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Application maker postpones controversial Enterprise Support plan, but claims user group research shows “clear value to customers”

Enterprise software vendor SAP has postponed the introduction of a controversial, more expensive support package, named Enterprise Support, until next year.

The announcement shortly follows the resignation of two user group representatives from the project evaluating whether Enterprise Support would benefit customers.

SAP announced in 2008 that Enterprise Support – which costs 22% of license fees annually, up from 17% in the current standard package – would be mandatory for all customers.

A backlash from users forced the company to postpone the support plan until it could prove that the more expensive plan would benefit its customers. In April 2009, the company initiated a project to demonstrate that benefit, as measured by key performance indicators defined by SUGEN, a body that represents its various international user groups.

The results of that project were due this month. Last week, however, two of the project leaders, both from SAP’s German user group, resigned from the project.

Yesterday, SAP announced that “the 2009 KPI achievements of the SUGEN SAP Enterprise Support program have shown clear value to participating SAP customers.”

However, it provided little detail into findings of the project, and announced that there would be further investigation into the matter.

“Building on these positive results, SAP has formed a task force to reach out to customers and user groups to continue and enhance the ongoing dialogue and incorporate their feedback in order to maximize customer value from SAP’s entire support offerings,” is said in a statement. “SAP plans to provide the outcomes of the task force the beginning of 2010. Until then, a decision on pricing for Enterprise Support has therefore been postponed.”