Maximize the potential of your HR systems

What is Full Usage Equivalent (FUE) and how does it work in SAP S/4HANA? Here we explain...

Over the years, SAP has developed and evolved its licensing model to meet customer demands. All SAP software implemented in the cloud is available as a subscription-based licensing model.

Currently, S/4HANA can be acquired with a perpetual license or with a subscription.
The perpetual licensing of S/4HANA is mainly available for the local offering and includes a one-time license fee, while the recurring subscription license is used for cloud offerings, such as S/4HANA Cloud, in its public edition.

According to the established terms, the license includes hardware, application management, database, software usage rights, maintenance, and support.

Full Usage Equivalent (FUE) is a metric used by SAP to calculate the number of licenses needed in its consumption-based subscription model, such as in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

How does FUE work?

Instead of assigning individual licenses for each user, SAP uses FUEs to measure the total system usage. Each type of user (according to their access level and functions) has a specific weight within this calculation.

For example:

• A user with full access to the system could equate to 1 FUE.
• A user with limited permissions could count as 0.5 FUE or less.

Switching to S/4HANA Cloud as an existing SAP customer

One of the benefits of switching to S/4HANA Cloud is its customized subscription-based license. This is because, instead of buying everything at once and paying the highest price, the subscription model of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is based on actual consumption.

Access to the platform will require Full User Equivalents (FUEs), distributed among SAP Named Users, ensuring the proper distribution of access rights. These FUEs will be included in each package, as with other SAP products.
Customers who already use SAP can reduce their IT maintenance costs by migrating to S/4HANA Cloud, as they will only pay for the resources they actually use.

In this case, the customer will retain the usage rights of their old software once the contract ends. They will be able to cancel maintenance fees and have access to them if they need to recover their old data.

Full User Equivalents (FUE) of S/4HANA Cloud

S/4HANA Cloud is designed to manage growing businesses. For this reason, there is a minimum threshold of 30 Full User Equivalents (FUE).

It is important to note that 30 FUE does not limit its use to only 30 primary users. Thirty FUE could correspond to the use of 30 advanced users, or 10 advanced users, 95 primary users, and 30 self-service users. The customer has total flexibility and can even change the distribution of user types later.

How are FUEs calculated?

Depending on the individual's access, those with limited rights and access to the system would not be weighted as FUE; Conversely, the system utilization threshold would allow many more users.

The full user equivalent or FUE is the actual number of people who are authorized to access specific SAP S/4HANA Cloud solutions. For example, depending on the usage, one FUE can be calculated differently.

People with limited access are generally counted as ⅓ of a license, while people with advanced access are counted as a full license.
You can consult the complete documentation of FUE SAP S/4HANA for other calculations and transparent packages, or write to us for personalized information. Please note that some functions require additional subscriptions.

Is SAP S/4HANA Cloud the solution for your business?

S/4HANA Cloud is a solution in the cloud, which could do much more for your business than just help you manage processes. Packages that include real-time reporting and analytics will greatly help company management to optimize everything.
To determine if SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the best alternative for your business, it is key to analyze the complexity of your processes and the compliance requirements of your sector.

If you want a personalized assessment and better understand how FUEs can optimize your technology investment, contact us and discover how SAP S/4HANA Cloud can drive your growth.