Case Study: Massachusetts University System Cuts SAP Licensing Costs by 31% Through Centralized Usage Review
Industry: Education
State: Massachusetts
Employees: 15,000
The Challenge
A leading public university system in Massachusetts, operating multiple campuses and administrative units, faced growing SAP licensing costs year-over-year. Each campus managed its SAP user provisioning and license allocations, leading to significant duplication, inconsistent license types, and little visibility into actual usage.
Despite a modest IT budget, the system was paying for thousands of high-cost SAP named user licenses, many of which were assigned based on assumptions rather than real user needs. Some administrative staff had Professional licenses even though they used the system only for HR self-service tasks. In other cases, employees had multiple user IDs across campuses, triggering unnecessary license consumption.
Without centralized control or usage analytics, there was no way to assess where waste was occurring. The leadership team saw an opportunity to reduce SAP costs while preserving essential system access for faculty, staff, and finance operations.
The Solution
The university system partnered with Redress Compliance to perform a centralized SAP usage review and license optimization project across all campuses and departments.
Key actions included:
- Consolidated Usage Data Collection
Redress worked with local IT leads from each campus to extract system usage data, transaction history, and license assignments into a central dataset. - Duplicate and Inactive Account Identification
The analysis found hundreds of duplicate user accounts, often for the same individual operating under different campus roles. Many of these were inactive or outdated and could be eliminated. - Role Analysis and License Mapping
Each job function (e.g., registrar staff, HR admins, finance controllers) was reviewed to match actual usage with appropriate license types. Few users assigned Professional licenses were reclassified to lower-cost alternatives such as Employee or Limited Professional. - License Consolidation Plan
A unified license management process was developed to allocate licenses centrally across the system, ensuring consistency and better control. - Cost Modeling and Forecasting
The Redress team used license optimization software to simulate the impact of each change, allowing the university to validate savings while maintaining compliance.
The Results
The initiative delivered measurable results:
- 31% Reduction in SAP Named User License Costs
By eliminating duplicates, right-sizing user roles, and consolidating licenses, the university system achieved over 30% cost savings. - Improved Visibility and Governance
Centralizing license management brought transparency into how licenses are used, making budgeting more accurate and managing audits easier. - Simplified User Management Across Campuses
A shared policy now governs how new users are assigned licenses, reducing rthe isk of over-licensing in the future.
“We were flying blind when it came to SAP usage,” said the System IT Director.
“By unifying data across campuses, we were finally able to identify waste and make smart licensing decisions.”
“This wasn’t just an IT fix—it freed up budget that can now support academic programs directly,” added the Chief Financial Officer.
Why It Worked
This case shows that even in decentralized, public-sector environments, significant savings are possible when SAP licensing is based on facts, not assumptions.
By combining central data analysis, role-based mapping, and license cleanup, the Massachusetts University system has a cost-efficient and audit-ready SAP environment that supports operational and academic goals.
License efficiency starts with visibility and ends with savings.
