ERP Cost of Ownership Model

SAP ECC license cost and 5-year cost of ownership model

SAP does not publish SAP ECC (SAP ERP 6.0) prices, and most ECC estates are already licensed, so this model starts from your own contract: named users by SAP user type, engine and digital access lines, the annual support fee, your database and hosting. Mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 ends at the end of 2027, with optional extended maintenance to the end of 2030 at a premium, so the five-year view usually compares running ECC on-premises or on IaaS against the RISE with SAP subscription you have been quoted. Implementation scope covers ECC functional areas, company codes and plants, interfaces, custom ABAP and data migration objects.

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On-premises, perpetual license(verify with vendor)Hyperscaler IaaS or hosted single-tenantRISE with SAP (move to SAP Cloud ERP Private)

Users by type

How many people and connections you license, by the user types that matter in SAP ECC.

Operational and system administration or management roles (SAP Business Suite price list user type 52). Includes the rights of a Limited Professional user. Unclassified users in production clients are counted as this default type.

Limited operational roles (user type 53). Which transactions and areas count as limited is defined in your license agreement, so check the contract wording before moving users here.

Self-service roles only, for the individual's own purpose and not on behalf of others (user type 54), for example their own leave, time or expense entries.

Access to the development tools delivered with the licensed software to modify it (user type 55, if licensed). Typically ABAP developers and some Basis staff.

Starting counts are a sample company size so the effort model shows hours straight away. Replace them with yours.

5-year total cost

Implementation
3,538 h
Per user per year
$0

No amounts entered yet

The effort model already shows 3,538 hours. Add a quote in step 2, a blended rate in step 4 or staff cost in step 5 and the totals fill in as you type.

On-premises: year by year

All amounts in USD. Implementation and contingency are placed in year 1.

CategoryYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 55-year
License or subscription-----$0
Vendor maintenance-----$0
Infrastructure and hosting-----$0
Database-----$0
Implementation-----$0
Internal staff-----$0
Support (AMS)-----$0
Total$0$0$0$0$0$0
Cumulative$0$0$0$0$0

Cost drivers

Share of the on-premises 5-year total.

Drivers appear once amounts are entered.

What to check in a SAP ECC quote

  • User classification: unclassified users in production clients are counted as the default Professional type, so cleaning up classifications in USMM before a measurement or renewal can change the user line.
  • Limited Professional rights are defined in your contract, not in a standard list. Check the wording before you move users from Professional to Limited Professional in the model.
  • Digital access: interfaces, portals, EDI and bots that create sales, purchase, invoice or other documents in ECC may need a digital access or indirect use license. Count created document items per year by type before you negotiate.
  • Support base: the support fee is a percentage of the license value, so any extra licenses you buy raise the support line for every remaining year.
  • 2028 to 2030: extended maintenance adds two percentage points to the existing maintenance basis. Model it as a higher maintenance percent in the years you plan to stay on ECC.
  • Database: a database license bought through SAP and one bought directly from the database vendor have separate support contracts. Enter both lines if you have both.
  • Custom ABAP: each custom object needs to be retested on support package or EHP updates and assessed again for an S/4HANA move. Count active custom objects as customizations in this model.

Sensitivity

Move a driver and every number above updates. 100% is what you entered.

100%
100%
100%
100%

Effect of +/- 20% on the 5-year total

Enter amounts to see which driver moves the total most.

SAP ECC licensing explained

In words, from vendor documentation. Follow the source links before you rely on a point in a negotiation.

Named user types and price lists

ECC named users are classified by contractual user type in the system measurement program (transaction USMM) after the matching SAP price list is activated. On the SAP Business Suite price list the types include Professional (52), Limited Professional (53), Employee (54) and Developer (55); the default type is 52, mySAP Professional. On production clients every unclassified user is counted with the default type.

Source
Free and special user types

Some user types carry no charge or a separate metric: Multiclient/-system users (11) must be tied to a chargeable user, Substitute users (04) act temporarily for another user in the same client, and both become obsolete when the License Administration Workbench (LAW) consolidates users. Engine-Only users (98) only run licensed engine packages and are not licensed for SAP ECC use. Test users (91) in production must be agreed with SAP.

Source
Engines and packages

Besides named users, SAP licenses some functionality as engine packages. The measurement price list has an Engine-Only user type (98) for users who only need access to run licensed engine packages, which shows engines are licensed apart from named users. Treat each engine on your contract as its own cost line; its metric is stated in your contract, not on a public price list.

Source
Digital access (indirect use)

SAP's document-based Digital Access model licenses access by non-SAP software and devices by the document items created in the digital core, across nine document types: sales, invoice, purchase, service and maintenance, manufacturing, quality management, time management, financial and material documents. SAP's course material counts only creation of document items, not reads, updates or deletes, and applies a 0.2 multiplier to financial and material documents. SAP announced in 2018 that the model covers SAP ERP as well as SAP S/4HANA, and existing customers may stay on their current terms. Check which model your contract uses.

