SAPs 22 % maintenance fees and "Premium support"

[Former Member]

We recently got an official letter that the standard maintenance is increased to 22 % until 2012. On top there´s the "Premium support" mentioned and that all customers will get that support class automatically from now on until the end of 2008.

http://service.sap.com/maintenance

--> SAP Premium Support

Key Benefits

• Fast message processing and issue resolution

• Pro-active risk mitigation (e.g. unplanned downtime, poor performance)

• Continuous quality improvement and optimization of core business processes, infrastructure, and technical solutions

• Safeguarding of implementation or upgrade projects to ensure a smooth GoLive

• Direct access to the SAP support organization

• Reduce TCO and maximize ROI

</quote>

Did anyone here feel that something has changed in the support area since that letter was sent out? Or is that just a marketing thing to jolly the customers along? Not trying to rant here, just curious if others have the same impression as me...

Markus

[NathanGenez]

This is just re-branding IMO. There has been no change to the underlying SAP Support organization so there will be no change in the message processing. Level 1 support is still in India, right?Notice that they don't say "faster" in "Fast message processing and issue resolution". I thought Germans set high standards for speed (cars et al) so I don't know who's definition this comes from.

SAP is under such margin pressure at the moment and maitenance fees are almost pure profit. That's the only reason for this.

[Former Member]

Hi,

>maitenance fees are almost pure profit

Yes, basic and trivial questions are redirected to SDN forums...

More seriously, we did not yet receive a letter about new maintenance fees.

Olivier

[markus_doehr2]

> This is just re-branding IMO.

No - I doubt so. If that was the case, why would that offer be "limited" until the end of the year? If you want to get Premium support from january 1st 2009 you need to pay more for that. I think , that it's a maketing thing to advertise that "premium support".

What I really notice is the fact, that new OSS calls are taken into process pretty quickly, means, you get some kind of "automated answers" (put to customer action!!) like:

<quote>

We appologize for any inconvinience caused by this problem. Your messageis now on SAP side. We will contact you as soon as possible to disucuss

your problem further.

</quote>

Doing that improves the "initial reaction" statistics drastically - without any benefit for the customer. If that is the meaning of "fast message processing" then well..

Markus

[NathanGenez]

I'm not a customer so I'm not paying that much attention to it but my understanding was that everyone will have to pay this new rate. There is no way to opt out of it and remain at their current pay structure. SAP has offered a premium Max Attention level for a few years now which was offered at this same 22% rate. Now they are raising the existing support level from 17% to 22% without any noticable increase in service. The increase is not immediate... it jumps to 18.3% and increases each year to a max of 22% in 2012. I would hope that there is some small change to justify it but whatever it is has been poorly communicated. Some of the user groups in the UK and Ireland have already [responded|http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;530938406;pp;2].

[More dissent on SAP maintenance price hike|http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=445]

[SAP pulls the trigger on higher support costs|http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=442]

[SAP users unhappy|http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=443]

[UK Register|http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/17/sap_support_plan/]

[PC World|http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148481/sap_customers_forced_to_move_to_pricier_support.html]

If anyone can provide more info and correct me, feel free.

[suresh_datti]

Few other things I noticed of late is,

1.They invariably ask for a remote log on to the customer system.

2. Suggest a few OSS Notes to be implemented that may or may not be relevant to the issue.

~Suresh

[Former Member]

>

> Few other things I noticed of late is,
> 2. Suggest a few OSS Notes to be implemented that may or may not be relevant to the issue.
> 
> ~Suresh

Nothing "of late" about it. This has gone on for years.

Rob

[Former Member]

I have not noticed any difference, but did not expect any either because I have only ever used the Service Marketplace Support route once in all the years - and that was a disappointment for me (most likely my own fault).

=> see current version of SAP note 11.

Of course, I do recognize that things need to be organized in a constructive manner and I do use it alot to search.

Out of curiousness, considering that it is not a support nor consulting fee (fair enough)... what % of turnover is spent on R&D which makes it reasonably bug-free into production? Also 22%?

[markus_doehr2]

=> see current version of SAP note 11.

)

Out of curiousness, considering that it is not a support nor consulting fee (fair enough)... what % of turnover is spent on R&D which makes it reasonably bug-free into production? Also 22%?

That´s an interesting question...

I think, that the times of "bug free" are gone. The development is too distributed and the focus is mainly on release freezes, not on stability. That explains why there are notes with code corrections for products, that are not yet released/available.

Markus