maintenance History: Document the maintenance fees you’ve paid in the last 3 years. This helps quantify your investment and any overlap credit you should demand.
- ✅ Unused Licenses: Identify modules or user licenses you aren’t actively using (shelfware). These could potentially be dropped or used as bargaining chips during conversion.
- ✅ Renewal Dates: Check your current maintenance contract renewal or expiration dates. Plan the RISE start to coincide with these milestones to avoid paying for maintenance beyond your migration.
Negotiation Tip: Demand SAP’s written credit calculation early in the talks. Never accept vague promises like “we’ll apply your license value at contract stage” – it’s too late by then to fix a bad deal.
Conversion Credits – What They Really Mean
When SAP promises “conversion credits” for your on-premise licenses, it can mean several things. It’s crucial to understand the models and their pitfalls:
| Credit Model | What It Means | Typical Issue |
|---|---|---|
| License Value Credit | Partial value of your perpetual licenses is applied toward RISE subscription fees. | SAP heavily depreciates your license value – often 50% or more is wiped out, unless challenged. |
| Maintenance Offset | Unused months of pre-paid maintenance can offset some of the new RISE fees. | Rarely a full dollar-for-dollar relief – SAP might only credit a portion of remaining support, leaving you paying double for some period. |
| Trade-In Conversion | Specific on-prem products are directly swapped for equivalent cloud subscriptions. | Not all modules have a clear cloud version, so some licenses can’t be fully traded in (leading to value loss or forced shelfware). |
These credit models sound generous, but SAP’s math always favors SAP. A “40% credit” means you lose 60% of your prior investment’s value. Even a “maintenance offset” might only cover a fraction of what you’ve already paid for support. Insist on clarity for each credit type in your offer.
Expert Insight: “SAP’s credit math always favors them. Get the numbers early — not after the RISE quote arrives.”
In fact, SAP’s conversion incentives have been declining over time. Early RISE adopters in 2021 managed to secure credits approaching 100% of their remaining investment (one company paying $5 million a year in maintenance received about $4.5 million credit in the first year).
By contrast, offers in 2024–2025 tend to max out around 60–70%. Every year you wait, the available credit percentage shrinks, meaning more out-of-pocket cost to migrate.
Use this to your advantage: if you’re ready to move, negotiate as if your credit entitlement is a sliding scale that you want to lock in at the highest possible value today.
Avoiding Double Payment
One of the costliest mistakes is paying SAP twice for the same software. This happens when companies sign a RISE contract while still under an active maintenance contract for their old system.
Without intervention, you could be cutting checks for both traditional maintenance and the new RISE subscription concurrently.
Here’s how to avoid this double-pay trap:
- Suspend or Credit Maintenance: Ask SAP to pause your maintenance charges once RISE begins, or issue a credit note for any overlapping period. SAP won’t volunteer to do this – you must request it.
- Align Start Dates: Ideally, time your RISE start exactly when your on-prem maintenance term ends. If your support runs until December 31, plan the RISE contract to commence January 1. This alignment ensures you’re not paying maintenance on a system you’re replacing.
- Backdate if Needed: If you must start RISE before maintenance ends, negotiate a backdated start or a refund for unused months. For instance, if you go live on RISE 5 months before your ECC support contract expires, get a 5-month maintenance fee refund applied to your RISE bill.
Remember, SAP annual support is about 20–22% of the license value per year.
Even a few months of overlap can waste a significant sum. For example, overlapping 6 months of maintenance on a $2 million/year support contract means roughly $1 million paid for services you no longer need – money that should be knocked off your RISE costs.
Checklist to Prevent Double-Pay:
- ✅ Co-Terminate Contracts: Shift the RISE subscription start date to the day after your last paid maintenance day.
- ✅ Maintenance Credit: Explicitly request credit for any unused maintenance. If you’ve prepaid through year-end but cut over in Q3, those unused months should reduce your RISE fees.
- ✅ Single Charge Assurance: Write into the contract that you will not be billed for maintenance and RISE subscription for the same product in the same period. This provides legal grounds to recover any duplicate charges.
Example: One SAP customer had ECC maintenance paid through Dec 2025 but signed RISE beginning in July 2025. They negotiated a pro-rated 5-month maintenance refund (July–Nov) credited against the new RISE subscription. This avoided paying roughly half a year of double maintenance, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Read how Rise with SAP is different from traditional licensing, RISE vs Traditional SAP Licensing: Which Model Delivers More Value and Control?.
Managing License Value and Ownership
What happens to your perpetual licenses after moving to RISE?
In most cases, SAP will suspend your on-prem license rights for the duration of the RISE subscription. You retain legal ownership of those licenses (they’re on your books), but you’re contractually barred from using them while on RISE.
This is SAP’s way of preventing a customer from running two systems for the price of one. However, you need to protect your rights:
- Reactivation Clauses: Ensure your agreement states that if you decide to leave RISE in the future, you can reactivate your old licenses. There should be a clear path to re-license your ECC or S/4HANA on-prem software without hefty penalties if RISE doesn’t work out.
