A French SAP Revolution? USF Asks SAP France to Reconsider Maintenance Hike

Citing SAP's move to allow German and Austrian customers to keep their current maintenance support plans in Dec. 2008, the main SAP user group in France (USF) has asked SAP France to offer similar concessions.

Here is the article in ITR en francais, and in english

Additionally the USF has hired a law firm (Feral-Schul/Sainte-Marie) to offer contractual support and assistance to its members during negotiations with SAP France. The central point from the USF, which has been echoed by many SAP customers around the world, is that the move to enterprise support, even if gradual, is an undue burden for its customers, many of which if given the choice may wish to pass on "enterprise support" in favor of "standard support"... especially during such difficult economic times.

However, from SAP's point of view, their product set in combination with Netweaver, is quite broad and touching many third-party applications. By offering a higher level maintenance service, they can now match their product footprint. In the end, the fact that concessions were made to one group of customers, suggests that there should again be more choice in terms of maintenance.. especially those customers who really just need standard support.