Reply to post: Re: Complex licensing

Fear the SAP-slap? Users can anonymously submit questions about licensing naughtiness

Lee D Silver badge

Re: Complex licensing

Exactly.

But then, that's SAP's business model, isn't it? Along with Oracle? Make the licensing sound so attractive while you're small and then sting you on absolutely everything once you're larger.

To be honest, SAP's stuff isn't even the worst. But I fail to see how what someone does with the output of a program can somehow still be "licensed". A basic licence for the software, sure. A licence per seat, sure (but I would add that support costs should be included in such a licence). A licence to unlock features, sure. But the "licence because your computer has another core/processor"? That's just getting silly. Hell, charge a fortune for an integration licence, that gives your data out in a specified API that others can use - I get that. Hell, charge per API call or something if you like. But if you CAN miscalculate to the tune of £50m just by taking the output from the software and using it somewhere else in your own business, that's really getting a bit stupid.

I have to say, for this reason, when people who don't work in IT talk to me about IT and are so keen to tell me that they've just moved over to SAP, or Oracle, or whatever, I shake my head and walk away. Some day it will come back to hurt them. Many of them don't even know what it is and certainly don't work in a company large enough to justify it, they've just heard that other bigger people do, so they end up on the same things.

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