SAP Maintenance: All or Nothing

SAP (like Oracle) has so far refused steadfastly to accept partial maintenance cancellations. While this is (from the vendor’s point of view) quite understandable, it can lead to very unpleasant situations that are not without legal issues.
Case in point: a recent insolvency in Germany. A mid-sized company filed for insolvency and failed to revive the troubled enterprise. There are still orders that must be served but in a few months the lights will be out.
Most of the 350 users of their SAP system are gone. Only about 50 are left and, of course, the HR-system is required to pay the residual staff. Closer to year end, a few legal updates will have to be fitted to the SAP-HR-installation.
The administrator, in an attempt to make sure that staff can be paid, asked SAP to accept a partial maintenance cancellation for 300 seats – very appropriate especially in light of the upcoming increase for standard support.
SAP refused to accept the partial cancellation. Either you cancel in full or you pay in full. Under German law, the maintenace bill ranks way lower than salaries in an insolvency. SAP, however, has apparently found a way to circumvent this. The customer, while not requiring maintence for the 300 empty seats, needs the legal updates to pay his workers. If he does not pay them, he has to shut down immediatedly. Paying full maintenance, on the other hand, may mean that he may have to shortchange his workers in favor of SAP. This is clearly not what the lawmakers had in mind.