Source
Support fee (maintenance)

Annual support is charged as a percentage of the license value. SAP states that the list price for SAP Enterprise Support for new on-premise purchases is 22 percent, a rate it committed to keep fixed until 2025; that commitment has now ended, so later changes follow your contract terms. Older contracts may be on Standard Support or another rate, so enter the percent from your own agreement.

Source
Maintenance end: 2027, 2030

SAP provides mainstream maintenance for core SAP Business Suite 7 applications, including SAP ERP 6.0, until the end of 2027. Optional extended maintenance runs from 2028 to the end of 2030 at a premium of two percentage points on the existing maintenance basis. Customers who do not choose extended maintenance by the end of 2027 move automatically to customer-specific maintenance, which covers problem solving for known issues at unchanged fees.

Source
Free, optional. Reopen it on any device.
Download the model:

Using this for a budget, a renewal or a cloud decision? An engineer can check the license metric, user mix and effort assumptions against how you run SAP ECC.

How to use the SAP ECC cost model

  1. 1

    Count users by SAP user type

    Take the classified user counts from your last system measurement (USMM, consolidated in LAW or SLAW) and split them into Professional, Limited Professional, Employee and Developer users as defined in your contract.

  2. 2

    Enter your license, support and digital access figures

    Type the license value from your contract or a new quote, your annual support rate (Enterprise Support or Standard Support), and any engine or digital access document lines. For the cloud option, enter the RISE with SAP subscription from your quote.

  3. 3

    Add infrastructure and database

    For on-premises or IaaS hosting, enter servers or virtual machines, the database license and support (SAP HANA, Oracle, SQL Server, Db2 or SAP ASE) and backup and disaster recovery from your own invoices.

  4. 4

    Scope the project work

    Pick the ECC functional areas in scope and set plants or company codes, interfaces, custom ABAP objects and data migration objects. Adjust the hours per unit and the blended rate to match your partner's estimate.

  5. 5

    Test the 2027 decision

    Add the extended maintenance premium for 2028 to 2030 if you plan to stay, compare it with the cloud option, and use the sensitivity sliders before you export the model or save it to your account.

SAP ECC pricing and licensing questions

How much does SAP ECC cost?

SAP does not publish ECC list prices. The cost depends on your named users by user type, engine packages, digital access terms, the support rate in your agreement, database and infrastructure, and how much custom ABAP you run. This model does not guess a price: enter the figures from your contract or quote and it builds the five-year total around them.

What are the SAP ECC user license types?

On the SAP Business Suite price list used for system measurement, the main named user types are Professional (52), Limited Professional (53), Employee (54) and Developer (55, if licensed). Professional covers operational and administration roles, Limited Professional covers limited operational roles defined in your contract, and Employee covers self-service for the user's own purpose only.

How does SAP measure ECC license use?

Each system runs the system measurement program (transaction USMM) with the matching price list activated, and the License Administration Workbench (LAW) consolidates results across systems so one person is not counted several times. Users left unclassified in production clients are counted with the default user type, which on the Business Suite price list is Professional.

When does SAP ECC support end?

SAP provides mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 core applications, including SAP ERP 6.0, until the end of 2027. Optional extended maintenance is available from 2028 to the end of 2030 at a premium of two percentage points on the maintenance basis. Customers who do not choose it move to customer-specific maintenance.

What is SAP digital access and does it apply to ECC?

Digital Access is SAP's document-based model for access by non-SAP systems, bots and devices. It counts the creation of document items across nine document types, with financial and material documents weighted at 0.2. SAP announced in 2018 that it covers SAP ERP as well as SAP S/4HANA, and existing customers could keep their current model, so check which one your contract uses.

Can I run SAP ECC in the cloud?

Yes, on infrastructure as a service: your existing ECC license can run on certified hyperscaler virtual machines, with supported products listed in SAP Notes such as 1928533 for Azure. SAP does not sell ECC itself as a subscription; RISE with SAP is the path from ECC to SAP Cloud ERP Private, which is S/4HANA.

What is included in SAP ECC total cost of ownership beyond licenses?

Annual support, database licenses and support, servers or cloud infrastructure, Basis and application support staff, outside application management (AMS), interfaces and custom ABAP maintenance, support package and EHP updates, and project work for new plants or company codes. For many ECC estates the support fee and staff are larger than any new license line.

How accurate is this model?

The arithmetic is exact for the numbers you enter. The default effort hours are planning assumptions, not benchmarks, so replace them with your partner's estimate when you have one. Ask an engineer to review the result if you are using it for a budget or a stay on ECC versus move to S/4HANA decision.

Sources

Netray is an independent ERP consultancy. Product and licensing names belong to their owners; confirm terms against your own contract.