The chairman of SAP UK and Ireland's user group today admitted that his fears over the company's approach to licensing measures were "probably worse than the reality".
After imploring SAP to come clean - "If there is favouratism or not, and a policy or not, please make it public and let people know" - during an interview with Computing at last year's conference, Philip Adams' keynote this year switched his message to: "I don't know of any software supplier today that is engaging with its customers or users through user groups to the same extent that SAP is on the topic of licensing."
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While Adams admitted "there is probably still some way to go", he said he believes that SAP will continue to engage in the topic, working "much faster and harder" to bring benefits to numbers.
"This time last year, I stood on the stage and talked at length about some of our core concerns about transparency, flexibility and the need for licensing to be more simplified," continued Adams.
"It is a sensitive topic for SAP, but it's one [user group members] feel very strongly about. And although I thought it would be a tough challenge, and was concerned around whether SAP would listen, and whether we'd have any influence, I'm pleased to say that a year on, my fears were probably worse than the reality."
Tim Noble, MD of SAP UK and Ireland, also appeared at today's keynote, and briefly alluded to the licensing model again in relation to SAP's move into the cloud. Mentioning "big implications" for the licensing model, Noble seemed to agree with Adams' words on transparency, flexibility and simplified models.
This was in comparison to last year's conference, when Noble stood on stage and told delegates it was "very hard to improve the simplicity of licensing" and that SAP is, by its very nature, "quite complicated" - a statement that caused then-group chairman Alan Bowling to tell Computing the group would be "pushing a little bit harder".
In August 2013, SAP announced it was introducing "partial termination" of unwanted licences; it now engages in far deeper dialogue with its members about migrating licences to the cloud, and even back again for users switching their use case for SAP from cloud to on-premise requirements.
