- Zach Frye
- Reading Time: 5 minutes
Earlier this year, we alerted the market that the first wave of SAP RISE agreements was entering its first renewal cycle. Our message was clear: organizations should not assume their next RISE agreement will resemble the one they originally signed.
Throughout 2026, UpperEdge has supported several customers through their RISE renewal planning and execution. What’s become increasingly apparent is that early adopters are renewing into a materially different RISE model and contextual situation with SAP compared to before.
For early RISE adopters, the challenge is no longer simply negotiating a renewal. It is determining what should carry forward, what needs to change, and what new functionality should be considered before SAP sets course on their intended direction for your next RISE agreement.
1. Early Adopters are Renewing into a More Complex RISE Model
The RISE commercial offering has changed considerably since the first customers signed.
SAP has updated its FUE-based licensing tiers, introduced more modular packaging, expanded service offerings, added new bundled capabilities, and has introduced transformation incentives to help alleviate transformation-related financial pressures.
SAP has also introduced more flexible RISE commercial constructs, including models such as Commit-to-Consume and the Private Tailored Option, giving customers more avenues to adjust their SAP footprint over the term of their agreement.
At the same time, certain commercial parameters have tightened. UpperEdge has seen SAP place greater limits on subscription ramps, particularly in Year 1, which can reduce customers’ ability to align spend with actual deployment timing.
The broader SAP commercial landscape has evolved as well. While the European Commission’s recent settlement applies to on-premise maintenance (not RISE), it introduced new flexibility around support and unused licenses, reinforcing how much has changed since many early adopters signed.
Importantly, SAP is also using renewals to introduce newer innovation capabilities that were not part of many early RISE agreements, including Business AI and BDC. Early adopters now need to consider how those offerings fit into their future roadmap.
Customer Impact: Early adopters are entering renewals with more options than they originally had, which also means more decisions to make. Organizations can tap into SAP’s evolved commercial model and innovation portfolio without locking in commitments their business demand hasn’t caught up to yet.
2. SAP is Using Renewals to Expand the Conversation Beyond Core RISE
UpperEdge has consistently seen SAP use RISE renewal discussions to introduce significantly more than a continuation of the customer’s existing RISE footprint.
AI Units, BDC capacity, newer cloud SKUs, and Max Success Plans are increasingly appearing in renewal proposals, even where customers have limited near-term interest. Another challenge organizations face is determining how much of these innovative capabilities they will consume.
Many of the organizations we support do not yet have clear answers to basic questions such as:
- How much AI capacity & BDC consumption will be required for our roadmap?
- Which products are truly additive versus repackaged versions of existing investments?
- Which capabilities are bundled into newer RISE offerings versus separately monetized?
SAP’s all-in approach to their “Autonomous Enterprise” strategy makes these questions increasingly important. Customers understandably want access to SAP’s latest innovation, but the commercial constructs supporting those capabilities are still evolving.
Customer Impact: The risk is not simply overbuying. Customers cannot allow SAP’s innovation roadmap to reshape their BOM before determining how AI, BDC, and newer SAP offerings actually fit into their own technology strategy.
3. Years of Change Orders Should Reshape the Renewal Baseline
For many early adopters, the last several years of RISE have produced a very different environment than originally forecasted. Software has been added, infrastructure expanded, storage increased, and FUE requirements evolved, often through a series of Change Orders. Those additions matter because incremental purchases may not have benefited from the same economies of scale as the broader demand ultimately committed.
At renewal, customers face another challenge: SAP has consistently shown a strong desire to protect its existing run rate.
Achieving meaningful economic improvement can therefore be difficult. One theme UpperEdge consistently encounters is SAP’s focus on preserving the recurring revenue relationship, even where customers identify legitimate opportunities to reduce or restructure scope.
That tension becomes most apparent when customers identify shelfware or determine that the original RISE agreement was never fully optimized across software scope, infrastructure, or economics. In some cases, customers entered RISE with excess capacity or subscriptions based on assumptions that did not materialize. But SAP may still look to preserve that accumulated run rate at renewal.
Customer Impact: Customers should be careful that years of accumulated scope, including shelfware or underutilized capacity, do not automatically become the economic floor for another multi-year agreement. Renewal should trigger a fresh look at utilization, future requirements, and what should no longer carry forward, not simply preserve the status quo.
4. Better Renewal Outcomes Require Earlier Planning and Control of the Process
Through our experiences supporting RISE renewal planning and negotiations, UpperEdge has seen how challenging it can be for customers to achieve meaningful improvements from SAP.
Favorable outcomes are achievable, but they typically require customers to create the right conditions well before SAP’s renewal proposal arrives.
A few common themes stand out:
- Start early. Waiting for SAP to drive the process can leave customers working against renewal deadlines and SAP’s timeline. Starting earlier creates time to validate requirements and evaluate new offerings.
- Understand how RISE has changed. Early adopters are renewing into a different commercial and product model. Key stakeholders should understand the changes in packaging, licensing, services, innovation, and market dynamics before decisions are made.
- Take control of the BOM. Renewal BOMs can change quickly as products are added, removed, rebundled, or replaced. Without diligence, customers risk negotiating against SAP’s view of what they need.
- Engage executives. Renewal should extend beyond procurement. Executive engagement helps surface what worked, what did not, and what needs to change in the next agreement.
Customer Impact: Customers struggling to achieve favorable renewal outcomes are often those that start too late or assume the next agreement will simply continue from the first.
The Bottom Line: Don’t Let the Existing Deal Define the Renewal
What UpperEdge is seeing through active RISE renewal engagements is clear: for early adopters, this is no longer a routine contract extension. Customers are renewing into a different SAP commercial model, with a broader innovation portfolio, years of accumulated software and infrastructure changes, and an SAP organization focused on expanding adoption while protecting its existing run rate.
Customers approaching their RISE renewal should be asking:
- Does our current footprint still reflect what we actually need?
- What has changed across SAP’s products, packaging, and commercial models since we signed?
- Where do AI, BDC, and SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise strategy genuinely fit into our roadmap?
- What first-term assumptions, Change Orders, or inefficiencies should not simply carry forward?
Favorable renewal outcomes are achievable, but they do not happen by default. Customers need enough time to understand their options, validate the future-state BOM, and establish their priorities before SAP’s renewal proposal becomes the baseline.
Early RISE adopters helped SAP learn how to improve the model. Renewal is their opportunity to ensure those lessons create value for them as well, not just for SAP.
The earlier you engage in your RISE renewal, the more leverage you have. UpperEdge works with customers to build renewal strategy, control the BOM, and secure terms that reflect actual business need, not SAP’s default renewal path. Connect with us to start planning your renewal.