- No Surrender of Rights: Be wary of any clause that talks about “termination” or “relinquishment” of your perpetual licenses. You should never permanently give up licenses you paid for. At most, they should be in stasis. If SAP insists you must terminate them, treat that as a major red flag.
- Leverage of Dormant Licenses: Even if you don’t plan to use the old system, keeping those rights gives you leverage. In negotiations, the option (even if theoretical) to fall back to on-prem puts pressure on SAP to keep RISE pricing and service quality in line. You also protect yourself in case of unexpected issues – for example, if a critical process isn’t working in the cloud, you could potentially revert to the on-prem system temporarily.
Expert Insight: “Keep your perpetual licenses alive. Even dormant rights are leverage if RISE fails to deliver.”
In summary, treat your existing licenses as an insurance policy. Don’t let SAP write them off; instead, shelve them gracefully with the ability to reinstate if needed.
The best negotiation outcome lets you go to RISE for now without burning the bridge back to on-prem.
Timing the Migration
Timing is everything when it comes to a RISE migration.
SAP will often push for you to sign quickly (especially around their quarter-end or fiscal year-end), but you should schedule the move on your terms for maximum financial advantage:
- Leverage Renewal Cycles: The optimal time to start RISE is right before your annual maintenance renewal. This way, you’ve gotten the full value of the last maintenance period you paid for, and you immediately stop future maintenance costs. For example, if your maintenance renews every January, a RISE deal kicking off in January means no wasted support dollars.
- Avoid Mid-Project Moves: Don’t migrate in the middle of a major ECC project, upgrade, or integration. Pause and finish critical on-prem projects first. RISE transitions take focus – you don’t want parallel heavy lifts. Also, a stable license landscape (no pending changes) ensures your conversion credits (often calculated on current usage) are accurate.
- Contract Co-term Alignment: Align the end dates of all relevant contracts. If you have multiple SAP agreements (for different modules or subsidiaries), try to co-term them or consolidate before moving to RISE. This avoids some license trailing and the need for maintenance after the switch.
- Plan a Cushion Before Deadlines: Aim to cut over to RISE at least 30–60 days before a support deadline or contract lapse. This cushion gives you time to resolve any issues and prove the new system works, while still allowing for adjustments if needed.
Negotiation Tip: “Never migrate under pressure. RISE timing should follow your financial optimization plan, not SAP’s sales quarter.”
Checklist for Optimal Timing:
- ✅ Maintenance Co-Terms: If possible, set all maintenance renewals to the same date, so you have a single clear target for ending on-prem support.
- ✅ Check Ongoing Initiatives: Confirm no large ECC enhancements or rollouts are scheduled during the migration window – freeze changes to reduce complexity.
- ✅ Pre-Go-Live Buffer: Schedule the RISE go-live a couple of months before maintenance expiration. Use this buffer to resolve any dual-use issues or to briefly extend ECC support if the cloud transition runs late (it’s better to extend for a month than to rush and fail).
- ✅ Verify FUE Mapping: Before signing, double-check the Full User Equivalent (FUE) mappings for your users once your license mix is stable. Ensure the RISE user counts truly cover all roles you need so you’re not caught short after switching.
Data, Hosting, and Operational Implications
Migrating to RISE isn’t just a licensing change – it’s an operational shift. Your systems move to SAP-managed cloud infrastructure (typically hosted on AWS, Azure, or GCP through SAP’s arrangement).
While SAP handles the heavy lifting of hosting and technical management, you need to be clear on the following:
- Included vs. Extra Services: Confirm which migration services are included in your RISE package. Will SAP (or their partner) handle the system conversion and data migration as part of the subscription, or is that a separate project cost? Ensure the proposal clearly states what’s covered – e.g., development/test systems, disaster recovery, etc. – so you’re not hit with surprise fees.
- Performance and SLAs: Review the hosting service level agreements. You should get commitments on uptime (typically 99.7% or higher), response times for critical issues, and penalties if those SLAs are missed. Treat the operational reliability as part of the contract value – a cheaper deal is not worth it if your business is at risk from subpar service.
- Data Access and Portability: One often overlooked area is how you get your data back. If you ever exit RISE or need to extract large volumes of data (for analytics or integration), are there tools and services provided? The contract should guarantee your right to retrieve your full database and any associated data (configurations, custom code, etc.) in a usable format.
- Rollback Plan: Even if you don’t intend to roll back to on-prem, have a contingency. This could mean keeping backups of your last on-prem system state or ensuring a third-party can host your system if needed. It’s bargaining power too – SAP knows you have an escape route.
Operational Safeguard: “Negotiate SAP’s obligation to assist in data repatriation if you exit RISE — including agreed export formats and reasonable fees.”
In practice, getting data out of a cloud can be non-trivial. Ensure the RISE contract not only covers running your system but also defines end-of-service support, such as SAP providing a full export of your system and cooperative services to help you re-establish on-prem or elsewhere if needed. It’s like an insurance policy for your ERP.
