Our Take: SAP S/4HANA Extended Maintenance Announcement

On February 4, SAP made a major announcement to extend maintenance for SAP S/4HANA until the end of 2040. They also announced that they will provide mainstream maintenance for core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 software until the end of 2027, followed by optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030.

To clarify, SAP will provide mainstream maintenance until the end of 2027 for SAP Business Suite 7 core applications, which are also core applications of SAP Business All-in-One, including:

• SAP ERP 6.0
• SAP Customer Relationship Management 7.0
• SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0
• SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0 applications
• SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA

For more detailed information, here’s a link to the full SAP press release.

Our Point of View

Many of our customers view SAP’s announcement as good news, and we applaud SAP’s decision to provide the flexibility they need to make the change at their own pace. We see SAP’s extension of SAP S/4HANA maintenance to 2040 as a firm commitment to its longevity.

Although most of our customers have expressed their intention to move to SAP S/4HANA, many have struggled to prioritize the transition alongside their daily operations. This extension provides the breathing space they need to prepare their long-range plans.

However, we believe the SAP extension does not mean that your business should ignore the realities of the digital economy. The fast pace of business today, along with increased competitive pressures, will require your business to adapt faster than ever to remain relevant. Your legacy ERP system won’t be able to provide the capabilities you’ll need to meet those challenges.

This is the time for your business to accelerate its growth, remove inefficiencies and redundancies and begin harnessing true business value.

Moving to SAP S/4HANA is much more than a technical upgrade. It’s about using SAP technology to automate more of your business processes and giving you better and faster access to the information you need to serve your customers better.  It’s about increasing your business’ ability to be nimble and stay relevant in a constantly changing business environment.

The path forward will vary based on your organization’s specific challenges and needs, but there are some common starting points for everyone. To get started, you’ll need to look at the impact of digital advances on your current business strategies and operating models in order to map out your plan for the future.

Our advice? If you have already started moving toward SAP S/4HANA, we encourage you to keep going. The benefits that you’ll derive from the SAP digital core will position your business well for the future.

If you haven’t started the move yet, it could be a mistake to use this as an excuse to pause, slow down and stop planning your move to SAP S/4HANA. Consider the following:

• SAP’s new development and investment will continue to be in the SAP S/4HANA platform rather than SAP ERP 6.0, so you won’t be able to take advantage of new capabilities if you remain on the older platform.
• If you continue to implement new capabilities in your legacy ERP system, you need to be careful that you are making those changes with full consideration of SAP S4/HANA in the future. If you don’t, you risk wasting your investment or having to do considerable rework.
• The sooner you start your move to SAP S/4HANA, the quicker you will be able to leverage the new technologies to drive innovation and differentiation for your business. And the longer you wait, the higher the risk and cost for your business, as qualified SAP resources become harder to find.

Wherever you are on the path to SAP S/4HANA, NTT DATA Business Solutions can help you to assess your current environment, determine how SAP S/4HANA will impact your business and start preparing for the future. You can start wherever it makes the most sense for your business and build from there at your own pace. If you’d like to start the discussion, please contact us.