Your SAP Support Annual Agreement

July 22, 2015 | Shawn du Plessis | Vice President, Global SAP Support Services

September 30th is an important date for organizations that run SAP. It is the deadline day by which SAP users must terminate their annual maintenance/support agreement to avoid being auto-renewed for the following year. By exercising the right to cancel (sending the termination notification), SAP users gain 90 days to research alternative support options from either SAP, such as Standard Support, or from third-party SAP support vendors.

According to its research brief published July 13, 2015, Gartner reports seeing “a steady increase in inquiries” from ERP leaders who are considering cancellation of existing ERP maintenance agreements. Gartner overviews the pros and cons of alternative support options available to these ERP leaders, one of which is categorized as independent support. Spinnaker Support is one of only two firms that offer independent Oracle and SAP support. (1)

Investigate

The additional 90 days gained by sending in your annual maintenance termination notification can be used to research and assess alternatives to SAP support. Cancelling an SAP maintenance agreement is a smart tactic that creates extra time for SAP users. Your alternatives include:

  1. Moving from Enterprise Support to Standard Support will save 3% per year.
  2. Switching to third-party support will save you considerably more.
  3. Negotiating parts of your SAP contract such as: Removing shelfware off your annual maintenance invoice; Lower price; Cloud migration path

Negotiate

With over 200,000 customers worldwide, it seems that your best negotiation tactic is to exercise your right to terminate your contract by September 30. In the blog post this week entitled Tired of Losing Support Fee Reduction Negotiations with SAP?, UpperEdge states “there is a path to gain leverage and get executives within your company fired up for those negotiations.” Read more.

Replace

SAP users who are investigating the replacement of SAP support with third-party support most often have 3 things in common:

  1. They run stable SAP systems, meaning there are no near-term upgrade plans, the system is highly customized, and/or want to see better value for the cost.
  2. They are financially distressed or under pressure to cut costs immediately.
  3. They are migrating either away from SAP or to a cloud solution (e.g. waiting for a more clear S/4HANA migration plan).

Learn more about Spinnaker Support’s SAP services or contact us to get the discussion going.

Now is the time to be thinking about your strategy and evaluating whether this is the year you are going to take control of your SAP support/maintenance spend.

“Allocating a couple of months to complete a full and comprehensive evaluation would put your company in a position to prepare for SAP negotiations in the early part of Q4.” – Jeff Lazarto, Principal at UpperEdge

 

1. Gartner, What to Consider Before Cancelling Your ERP Vendor’s Maintenance Agreement and Switching to Third-Party Support, Pat Phelan, July 13, 2015

 

Delivering Oracle and SAP Software Support the Right Way

July, 10 2015 | Lee Mashburn | Vice President, Marketing

Third-party software support is being adopted by a growing number of organizations to replace support provided by large enterprise software giants SAP and Oracle. The market is now growing at a rate of approximately 40% per year as many organizations around the world are currently leveraging third-parties to cut support spend by 50+% and to often restore high quality service – while in no way impeding their future landscape.

Not all third-party support vendors are created equally. Increasingly more Oracle and SAP users find Spinnaker Support to be refreshingly different. Here’s why:

Since inception, Spinnaker Support has delivered world-class support for over 400 customers.

Spinnaker Support respects the intellectual property rights of SAP and Oracle, and has adopted and implemented a stringent intellectual property policy to ensure that we do not violate the rights of others.  All of our employees are required to sign and adhere to this policy to avoid unauthorized use of any third-party software code and copyrighted materials.

Spinnaker Support customers rave about our performance, honesty, and integrity.

They see us as a higher authority when it comes to most things SAP or Oracle. Our seasoned software engineers find and solve a broader array of customer issues faster and are regarded as a true extension of the team. Our customers stay with us at a 90+% retention rate, score us above 98% in satisfaction surveys, and are among the most referenceable communities in the industry. Because of the risk exposure that we do not interject, our customers can sleep better at night.

Spinnaker Support has built a business with staying power, not one for short-term exit – that will continue to scale to provide new customers with a safe, legitimate, and relevant harbor.

Our bottom line growth is just as important as our top line growth. We have been profitable every quarter in existence. We hold over 60% of deferred revenues in cash, reserved to fulfill customer service obligations. Our culture, approach, consistent execution, and high employee retention rate ensure a stable, uninterrupted service experience for our customers.

Spinnaker Support is one of only two recognized “pure play” vendors providing third-party support for Oracle and SAP enterprise software.

The second pure play provider, Rimini Street, will soon be pitted in court versus Oracle to defend against charges for alleged copyright infringement, computer fraud, and related business torts. Oracle just announced they will seek at least $200 million in damages plus an injunction on Rimini Street’s current business model. The U.S. District Court in Las Vegas dismissed Rimini Street’s counterclaims against Oracle alleging “defamation and unfair competition” last August agreeing with Oracle that Rimini had engaged in “massive theft” of Oracle intellectual property.

Spinnaker Support is the only pure play third-party support vendor that delivers SAP and Oracle software support the right way. We always have and we always will!