SAP shakes up its service and support portfolio, but only for the cloud

SAP has unveiled an update to its services and support portfolio that focuses on cloud and AI, while leaving on premises offerings untouched.

Split into three tiers, the new plans provide what the company describes as a “simplified engagement model” that leans heavily on AI-based tools.

Historically a provider of on-premises software, SAP had also tailored its customer-success services for on-premises delivery, but as it has transformed into a cloud company, its service and support offerings too have evolved towards faster delivery of services with additional offerings around business transformation, change management, and AI, said Thomas Pfiester, SAP’s head of customer engagement  and adoption.

“The beauty with the new portfolio is, because it’s subscription based, we drive it like a cloud product,” he said. That means SAP will add new services from time to time, initially every six months, based on customer demand.

Success plans

The new portfolio consists of three “Success Plans”: Foundational, Advanced, and Max, and customers can choose different levels of support for different SAP products.

Foundational, included with every SAP cloud solution, provides essential onboarding, technical cloud operations, and preventive support. SAP said it expands upon the SAP Enterprise Support offering with curated content, learning resources, guided transformation with application lifecycle management solutions and preventive mission-critical support, all enabled by AI.

Advanced adds additional expertise and AI-powered guidance, as well as support to help organizations detect risks and optimize processes. Customers receive activation sessions to help them deploy new solutions and refine functionality, as well as enhanced support service level agreements and additional tools.

Max includes everything in Advanced and adds a dedicated success plan manager responsible for helping the customer get the most from their SAP products, as well as cross-solution process improvements, and tailored AI use case adoption. It’s aimed at enterprises navigating complex transformations or scaling up their use of SAP Business AI, the company said.

On-premises customers will still receive support through their existing maintenance contracts, with no change in pricing, and, should they need additional assistance, they can buy on-premises-only versions of premium engagement offerings such as SAP MaxAttention, SAP ActiveAttention, and SAP Value Assurance, Pfiester said.

SAP said pricing for the new service tiers will depend on the cost of the software supported but did not provide details.

Mike Tucciarone, VP analyst at Gartner, said he expected Advanced support, which is likely to replace Preferred Success, will continue as a percentage of the cloud contract, historically around 20%.

SAP is not only shaking up its customer success plans, it’s also changing who manages them. On Monday, it gave executive board member Thomas Saueressig overall responsibility for its customer success organization and that for customer services and delivery.

Beyond the pricing of the new offers, analysts have mixed feelings about the shake-up.

“This feels less like inventing new support models and more like consolidating and realigning existing offerings into a cleaner, cloud-aligned framework,” said Robert Kramer, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “The shift ties support to adoption, proactive guidance and measurable outcomes. The real question is whether this reorganization makes it easier for customers to understand their purchases and consistently realize value.”

Josh Mori, advisory practice lead at Info-Tech Research Group, UK, advised enterprises to think carefully before accepting the packaged support deal. “This is not support model evolution, rather SAP’s deliberate restructuring of commercial leverage,” he said. “Organizations that negotiate from strength audit their entitlements, hold SAP to business value commitments, and reject boilerplate SLAs. Everything else is handing SAP the pen at renewal.”

Tucciarone was equally ambivalent. “SAP’s update brings much-needed clarity and transparency to its support offerings, making it easier to understand what’s included at each tier,” he noted. “However, it’s equally important to note that with this new structure, contractual flexibility will likely be reduced — particularly in the Max tier, where a percentage fee is embedded into subscription costs and customers may not be able to terminate for convenience as they did with MaxAttention.”

That means, he said, that while SAP is making support options clearer, clients should pay close attention to the fine print, as the trade-off may be less ability to adjust or exit support agreements in the future.

Clearer options

Elaina Stergiades, research director at IDC, said the new three-tier portfolio aligns with how most cloud providers structure their customer success offerings, noting that the services at the Max level are now better defined than in Max Attention agreements, which are larger and more complex to navigate. Being able to select different support tiers for different SAP product families makes sense for customers, she said.

But that doesn’t mean that customers will save money, Kramer pointed out. “The upside is more structure and flexibility. Being able to mix tiers across solution areas is practical because not every system requires the same level of engagement,” he said. “[But] predictable pricing does not automatically mean lower cost. Standardization may help budgeting, but total spend can still increase if customers feel they need to move up tier for deeper involvement or faster responsiveness. Hybrid customers should model this carefully and avoid assuming that ‘included’ means comprehensive across the entire estate.”

Tucciarone agreed. “The headline here is SAP’s promise of more predictable pricing, but the details matter,” he noted. “Foundational support stays bundled with cloud solutions. The new Max tier introduces an additional percentage fee, plus charges for service days. For customers used to paying only for service days under MaxAttention, this shift could mean higher costs and less flexibility.”

Kramer suggested that, to protect themselves, customers should map their current setup against the new tiers and clarify what the changes mean to them before choosing their support tier. “In many cases, strengthening internal fundamentals generates more value than simply upgrading service levels,” he said. “Before committing, define what success looks like.”