SNOW OPTIMIZER

FOR SAP®
SOFTWARE

Snow Optimizer for SAP Software, an SAP-certified

application, provides SAP license optimization and
management automation in a single integrated console.

Snow Optimizer for SAP® Software enables

companies to achieve the transparency and
understanding necessary to actively optimize and
manage their SAP deployments. SAP licensing is
complex, and a lack of insight into SAP licensing
can result in significant financial and legal liabilities,
whether from direct or indirect usage, and paying for
assets that are not even utilized.

From the world’s leading Software Asset

Management (SAM) software provider, Snow
Optimizer for SAP® Software provides various
analyses which identify and isolate named SAP users
that are obsolete, duplicate or wrongly assigned.
It gives you an exact understanding of your SAP
baseline inventory and entitlements enabling you to
optimize your SAP expenditure and entitlements.
 MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF
SAP LICENSING
SAP requires its customers to provide License
administration Workbench (LAW) data which
aggregates audit data solely for the purpose of
contract compliance. However, LAW is neither
intended for, nor can be used for license
optimization. The ability to optimize the number
of SAP users, the access and usage of engines,
and the specific user license types used. Crucially,
the solution can identify and trace indirect use to
ascertain financial exposure and to reduce risk.

INACTIVE USERS the SAP system, facilitating the removal of duplicate

licenses and the detection of SAP integrated third-
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software reviews the last party products.
login and generates a list of all users that have not
logged into the system over a set period. It enables With SAP’s Digital Access license model, license
the SAP administrator to create automated rules costs are incurred when specific document types
to expire these user accounts so that they may be are created. The Digital Access Estimator for
recycled or consolidated to realize savings on future SAP® provides a simplified, automated way to
procurement costs. predict these costs at a granular level. It allows
SAP customers to compare indirect access costs
DUPLICATE USERS of current licenses to predicted costs under Digital
Access and choose which license model is the best-fit
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software’s analysis
for their organization.
capability can detect suspected duplicate named
users by looking at various patterns. Duplicates Regardless of which model SAP customers choose,
can be removed from the SAP systems, creating Snow Optimizer for SAP Software provides
opportunities for further cost reductions. comprehensive data about indirect access and usage,
to enable organizations to reduce costs and mitigate
OPTIMAL LICENSE TYPES risks.
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software identifies and
monitors those users that have a license type well in OPTIMIZE BUSINESSOBJECTS
excess of their behavior based on a long collection of LICENSING
usage history. It will constantly fine tune your license
allocation to make significant savings. By reconciling BusinessObjects licenses against SAP
licenses, Snow Optimizer for SAP Software identifies
INDIRECT ACCESS & DIGITAL ACCESS any licensing gaps or overlaps. By matching usage
to the correct license, eliminating duplicates and
SAP recently announced that indirect licensing revoking licenses from inactive users, the solution
would be assessed based on the number of digital refines an organization’s BusinessObjects licensing
documents created, rather than on the number of position to prevent unnecessary overspend or
indirect users with access to SAP data. SAP customers compliance and audit risk from underspend.
can choose whether to move to this new licensing
model or stay on their current contract. MEMORY USAGE
Under the original indirect usage licensing model, Snow Optimizer for SAP Software centrally monitors
every user who creates, reads, or manipulates SAP S/4 HANA memory usage. The measurement
SAP data (whether directly or indirectly) must be report captures the history of memory consumption
authorized and licensed to do so. Snow Optimizer across SAP systems. Activity and statistical data can
for SAP Software rapidly identifies potential indirect be aggregated daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly,
usage based upon access by third-party users and rather than just showing 12 month peaks.
reconciles these users against named users within
KEY FEATURES BUSINESS BENEFITS
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS RISK AND COST CONTROL
Snow Optimizer for SAP® Software has the most By monitoring unusual behavioral patterns, the Snow
comprehensive data collection of user, usage activity and Optimizer for SAP® Software can detect unlicensed and
memory usage, as well as user access to standard and non-compliant users that are accessing the SAP system. This
industry-specific modules, engines and self-declaration enables companies to make proactive remediation and avoid
products enabling license optimization. potentially large contract renewal costs.

It detects patterns of usage and behavior behind the vast IDENTIFY AND TRACE INDIRECT USAGE
amount of usage data, isolating roles and transactional
activity, and provides insight into how the SAP deployment Indirect Usage of SAP is amongst the top licensing concerns
is actually used. User activity, statistical data, and module/ for organizations. Snow Optimizer for SAP Software enables
transactional access can be aggregated monthly. Also, it is proactive reduction of Indirect Usage risk.
possible to deposit contract data within the Snow Optimizer
for SAP Software. The solution rapidly identifies potential indirect usage based
upon anomalous activities of named users. It reports on
communications to and from external third-party systems
LICENSE ALLOCATIONS AND RULE SETS
to identify the originating user in the third-party system,
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software maintains up-to-date highlighting the users who are indirectly querying SAP and
details on which licenses are assigned where. This enables through which system.
SAM managers and SAP administrators to rebalance license
allocations on-the-fly, and to rightsize licensing across the Snow Optimizer for SAP Software also reconciles third-party
SAP landscape. users against named users within the SAP system.

