Introduction – Why SAP Changed Its Licensing Approach
SAP’s old licensing model required a named user license for any use of SAP, even if it was an external system indirectly accessing SAP.
This led to frequent audits and disputes. Companies integrating SAP with third-party platforms often faced surprise “indirect use” fees, and pressure mounted on SAP to find a fairer solution. Make sure to read our comprehensive guide, SAP Digital Access Licensing: Understanding the Document-Based Model.
Framing Insight: “Digital Access was SAP’s answer to years of audit disputes — but it turned one complexity into another.”
What Is SAP Digital Access?
SAP Digital Access is the licensing model for indirect use – meaning any third-party system or automation that triggers SAP transactions. Instead of charging for each user, SAP charges for specific digital documents that external systems generate inside SAP. Nine types of SAP documents count:
- Sales Documents (sales orders, quotes)
- Purchase Documents (purchase orders, requisitions)
- Service & Maintenance Orders
- Production Orders
- Quality Management Documents (inspection lots, quality notifications)
- Time Management Documents (time entries, confirmations)
- Material Documents (inventory movements, goods receipts/issues)
- Financial Documents (journal entries, postings)
- Invoice Documents (billing invoices)
Each time one of these documents is created in SAP by an external application, it counts as one Digital Access event.
Example: If your Salesforce CRM creates a sales order in SAP, that single action counts as one digital document under this model. No SAP user is involved, yet the transaction is monetized by the document it generated.
How SAP Counts Digital Documents
Only write transactions from external systems count – when an outside application creates or changes data in SAP.
Simply reading or querying SAP data does not count toward Digital Access. If a third-party app only pulls information from SAP, there’s no charge. But if it posts a new order or record into SAP, that triggers a document count.
To measure usage, SAP provides the Digital Access Estimation Tool (DAET) to report your document counts by type. SAP’s notes also map which interface actions correspond to each document category. Typically, you assess these totals annually and compare them to your licensed allowance of documents.
Checklist: Measuring Your Digital Access Usage
- Use production data: Run SAP’s tools on real production systems (not test systems) to get accurate document counts.
- Filter out internal traffic: Exclude purely SAP-to-SAP processes – focus only on third-party integrations.
- Map interfaces to documents: Know which interfaces (APIs, middleware, etc.) trigger which SAP document types so nothing is overlooked.
- Verify internally first: Review DAET results internally and investigate anomalies before sharing data with SAP.
Expert Insight: “Run your own Digital Access report before SAP does — the first version they see becomes your baseline.”
Why SAP Introduced the Digital Access Model
SAP introduced Digital Access to bring clarity and consistency to indirect-use licensing. By counting documents, SAP created a concrete, auditable metric for indirect usage – ending the old debates over who qualifies as an “indirect user.”
The flip side is that it transferred risk to customers. Licensing moved from a fixed number of users to a potentially volatile number of transactions.
Instead of worrying about surprise findings in an audit, you now have to worry about spikes in system activity driving up costs. In short, SAP traded hidden audit risk for an open meter that runs with every external transaction.
| Old Indirect Model (Named Users) | New Digital Access Model (Documents) |
|---|---|
| Licensed per named user (login) | Licensed per document created |
| Indirect use hard to spot until audit | Usage easily tracked via system logs |
| Audit fights over user definitions | Straightforward count of documents |
Negotiation Tip: “SAP calls it simplification — but the metric shift moves cost from predictable (users) to volatile (transactions).”
Read how to reduce costs, Reducing SAP Digital Access Costs: How to Control and Optimize Digital Document Licensing.
How SAP Measures and Validates Usage
When SAP audits your environment, it runs scripts or tools to count how many digital documents were created by external systems.
The results break down the total by document type (and often by source interface), so you and SAP can see which integrations generated what.
Be aware that one external action can spawn multiple SAP documents – for example, an IoT sensor might create both a material document and a quality document from one trigger.
The key is understanding how each external process translates into SAP documents so you aren’t caught off guard.
Checklist: Prepare for a Digital Access Audit
- Inventory integrations: List every external system that writes to SAP (CRM, web shop, supplier portal, IoT platform, etc.). These are your indirect usage sources.
