SAP puts its services to the test

Business software provider SAP and its European users have launched a benchmarking scheme to measure the performance of its services, a precursor to proposed increases in prices for support.

The introduction of the scheme follows a deal reached at the end of April between SAP and the SAP User Group Executive Network (Sugen), an umbrella organisation of European user groups. The two sides had been in dispute over a change to SAP's support model, planned to arrive on 1 January, 2009, that would have raised costs to 22 per cent of total licence.

Under the deal, SAP agreed to reduce the immediate increase to 18.4 per cent and to make further rises conditional upon its meeting a set of key performance indicators (KPIs).

On Friday, Sugen and SAP announced that the first two KPIs to be measured will be CPU utilisation levels and storage performance, with KPIs for support response times and service uptime to follow next.

In all, 11 KPIs have been defined, according to a statement published by the Francophone SAP user group, Le Club des Utilisateurs SAP Francophones (USF).

A total of 43 enterprises from around Europe will take part in the benchmarking scheme, Sugen said. Data from participants will be collected via Solution Manager, an SAP monitoring tool. SAP will provide organisations with feedback on optimisation and best practices, based on the data received.

The results of the first set of KPI benchmarks are expected in September this year, and the price increases dependent on these are likely to take place in January 2010.

Original article: SAP user benchmark tests get underway from ZDNet UK