Rule sets are created to quickly and correctly align the user ONGOING COST REDUCTION
with the correct license in the correct system, based on their
activity. Snow Optimizer for SAP Software gives warnings Enterprise maintenance for SAP licenses consumes 22% of
when a limit of contractual number of licenses, engines, self- the list price of the software every year. Paying maintenance
declaration products, memory usage or specific activity types on tens of thousands of unused licenses is tremendously
is reached. All of this enables the avoidance of additional costs costly and wasteful. It is money that could be used more
or penalties. productively elsewhere in the enterprise.
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software ensures that you know
SYSTEM METERING more about your SAP systems than anyone else, giving you
the information you need to optimize your SAP systems and
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software constantly monitors
have the upper hand in contract negotiations and audits.
system measurements across the hundreds of SAP systems
in an enterprise and aggregates that data and highlights key AUDIT & COMPLIANCE
compliance concerns to the SAP administrators.
By properly fitting the SAP license type to each user
REPORTING periodically throughout the year based on actual historic
behavior over a set period (e.g. 12 months), the enterprise
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software produces reports for ABAP can assure compliance for its upcoming SAP audit and cost
(including SAP S/4 HANA), Java-UME and BusinessObject optimization. By having a comprehensive understanding of
systems, these include: user list, baseline analysis by system the usage patterns and behavior, enterprises can remain
or user type, matrix user/data sources and role utilization. compliant and audit ready today and in the future.
For Business Objects and ABAP systems, the following
additional reports are provided: NEW PROCUREMENT COSTS
• Log-on analysis (in tabular and graphical formats) Negotiating a steep discount on 5,000 new SAP professional
user licenses may be a well-intentioned but misguided effort if
• Usage analysis for CPU usage and change documents an enterprise has 15,000 user licenses that should be retired
• Module analysis (in tabular and graphical formats) and recycled. Enterprises can potentially save significant
amounts of forward spending by more efficiently using the
• Usage profile and Role Usage Analysis licenses they have already purchased.
• Memory Usage Consumption (SAP S/4 HANA).
Snow Optimizer for SAP Software now includes a license
report for OpenText and allows for the central monitoring of
multiple OpenText installations.

SNOW SOFTWARE SURVEY

“63% of organizations surveyed intend to assess and reduce indirect usage risk within the next 12 months.”

Analyst View

Source: Snow Software Survey, March 15, 2017

SNOW SAM PLATFORM
SNOW LICENSE MANAGER SNOW INVENTORY
With millions of licenses sold, Snow The true multi-platform audit solution
License Manager is the world’s leading designed to find devices, audit software
SAM solution. installs and track usage.

SOFTWARE RECOGNITION SNOW INTEGRATION CONNECTORS

SERVICE Integrate Snow’s SAM platform with
Recognize commercially-licensable existing Inventory, ITAM and Service
applications across the network. Management solutions.

ORACLE MANAGEMENT SNOW OPTIMIZER FOR SAP®

OPTION SOFTWARE
Cut the costs of managing complex Manage SAP licensing to optimize one of
Oracle licenses. the enterprise’s largest software costs.

VIRTUALIZATION SNOW AUTOMATION PLATFORM

MANAGEMENT
Define and implement automated process
Identify and manage virtual assets to support software optimization.
across the network.

SNOW DEVICE MANAGER

A complete enterprise mobility
management solution that handles the
full lifecycle of mobile devices.

ABOUT SNOW SOFTWARE

Snow Software’s Mission: To stop organizations paying too much
for the software they consume.

Whether it’s through lack of control, lack of understanding or lack

of compliance, Snow Software believes that most organizations
today end up paying too high a price for their software.

To address this, Snow Software provides Software Asset

Management (SAM) solutions designed to ensure that the $326
billion spent every year on enterprise software is money well
spent – ensuring organizations have the appropriate licenses for
the software they use – not too many, not too few.

Today, more than 4,500 organizations around the world rely on

Snow Software’s on-premise and cloud-based SAM platforms
to manage software licensing across more than eleven million
devices, from mobile to desktop, datacenter to the cloud.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Snow Software is the

largest dedicated developer of Software Asset Management
solutions, with more local offices and regional support centers
than any other vendor.

CONTACT US
[email protected]