SAP S/4HANA Migration: 60% Over Budget – Midsize Firms Must Know
7 min read
By the end of 2027, SAP will terminate mainstream support for ECC. Companies that haven’t migrated to S/4HANA by then will face surcharges for Extended Maintenance—and will struggle to find consultants still familiar with the legacy system. Sixty percent of all migration projects to date have exceeded budgets, timelines, or both. Yet waiting is the most expensive option of all.
Key Takeaways
- Deadline looms: SAP ends ECC mainstream support in late 2027; Extended Maintenance through 2030 incurs extra fees (SAP, 2025).
- Projects routinely overrun: 60 percent of S/4HANA migrations miss budget, schedule, or quality targets (Horváth Study 2025).
- Consultants in short supply: SAP migration day rates rise up to 50 percent in 2026/27 versus 2024.
- Process change underestimated: 49 percent of companies cite process modifications as the biggest migration hurdle (Horváth, 2025).
- Leadership gap: Only 14 percent of smaller firms have their CEO personally leading the S/4HANA project.
A Deadline That Won’t Be Postponed Again
SAP has already pushed the date multiple times—first to 2025, then to 2027, with Extended Maintenance available until 2030. That cushion lulled many mid-market players into a false sense of security. The math has changed: Extended Maintenance carries a premium on standard maintenance fees, and SAP no longer allocates development resources to ECC. New features, security patches for emerging threats, and cloud-service integrations are reserved for modern landscapes only.
The real squeeze is coming from three directions at once:
● Consultant drought: The pool of SAP professionals with hands-on ECC-to-S/4HANA experience is shrinking while demand peaks in 2026/27. Industry watchers report day rates climbing as much as 50 percent above 2024 levels.
● Compliance exposure: NIS2, DORA, and the EU AI Act raise the bar on data governance and transparency. An unmaintained ECC system becomes a compliance liability.
● Competitive disadvantage: S/4HANA adopters gain access to SAP Business AI and the Business Data Cloud—AI-driven forecasting, automated procurement, real-time reporting. ECC holdouts are left watching from the sidelines.
Why 76 percent are left without a roadmap
The Horváth study of 200 SAP user companies in the DACH region reveals a recurring pattern: migration is treated as an IT project even though it is a transformation project. Forty-nine percent of respondents cite business-process changes as the biggest hurdle, 44 percent point to decades of customization and system maintenance, and 37 percent blame organizational resistance.
No surprise then that a mid-sized manufacturing company running a customized ECC for 15 years has hundreds of Z-transactions, proprietary reports and deeply embedded interfaces. That technical debt does not vanish with an upgrade—it must be consciously retired or consciously migrated.
“Migrating to S/4HANA is more than rolling out new software—it means transforming long-entrenched routines into future-ready business processes.”
— IT-Matchmaker / Trovarit AG, SAP Trends 2026
Only 17 percent of companies back their migration preparation with change-management measures such as training or process workshops. At smaller firms, the CEO leads the S/4HANA project in just 14 percent of cases; CFOs or COOs are involved in only 7 percent. In short, the most expensive IT decision of the decade is being executed without executive sponsorship.
SAP’s Incentive Program: Why the first half of 2026 is the right moment
SAP has relaunched its Transformation Incentive Program for the first half of 2026 with a key change: 50 percent of the incentive value now flows directly into project costs as an Implementation Credit—no marketing rebate, but genuine budget relief.
Concretely, for every additional line of business (Finance, HR, Procurement) included in the cloud migration, the credit rises by 10 percent. Migrate the core ERP plus three additional areas and you can reach a 30 percent uplift on the base credit. The program runs until 30 June 2026 and applies retroactively from 16 February.
Processing is handled through authorized SAP partners—an important detail, because not every consultant can activate the incentive. To benefit, you must work with a certified implementation partner.
● But: The incentive is no silver bullet. It lowers project costs, not complexity. Companies that dive into migration without a clear roadmap and process analysis will burn through the credit on rework and scope creep. The incentive rewards the prepared—not the rushed.