Legal and Commercial Review Points
A RISE contract isn’t just your old SAP agreement copy-pasted with “cloud” added. It often comes with new legal terms that can catch customers off guard. Before signing, have your legal and procurement teams pay special attention to:
- Termination and Exit Terms: What if you need to terminate early? Many RISE contracts impose hefty penalties for breaking the term (often, you owe all remaining fees). Negotiate flexibility, such as definitions for termination for cause or a cap on early termination fees. Also, clarify what happens at the end of the term if you choose not to renew – ensure there’s no automatic renewal trap or sudden loss of data access.
- Governing Law and Liability: SAP might shift the governing law/jurisdiction in the cloud contract, which can affect dispute resolution. Check liability caps and indemnities – are they comparable to your old contract? Sometimes, cloud contracts limit SAP’s liability more stringently.
- Data Ownership and Privacy: The contract should explicitly state that you own your data. SAP is a processor/custodian. Also, review data privacy terms if you operate in regulated industries or regions (GDPR, etc.), since your data will be in SAP’s cloud.
- Performance and SLA Commitments: Ensure the SLA (uptime, support response) is documented and that you have remedies (like service credits or the ability to terminate if SLAs are consistently missed).
- Audit Rights and Compliance: Your existing on-prem license agreement likely had audit clauses. The RISE contract may continue to give SAP audit rights over usage compliance in the cloud. Confirm that any audit processes are reasonable and not more intrusive just because they are in the cloud. Additionally, ensure the resolution of any prior compliance issues. E.g., if you had an unresolved indirect access issue on ECC, clarify how that is handled or waived under the new contract.
- Impact on Existing Agreements: Check if the RISE contract overrides your prior master agreements or if it’s an addendum. SAP sometimes includes language that the new cloud agreement supersedes any prior license agreements. If so, be very cautious – you might inadvertently waive rights from your old contract. Ideally, the RISE contract should reference your existing agreements and carry forward beneficial terms (like price protections or usage rights) where possible.
Legal Tip: “Ensure your RISE contract doesn’t silently override protections from your ECC master agreement – it often does unless you catch it.”
It’s wise to have a licensing expert or attorney compare your old and new contracts line by line. Common findings include changes in warranty disclaimers, new limitations on how you can use the software, or stricter assignment clauses (which could affect mergers or divestitures). Spot these and negotiate adjustments before signing.
Example Migration Outcome
To illustrate these points, consider a real-world scenario of a savvy SAP customer:
Scenario: A global automotive firm had invested approximately €8 million in SAP ECC licenses over the years.
When moving to RISE (private cloud edition), SAP’s initial offer was a 50% license value credit applied toward the new subscription – effectively valuing their €8M of software at €4M. The customer was also mid-way through an annual maintenance cycle, with roughly 6 months of support left.
Negotiated Improvements: Through careful negotiation, the customer achieved:
- Higher License Credit: SAP agreed to a 75% credit on the license value. This increased the credit from the original ~€4M to ~€6M, substantially lowering the subscription cost.
- Maintenance Overlap Refund: The customer secured a 6-month maintenance refund for the unused support period. Those funds were credited against the RISE fees, so the client didn’t pay for maintenance and subscription simultaneously.
- Perpetual License Protection: The contract explicitly allowed the customer to retain and reactivate their old ECC licenses if they decided not to renew RISE after the 5-year term. This clause ensured they had an exit strategy without starting from scratch.
Outcome: Over the RISE contract term, these concessions saved the firm an estimated €1.5 million compared to the initial offer. Just as importantly, they kept leverage for the future. If the RISE solution underperformed or costs ballooned at renewal, they had the option (however unlikely) to revert to their perpetual licenses or use that as bargaining power.
Lesson: “Credit negotiation and timing alignment determine whether a RISE migration saves money or burns it. The difference comes down to how well you protect your prior investments.”
This example shows that with assertive negotiation, a RISE migration can be financially viable. Without those steps, the same deal could have easily cost significantly more and locked the customer into a one-way street.
5 Actions to Protect Value During RISE Migration
Instead of a traditional conclusion, here’s a final checklist of five actions every SAP customer should take to safeguard their investment when considering RISE:
- Request a Detailed Credit Breakdown in Writing: Get SAP to spell out exactly how they calculated any conversion credit – license by license. Don’t proceed based on assumptions.
- Align RISE: Start with Maintenance and End: Plan the cutover so you don’t pay for support and subscription at the same time. If they can’t align, demand pro-rated credits to neutralize overlap.
- Preserve Perpetual Rights: Keep your existing license agreements alive (even if suspended). Never sign away your perpetual rights entirely – they are your fallback and negotiation leverage.
- Recoup Overlap Costs: Negotiate refunds or credits for any maintenance or other fees that overlap with the new service. You’ve paid for those months; make sure they aren’t lost in the shuffle.
- Secure Exit and Flexibility Clauses: Insist on clauses for reactivating old licenses and exporting your data. Ensure you have a way out in 3–5 years, with your data and systems intact, if RISE doesn’t meet expectations.
Following these actions will help ensure your move to RISE is truly a transition, not a forfeiture of value.
By demanding transparency, timing the move wisely, and locking in protections, you can achieve the cloud benefits SAP promises without double-paying or sacrificing the investments you’ve already made.
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