SAPinsider Las Vegas 2026: How Ferromex Cut SAP Cloud ERP Costs by 24%

Legacy licensing is a persistent ghost haunting the planning rooms of organizations plotting their course to SAP S/4HANA. Moving to the cloud without first cleaning house is a guaranteed way to overpay, carrying decades of inefficiencies into expensive new RISE with SAP contracts. While presenting a case study at the recently concluded SAPinsider Las Vegas 2026 conference, Jose Manuel Guntin, Systems Manager, noted that Ferromex, a subsidiary of Grupo México Transportes and the largest railway company in Mexico, was well aware of this risk.

Operating over 10,000 kilometers of track with connections to major ports and border crossings, Ferromex’s operational complexity is immense. The company’s digital landscape was equally entangled. Following a series of acquisitions and an influx of new users from a JD Edwards migration, Ferromex found itself juggling 46 separate SAP contracts and annexes accumulated since 1998.

Untangling the Legacy Web

For Guntin, manual spreadsheet analysis was no longer a viable strategy for an enterprise preparing for an SAP S/4HANA migration. The scale of Ferromex’s environment—encompassing more than 23 perpetual products, 38 cloud products, and nearly 1,300 SAP users—demanded a smarter approach.

“From the beginning of our migration project, we planned a contract renegotiation and optimization supported by an expert,” Guntin explained. “Our focus was on adding new users, optimizing current users and licenses, reducing contract complexity, achieving savings, and eliminating unused software.”

However, manual methods couldn’t scale to uncover hidden over-licensing risks or authorization-driven allocations. Instead, Ferromex needed a clean baseline to prevent dragging legacy inefficiencies into its future cloud environment.

Bridging the IT and Finance Divide

According to Guntin, one of the biggest hurdles in any SAP cloud transformation is the inherent language barrier between IT and Finance. IT teams track technical metrics and authorization allocations, while Finance demands visibility into CAPEX/OPEX forecasts, consumption growth, and ROI.

He further noted that to bring data-driven clarity to both departments, Ferromex engaged VOQUZ Labs and deployed the visoryQ FinOps Manager. This move transformed raw technical data into actionable financial intelligence.

“The executive reports from visoryQ helped create a better understanding between IT and Finance, both in terms of licensing and financial impact,” Guntin explained. “We also received negotiation support from VOQUZ Labs.”

By aligning operational realities with financial governance, Ferromex replaced guesswork with a unified, data-backed negotiating position.

Strategic Forecasting and the 24% Revelation

With structured license management in place, the data revealed a startling reality: over 24% of Ferromex’s SAP software wasn’t being used at all. When asked how difficult it was to separate real business needs from unused licenses before contract negotiations, Guntin’s answer underscored the power of clear visibility. “It was straightforward, as that software was no longer in use,” he stated.

However, resolving the immediate waste was only the first step. The core challenge for Ferromex shifted from asking, ‘What licenses do we have?’ to ‘What does this mean for our future SAP strategy?’

Using VOQUZ Labs’ solutions, the railway operator modeled the financial implications of its transformation. “Scenario analysis helped us evaluate the shift from an on-premise strategy to a cloud strategy, allowing us to achieve savings during the first seven years of the RISE contract,” Guntin said. This forward-looking approach mitigated the financial risk of unexpected cost increases during Ferromex’s SAP S/4HANA evolution.

A Healthier SAP Relationship

By cancelling out-of-use software and negotiating a consolidated agreement, Ferromex achieved immediate financial relief, fundamentally restructured its dynamic with the software vendor, and established a mature, governed approach to its digital supply chain.

“We now have more confidence in our actual software usage and a simpler way to manage contracts,” Guntin reflected on the transformation.

For IT and business leaders staring down the barrel of a similar ERP migration, Guntin concluded by offering clear, prescriptive advice: “We recommend that any organization planning to move to SAP Cloud or optimize its current licensing, work with a licensing expert and/or specialized tools.”

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Move beyond visibility to scenario analysis. Seeing what the organization owns is a necessary foundation, but it is insufficient for strategic planning. SAPinsiders should use tools like VOQUZ Labs’ visoryQ FinOps Manager to map out ‘what-if’ scenarios before committing to a RISE with SAP contract. Moreover, evaluating the long-term financial impact of on-premise versus cloud strategies prevents carrying legacy bloat into new environments and locks in predictable savings.

Bridge the IT-finance divide through standardized reporting. Misalignment between IT consumption metrics and finance expectations can derail migration business cases. SAP solution providers like VOQUZ Labs deliver executive-level reporting that translates complex technical license allocations into clear financial impacts. This continuous cost management aligns technical realities with CAPEX/OPEX forecasting, enabling unified, data-driven vendor negotiations.

Automate license optimization before migration. Manual license tracking cannot scale in enterprise environments burdened by multiple legacy contracts, annexes, and modules. Leveraging specialized initial tool-based evaluations ensures organizations identify authorization-driven licensing gaps and unused software, establishing a clean, cost-optimized baseline before initiating an SAP S/4HANA transition.