Brownfield, Greenfield, or Hybrid: What Works for Mid-sized Companies
The SAP community has debated Brownfield versus Greenfield for years. For the typical mid-sized company—500 to 5,000 employees, a mature ECC setup, and a limited IT team—the answer is usually more pragmatic than theoretical.
● Brownfield (System Conversion): The existing system is converted, preserving data and customizations. Advantage: Lower risk, shorter downtime. Disadvantage: Technical debt is carried over. Governance requirements such as CSRD or NIS2 often necessitate rework afterward.
● Greenfield (New Implementation): Processes are reimagined from the ground up. Advantage: Maximum innovation, clean start. Disadvantage: Significantly more expensive, longer timeline, high change-management risk.
● Selective Data Transition (Hybrid): New processes are built on S/4HANA while selectively migrating relevant master and transactional data. Companies like Heinzel Group have adopted this approach—with multiple release phases that spread the risk.
The trend is clearly toward RISE with SAP: DSAG’s latest survey shows 48 percent of companies are already using or planning RISE—up from 16 percent last year. The reason? RISE bundles licensing, infrastructure, and migration into one package, reducing the number of decisions a mid-sized company must make.
„● Selective Data Transition (Hybrid): New processes are built on S/4HANA while selectively migrating relevant master and transactional data.”
The 90-Day Roadmap: What to Do Now
If you don’t yet have a migration strategy, there’s no need to panic—but you do need to start now. Three months is enough to lay the groundwork:
● Weeks 1–4 – Inventory: Catalog every Z-transaction, custom report, and interface. Use SAP’s free Application Value Assessment (AVA) tool to receive an initial migration-complexity analysis.
● Weeks 5–8 – Process Analysis: Identify the 20 core processes that drive 80 percent of business value. For each, decide: retain, simplify, or rethink? Senior leadership—not just IT—must be at the table.
● Weeks 9–12 – Partner Selection and Incentive Securing: Evaluate three SAP partners, request a RISE quote, and apply for the Transformation Incentive by 30 June 2026. In parallel, launch change management, identify key users, and plan initial training.
The biggest mistake isn’t choosing the wrong migration path—it’s having no path at all. Seventy-six percent of companies are still without a defined roadmap. That’s the real cost trap: not the migration itself, but the improvisation under deadline pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I continue operating ECC after 2027?
SAP offers Extended Maintenance until 2030, but at an additional cost on top of the regular maintenance fee. No new features or security patches will be provided. The system will continue to function, but it will increasingly become a risk—especially with compliance requirements such as NIS2 or DORA.
How long does a typical S/4HANA migration take for mid-sized companies?
Brownfield migrations typically take 9 to 15 months, while Greenfield projects span 12 to 24 months. The actual duration heavily depends on the number of customizations and the complexity of the process landscape. Selective-data approaches with multiple release phases can shorten individual phases to around 6 months.
How much does an S/4HANA migration cost?
Costs vary widely: for mid-sized companies with 500 to 2,000 users, Brownfield migrations typically range from €500,000 to €2 million, while Greenfield projects can double that. SAP’s Transformation Incentive may cover part of the implementation costs. A thorough preparation is key—60 percent of budget overruns stem from inadequate process analysis.
Is RISE with SAP worthwhile for mid-sized companies?
RISE bundles licenses, cloud infrastructure, and migration services into a single contract. For companies without large in-house SAP teams, this simplifies procurement significantly—you have one point of contact instead of five. The 2025 DSAG survey shows that 48 percent of DACH companies are already using or planning to use RISE, up from 16 percent last year.
Brownfield or Greenfield—what do advisors currently recommend?
For most mid-sized companies, advisors recommend a pragmatic Brownfield approach or Selective-Data Transition. Pure Greenfield only makes sense if existing processes are fundamentally outdated or a carve-out is planned. Companies like QD Group have deliberately chosen Brownfield to minimize downtime and change-management effort.
Further Reading
- Cloud Talent in Germany: Why upskilling is finally catching up – cloudmagazin
- NIS2 in Germany: What companies need to know and implement now – SecurityToday
- CSRD Reporting Obligations 2025: What CFOs need to know now – Digital Chiefs
Source of cover image: Kampus Production / Pexels
