The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act came into force at the beginning of the year. The requirements for companies to appropriately observe human rights and environmental due diligence in their supply chains are more or less concrete. You are obliged to the BAFA (Federal Office of Economics and Export Control) to document this in a transparent and audit-proof manner. It is obvious that the operational application systems have to be adapted accordingly for the implementation. Since the autumn of last year, SAP has also had a solution in its portfolio that can be used to implement the specific requirements of the law.
To the great displeasure of the users, the software company allows the whole thing to be paid extra. In any case, representatives of the DSAG (German-speaking SAP user group) are clearly critical of their software supplier. Because companies must also have a solution for implementation such as SAP’s Ariba Supplier Risk Ariba Risk Management licensed and introduced in their own organization with the corresponding effort, explains Thomas Henzler.
Angry about the extra fees: DSAG board member Thomas Henzler
The DSAG specialist board Licences, Service & Support – IT manager at Piller Blowers & Compressors GmbH in his professional life – criticizes that the manufacturer deviates from the proven practice of making supplements for the implementation of new legal requirements available free of charge as part of the maintenance. In order to be able to meet the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR) in the SAP landscapes, SAP Information Lifecycle Management (SAP ILM) was recently provided at no additional cost.
Additional costs as a consistent development
From a technical perspective, the departure from the previous approach can be explained by SAP’s new product policy (keyword: modular ERP) to implement new business process extensions and functions as independent services. “It is unacceptable that in the future customers will have to pay extra for the minimum implementation of legal requirements in the form of additional solutions that SAP places in the company,” Henzler makes clear.
In other words: The legal requirements must not serve as a Trojan horse to force the use of other applications in companies. Since companies continue to pay the full maintenance fee for their operational application software such as S/4HANA, DSAG board member Henzler demands clear commercial concepts from SAP for how legal requirements are dealt with within the framework of the modular ERP product policy. At the very least, maintenance fees paid for ERP systems should be taken into account if the corresponding functions are not delivered as part of the maintenance.
(jvo)
