{"id":1925,"date":"2020-02-06T15:01:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T14:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pikon.com\/?p=1925"},"modified":"2025-09-19T08:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:34:52","slug":"sap-ecc-support-2027-s4hana-2040","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pikon.com\/en\/blog\/sap-ecc-support-2027-s4hana-2040\/","title":{"rendered":"Extended SAP ECC support until 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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SAP has delayed the end in support for SAP Business Suite 7 (incl. SAP ECC 6) until the end of 2027. Optional extended support until the end of 2030 is also possible (for a two percentage-point increase in the maintenance cost). A commitment was also made to keep SAP S\/4HANA support until at least the end of 2040! This applies to all variants – on-premise, private and public cloud. (SAP News<\/a>)<\/p>

There is now an additional offer for extending the transition to the cloud (SAP Cloud ERP or SAP Cloud ERP private) until 2033: SAP ERP, private edition, transition option<\/strong>. However, this does not include the full scope of the Business Suite, which will continue to be maintained only until 2030. To take advantage of this offer, a RISE with SAP contract must be concluded. (SAP News<\/a>)<\/p>

Why SAP extended their support for SAP ECC 6 until 2027<\/strong><\/h2>

SAP has reacted to the realities of the market on several occasions and most recently extended the maintenance for SAP ECC 6.0 until the end of 2027 (optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030). The reason is obvious: despite intensive communication and migration campaigns, the number of productive SAP S\/4HANA systems is still manageable. Many companies are still in the evaluation or preparation phase or are prioritising other strategic projects. The complete migration of the existing customer base by 2025 has long been considered unrealistic. The extended maintenance now gives customers additional time to carefully plan and implement their S\/4HANA transformation – whether in the public cloud, private cloud or as an on-premise solution.<\/p>

So far (as of 2025), PIKON has migrated more than 10 big customers in various companies and different countries (including Germany, Japan, China, Sweden, USA, Canada, South Africa, Luxembourg, Italy, Czech Republic, Brazil, India, etc.) to SAP S\/4HANA, two of them used a classic conversion (brownfield) approach<\/strong>. For the other S\/4HANA implementations, customers have opted for either a greenfield<\/strong> or hybrid approach<\/strong>. However, we are currently noticing that interest in a conversion is increasing and that our existing customers who are still on an ECC system are also favouring this route for a changeover. We are also increasingly noticing that many companies are actively pursuing cloud-first or cloud-only strategies, as cloud offerings such as the S\/4HANA Public Cloud or the Private Cloud offer low infrastructure costs and are increasingly being recognised as a strategic platform for digital transformation. According to SAP, innovation such as the use of AI in S\/4HANA is currently being driven almost exclusively in the cloud solutions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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S\/4HANA workshop offers<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Understand the Opportunities, define your Path<\/strong>: Are you just starting out with S\/4HANA? We will give you an initial overview.
You will learn about the innovations in S\/4HANA in logistics, accounting and the user interface. In addition, migration scenarios and appropriate project approaches.<\/p>

Time required: 1 day<\/p>

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Architecture, Integration, Cloud Strategy:<\/strong> The workshop provides guidance and a basis for decision-making regarding the future IT system landscape in your company. Together with you, we develop the target vision and provide specific recommendations for the next steps.<\/p>

Time required: 8 hours (remote or in person) plus approx. 30 minutes preliminary discussion.<\/p>

Read more<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Learn about the strategic, technical, and organisational success factors of an S\/4HANA data migration and develop your own migration strategy and roadmap.<\/p>

Time required: 8 hours (remote or in person)<\/p>

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From Theory to Practice<\/strong>: In this workshop, you will learn the project approach according to SAP Activate and gain an overview of the necessary time and resource planning.\u00a0<\/p>

Time required: 8 hours (remote or in person) plus a 30-minute preliminary meeting (remote).<\/p>

Read more<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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The S\/4HANA implementation “on the greenfield” is already set for your company?
In the workshop, we develop together with you the appropriate roadmap with time and budget planning and address topics such as data transfer, preliminary work, etc.<\/p>

Time required: 1 – 2 days, depending on individual arrangement.<\/p>

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You have decided on Conversion as the scenario for your migration? Learn in the workshop how to best approach your SAP S\/4HANA conversion project and develop your digital roadmap.<\/p>

Time required: 0,5 – 2 days depending on individual arrangement.<\/p>

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How the deadline postponement for SAP ECC support impacts your own SAP S\/4HANA strategy<\/strong><\/h2>

The deadline pressure for a move to SAP S\/4HANA before 2025 is now officially off the table. Does this mean that you, as an SAP user, can sit back and relax? Not at all! SAP’s maintenance extension (for the SAP Business Suite until 2030 and for SAP S\/4HANA until 2040) has strategic implications for companies. Although the extension provides more room for manoeuvre, in our view it does not mean that you should wait. On the contrary: S\/4HANA implementations usually take at least 12-36 months, depending on the requirements and size of the company. If you start in 2027, you will be under a lot of pressure. Our recommendation is therefore to start promptly and at least make a conscious decision on the approach and the appropriate schedule.<\/p>

As from 2027, it will definitely cost more to maintain your SAP system if you are not yet on SAP S\/4HANA. These higher maintenance costs should inevitably be taken into account for all business case considerations and future plans to move to SAP S\/4HANA. <\/strong>You should also include factors such as the shortage of required skills or the loss of innovation in your considerations.<\/p>

From our experiences over the past years, it is very difficult to create a business case with a high ROI purely based on technology promises. It\u2019s no different with SAP S\/4HANA: higher speeds and new interfaces alone are only of limited benefit to businesses.
If you see migrating to S\/4HANA as an IT-driven release change project, it is very difficult to get the necessary investment approval from your decision-makers.<\/p>

Our recommendation is to not just take IT aspects into consideration for your own SAP S\/4HANA strategy. In order to achieve a strong return on investment, it is also recommended to take the opportunity to incorporate process improvements into your SAP S\/4HANA roadmap. You\u2019ll then notice that 2027 isn\u2019t actually that far away anymore.<\/p>

S\/4HANA as a trigger for increasing efficiency through process optimisation<\/strong><\/h2>

If you want to increase efficiency, transparency and quality within your organisation, you can only achieve this through:<\/p>