7 min read<\/p>\n
By the end of 2027, SAP will terminate mainstream support for ECC. Companies that haven\u2019t migrated to S\/4HANA by then will face surcharges for Extended Maintenance\u2014and 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n SAP has already pushed the date multiple times\u2014first 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<\/a> only.<\/p>\n The real squeeze is coming from three directions at once:<\/p>\n \u25cf Consultant drought:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n \u25cf Compliance exposure:<\/strong> NIS2, DORA, and the EU AI Act raise the bar on data governance and transparency. An unmaintained ECC system becomes a compliance liability.<\/p>\n \u25cf Competitive disadvantage:<\/strong> S\/4HANA adopters gain access to SAP Business AI and the Business Data Cloud\u2014AI-driven forecasting, automated procurement, real-time reporting. ECC holdouts are left watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n The Horv\u00e1th 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2014it must be consciously retired or consciously migrated.<\/p>\n \u201cMigrating to S\/4HANA is more than rolling out new software\u2014it means transforming long-entrenched routines into future-ready business processes.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2014no marketing rebate, but genuine budget relief.<\/p>\n Concretely, for every additional line of business (Finance, HR, Procurement) included in the cloud migration<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Processing is handled through authorized SAP partners\u2014an important detail, because not every consultant can activate the incentive. To benefit, you must work with a certified implementation partner.<\/p>\n \u25cf But:<\/strong> 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\u2014not the rushed.<\/p>\n The SAP community has debated Brownfield versus Greenfield for years. For the typical mid-sized company\u2014500 to 5,000 employees, a mature ECC setup, and a limited IT team\u2014the answer is usually more pragmatic than theoretical.<\/p>\n \u25cf Brownfield (System Conversion):<\/strong> The existing system is converted, preserving data and customizations. Advantage: Lower risk, shorter downtime. Disadvantage: Technical debt is carried over. Governance requirements<\/a> such as CSRD or NIS2 often necessitate rework afterward.<\/p>\n \u25cf Greenfield (New Implementation):<\/strong> Processes are reimagined from the ground up. Advantage: Maximum innovation, clean start. Disadvantage: Significantly more expensive, longer timeline, high change-management risk.<\/p>\n \u25cf Selective Data Transition (Hybrid):<\/strong> New processes are built on S\/4HANA while selectively migrating relevant master and transactional data. Companies like Heinzel Group have adopted this approach\u2014with multiple release phases that spread the risk.<\/p>\n The trend is clearly toward RISE with SAP: DSAG\u2019s latest survey shows 48 percent of companies are already using or planning RISE\u2014up 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.<\/p>\n \n \u201e\u25cf Selective Data Transition (Hybrid): New processes are built on S\/4HANA while selectively migrating relevant master and transactional data.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you don\u2019t yet have a migration strategy, there\u2019s no need to panic\u2014but you do need to start now. Three months is enough to lay the groundwork:<\/p>\n \u25cf Weeks 1\u20134 \u2013 Inventory:<\/strong> Catalog every Z-transaction, custom report, and interface. Use SAP\u2019s free Application Value Assessment (AVA) tool to receive an initial migration-complexity analysis.<\/p>\n \u25cf Weeks 5\u20138 \u2013 Process Analysis:<\/strong> Identify the 20 core processes that drive 80 percent of business value. For each, decide: retain, simplify, or rethink? Senior leadership\u2014not just IT\u2014must be at the table.<\/p>\n \u25cf Weeks 9\u201312 \u2013 Partner Selection and Incentive Securing:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n The biggest mistake isn\u2019t choosing the wrong migration path\u2014it\u2019s having no path at all. Seventy-six percent of companies are still without a defined roadmap. That\u2019s the real cost trap: not the migration itself, but the improvisation under deadline pressure.<\/p>\n 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\u2014especially with compliance requirements such as NIS2 or DORA.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n Costs vary widely: for mid-sized companies with 500 to 2,000 users, Brownfield migrations typically range from \u20ac500,000 to \u20ac2 million, while Greenfield projects can double that. SAP\u2019s Transformation Incentive may cover part of the implementation costs. A thorough preparation is key\u201460 percent of budget overruns stem from inadequate process analysis.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n RISE bundles licenses, cloud infrastructure, and migration services into a single contract. For companies without large in-house SAP teams, this simplifies procurement significantly\u2014you 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.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n Source of cover image: Kampus Production \/ Pexels<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 7 min read By the end of 2027, SAP will terminate mainstream support for ECC. Companies that haven\u2019t migrated to S\/4HANA by then will face surcharges for Extended Maintenance\u2014and 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":89056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"sap s\/4hana","_yoast_wpseo_title":"SAP S\/4HANA: Avoid budget overruns before 2027","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Digitalisierung: Master S\/4HANA migration before 2027! Avoid costly pitfalls & future-proof your business. Read our guide now.","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-adv":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":0,"featured_post_sortierung":0,"featured_post":0,"pre_headline":"","bildquelle":"","teasertext":"","language":"de","_wp_old_slug":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152,1280],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-93912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-it-tech","9":"entry"},"wpml_language":"en","wpml_translation_of":89030,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKey Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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A Deadline That Won\u2019t Be Postponed Again<\/h2>\n
Why 76 percent are left without a roadmap<\/h2>\n
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\n\u2014 IT-Matchmaker \/ Trovarit AG, SAP Trends 2026<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nSAP\u2019s Incentive Program: Why the first half of 2026 is the right moment<\/h2>\n
Brownfield, Greenfield, or Hybrid: What Works for Mid-sized Companies<\/h2>\n
The 90-Day Roadmap: What to Do Now<\/h2>\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n
What happens if I continue operating ECC after 2027?<\/strong><\/summary>\n
How long does a typical S\/4HANA migration take for mid-sized companies?<\/strong><\/summary>\n
How much does an S\/4HANA migration cost?<\/strong><\/summary>\n
Is RISE with SAP worthwhile for mid-sized companies?<\/strong><\/summary>\n
Brownfield or Greenfield\u2014what do advisors currently recommend?<\/strong><\/summary>\n
Further Reading<\/h2>\n
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