- Know the document types: For each integration, identify which document types it creates in SAP and ensure they’re properly accounted for.
- Track trends: Monitor your digital document counts regularly. Spotting growth trends early lets you adjust your licensing before it becomes a problem.
Pros and Cons of Digital Access
Pros:
- Clear and business-aligned: It eliminates the gray area of indirect use with defined document types, and ties costs to actual activity (easy for business to understand).
- Potential cost benefits: Customers with minimal external integrations may pay less under this model than they would by buying extra named-user licenses.
Cons:
- Volatile costs: Licensing costs grow with every additional transaction. Spikes in activity (from seasonal peaks or new integrations) can quickly drive up fees, making budgeting unpredictable.
- Monitoring required: You need to track and interpret usage closely. Complex or custom processes might not fit neatly into the nine defined document types, so careful analysis is still needed.
Expert Insight: “Digital Access is fairer for SAP, riskier for customers. It’s usage-based billing in disguise.”
Example Scenarios of Indirect Use
Here are a few typical integration scenarios and their Digital Access impact:
| Integration Source | Action in SAP | Digital Document Count |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce (CRM) → SAP | Creates a new sales order | 1 Sales Document |
| Supplier Portal → SAP | Submits a purchase order | 1 Purchase Document |
| IoT Sensor → SAP | Triggers an inventory movement | 1 Material Document |
In each case, it’s the system integration – not a human user – triggering SAP to create a document. This shows that controlling interfaces and data feeds is the key to managing Digital Access costs, even more than monitoring named users.
Practical Tip: “Most indirect use hides in integrations — not users. Start with your middleware logs.”
SAP’s Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP)
To encourage customers to switch to the new model, SAP launched the Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP) in 2019 with a few major incentives:
- Deep discounts: Up to 90% off the initial Digital Access license cost, dramatically reducing upfront expense.
- License exchange: Credit for certain existing licenses (used to cover indirect scenarios) toward the new document licenses, to avoid double-paying.
- Amnesty for past use: No back-charges for any unlicensed indirect usage prior to signing on, giving customers a clean slate.
DAAP officially ran through 2021 and then ended, but SAP often still grants similar terms in large deals. If you’re negotiating a major S/4HANA migration or renewal, ask if they’ll extend DAAP-like discounts and protections for your move to Digital Access.
Negotiation Tip: “Even after DAAP’s end, SAP may replicate its benefits — if you’re negotiating a large deal.”
How Digital Access Impacts Cost Planning
Because Digital Access ties cost to volume, you need to factor transaction forecasts into your SAP budgeting. SAP sells document licenses in tiered blocks (for example, 1 million documents per year, 5 million, 10 million, etc.). Larger blocks have a lower cost per document but a higher total price, so choosing the right tier is critical:
- If you overshoot (buy too large a tier), you overpay for unused capacity.
- If you undershoot (buy too small), a usage spike could force an expensive true-up or leave you out of compliance.
Checklist: Planning for Digital Access
- Plan capacity: Measure your current digital document output and forecast how upcoming changes (new projects, business growth) will increase it. Obtain a license for that expected volume rather than reacting later.
- Time upgrades with renewals: Align any changes in your Digital Access license tier with contract renewal or budgeting cycles, when you have more leverage to negotiate favorable terms.
5 Things Every SAP Customer Should Know About Digital Access
- It’s about documents, not users – and usage can spike. Your indirect SAP costs now track transaction volumes. If system integrations get busier, your fees will rise. Be prepared for that volatility.
- Use SAP’s tools proactively. Don’t wait for an audit – run the Digital Access estimation tools yourself and know your numbers. This way, you set the baseline and avoid surprises.
- Only external writes count. Viewing or extracting data from SAP doesn’t incur any charge. It’s the act of an external system creating or changing data in SAP that counts as a digital document event.
- Audit your interfaces (not just users). Many indirect usage costs come from data feeds and integrations, not people. Map out all external systems feeding SAP and monitor their document output.
- Negotiate volume and buffers upfront. Secure the right document tier for your needs and include buffers. For example, lock in discounted rates for additional volume or a cap on cost growth, so a surge in transactions won’t wreck your budget.
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