Total Efficiency For Large SAP Portfolio

Inter Mutuelles Assistance (IMA) is one of the largest reinsurers in France. Since 2013, IMA has been mostly using SAP solutions (ERP ECC, SAP CRM etc.). With 45 million policyholders, IMA handles more than 3.4 million cases per year, or one person every 7 seconds. An activity largely managed in SAP ECC. SAP license management has played an important role at IMA from the start, as SAP accounts for the highest license costs within the group’s software portfolio. It was not just about managing this one software producer. The company was looking for options for greater efficiency overall, i.e. to spend less on licenses.

The IT department lacked a comprehensive overview of all SAP licenses and their usage. In addition, there was no access to precise consumption data. This shortcoming is what prompted the introduction of software asset management in 2018 and the creation of a full-time SAM position on the IT team. One of the difficulties at IMA is the strong seasonal fluctuations in staff work schedules. From June to September, the number of consultants can increase by 30 to 40%. This means that the number of SAP licenses must be increased correspondingly, but only temporarily. Overall, the number of SAP users fluctuates between 3,000 and 4,000.

Once the SAM approach had been implemented at the company, IMA finally looked for a suitable tool to automate processes and further boost efficiency. Manual license management was too complex and time-consuming and was insufficient for adequate preparation of the annual SAP audits. The insurer chose USU Software Asset Management as the German SAM provider has decades of experience in dealing with large software manufacturers and operates a special SAP license management tool. After the USU solution was launched, the insurer’s SAM team began recording the license data of its approximately 4,000 SAP users. After collecting and normalizing the required license data, the team continued to set up the reporting processes.

The top priority was to defend the Group’s interests in the annual SAP audits. The next step was to make the management of SAP licenses more efficient and optimize license costs. Typically, this involved the licenses for named users, but also the advance planning of license requirements for the S/4HANA migration, the calculation of additional metrics affecting the license costs, the management of indirect access (digital access) and finally the consideration of cloud instances. To successfully tackle the optimization tasks, it was essential to reduce the time spent just collecting information. And the USU SAM tool was a great help here thanks to its automated processes.

Through flexible and automated inventory methods, IMA achieved high data quality and accuracy across its entire IT infrastructure in the shortest possible time. In addition, IMA was able to monitor changes in license usage almost in real time and better anticipate the need for new acquisitions thanks to license simulations. This enabled the IT team to plan a valid fact-based budget and optimally manage the annual budget based on actual usage. The tool’s return on investment (ROI) arose from the significant amount of time saved by the SAM manager as well as the needs-based allocation of SAP licenses. Compliance risks in the context of software audits have been a thing of the past since the implementation of the SAM.