January 23, 2018 from Benny Schröder

Walldorf, January 22, 2018 - For a long time, the German-speaking SAP User Group e.V. (DSAG) has been asking SAP for a free and efficient way to implement requirements from the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) in SAP software. Now SAP has complied with this request. A great success for SAP users in German-speaking countries.

"At the DSAG annual congress in September 2017, SAP took up our demand and promised that its customers would be able to meet requirements from the EU GDPR efficiently and without additional licensing costs," says Gerhard Göttert, member of the DSAG Executive Board. Up to this point, SAP had not yet made a license-cost-free offer for implementation. For SAP users, this was an unsatisfactory situation that needed to be changed as quickly as possible - also in light of the fact that the deadline for implementing the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation is May 24, 2018.

Implementing requirements with little effort

Many of the DSAG member companies felt compelled to invest in additional products from SAP in order to meet the legal requirements. Especially against the background that without "SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management" (ILM), the implementation of the requirements is only feasible with high additional effort. Among other things, ILM is needed to lock and delete personal data. "So we urgently needed clarity on what options our members have to implement the legal requirements free of charge and efficiently," says Gerhard Göttert. In this context, it was clear to SAP users that the supplies and availability of a low-effort solution for meeting requirements from the EU-DSGVO must be covered by the maintenance fees.

DSAG demand met

In the end, SAP also complied with this DSAG demand. "We are satisfied that SAP has met our demands and shown itself to be customer-oriented," says Gerhart Göttert. Specifically, SAP extended the license for SAP NetWeaver Runtime to include the retention management functions of ILM. With this solution and other standard functions of the SAP software - such as authorization management - it is possible to implement the projects for realizing the technical and organizational measures in the companies.

For customers who use ILM to meet the legal requirements under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, there is a compensation arrangement. Against the background that many customers have already started their implementation projects and had to license their software, the compensation scheme is a great success for all users, as it puts all customers on an equal financial footing.

Learn more here.