Two-fifths of SAP Americas users yet to ditch legacy ERP
(2025/11/05)
- Reference: 1762357630
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/11/05/two_years_out_from_support/
- Source link:
Around two fifths of North America's SAP users have yet to begin migrating to S/4HANA with just two years until mainstream support ends for legacy systems.
Research from the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) found that a little more than 60 percent of 173 members are already live or actively switching to S/4HANA, the in-memory database system first introduced a decade ago.
The remaining users are likely to be reliant on legacy system ECC or earlier. Mainstream support for ECC ends after 2027, while extended support is available until the end of 2030, for a 2 percent premium.
[1]
The research — commissioned by data integrity vendor Precisely — doesn't define “in the process”, though ECC-to-S/4HANA migrations can take years for large organizations.
[2]
[3]
Figures from Gartner, released earlier this year, paint a bleaker picture: just [4]39 percent of worldwide ECC users had licensed S/4HANA to begin migration, suggesting users in the Americas lead their global counterparts.
The ASUG research found business process change was the greatest barrier to migration among 49 percent of the users surveyed.
[5]
“The shift from ECC to S/4HANA is not a simple ‘lift-and-shift'. It requires companies to fundamentally rethink how core SAP data creation and management processes are structured and administered,” the report states — a significant challenge given SAP runs some of the world's largest, most complex organizations.
Customizations ranked second at 44 percent. SAP mandates a clean core implementation with extensions built outside the core on its cloud-based Business Technology Platform.
“Many organizations have built unique, business-critical processes in ECC that cannot be transferred with SAP’s standard migration tools. This makes adopting SAP’s ‘clean core’ strategy difficult, often requiring additional custom tool development or manual workarounds,” the research says.
[6]SAP users still wrestling with business case for S/4HANA
[7]Unwary SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, warns Gartner
[8]Users find RISE with SAP service levels below industry standard
[9]SAP says some customers are dragging their feet on contract sign-offs
Organizational inertia presented barriers to migration for 37 percent. “Change management remains one of the most underestimated challenges. Companies consistently tell us that the cultural and operational shifts associated with moving to SAP S/4HANA are as challenging as the technical migration itself,” the report adds.
One of the problems is that users struggle to justify major expenditure and disruption for software that essentially replicates existing functionality.
[10]
While SAP touts S/4HANA agility and productivity gains, [11]another recent survey found 95 percent of legacy users say building a positive case to migrate requires a big effort or is genuinely challenging. Freeform Dynamics’s poll of 455 CIOs, senior-level IT roles, SAP specialists, and business managers also found that 83 percent of users did not fully understand SAP's latest migration policies and deadlines. And some 84 percent expressed concern about current messaging and how it would impact their operations. ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/sap_sees_little_progress_in/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQuCpWYIAFxNL3WXkgeqfgAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/sap_s4hana_business_case/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/14/sap_private_cloud_hikes/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/08/gartner_research_rise_with_sap/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/23/sap_q3/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQuCpWYIAFxNL3WXkgeqfgAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/sap_s4hana_business_case/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Research from the Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) found that a little more than 60 percent of 173 members are already live or actively switching to S/4HANA, the in-memory database system first introduced a decade ago.
The remaining users are likely to be reliant on legacy system ECC or earlier. Mainstream support for ECC ends after 2027, while extended support is available until the end of 2030, for a 2 percent premium.
[1]
The research — commissioned by data integrity vendor Precisely — doesn't define “in the process”, though ECC-to-S/4HANA migrations can take years for large organizations.
[2]
[3]
Figures from Gartner, released earlier this year, paint a bleaker picture: just [4]39 percent of worldwide ECC users had licensed S/4HANA to begin migration, suggesting users in the Americas lead their global counterparts.
The ASUG research found business process change was the greatest barrier to migration among 49 percent of the users surveyed.
[5]
“The shift from ECC to S/4HANA is not a simple ‘lift-and-shift'. It requires companies to fundamentally rethink how core SAP data creation and management processes are structured and administered,” the report states — a significant challenge given SAP runs some of the world's largest, most complex organizations.
Customizations ranked second at 44 percent. SAP mandates a clean core implementation with extensions built outside the core on its cloud-based Business Technology Platform.
“Many organizations have built unique, business-critical processes in ECC that cannot be transferred with SAP’s standard migration tools. This makes adopting SAP’s ‘clean core’ strategy difficult, often requiring additional custom tool development or manual workarounds,” the research says.
[6]SAP users still wrestling with business case for S/4HANA
[7]Unwary SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, warns Gartner
[8]Users find RISE with SAP service levels below industry standard
[9]SAP says some customers are dragging their feet on contract sign-offs
Organizational inertia presented barriers to migration for 37 percent. “Change management remains one of the most underestimated challenges. Companies consistently tell us that the cultural and operational shifts associated with moving to SAP S/4HANA are as challenging as the technical migration itself,” the report adds.
One of the problems is that users struggle to justify major expenditure and disruption for software that essentially replicates existing functionality.
[10]
While SAP touts S/4HANA agility and productivity gains, [11]another recent survey found 95 percent of legacy users say building a positive case to migrate requires a big effort or is genuinely challenging. Freeform Dynamics’s poll of 455 CIOs, senior-level IT roles, SAP specialists, and business managers also found that 83 percent of users did not fully understand SAP's latest migration policies and deadlines. And some 84 percent expressed concern about current messaging and how it would impact their operations. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aQuCpWYIAFxNL3WXkgeqfgAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/20/sap_sees_little_progress_in/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQuCpWYIAFxNL3WXkgeqfgAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/sap_s4hana_business_case/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/14/sap_private_cloud_hikes/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/08/gartner_research_rise_with_sap/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/23/sap_q3/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQuCpWYIAFxNL3WXkgeqfgAAAYs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/sap_s4hana_business_case/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Said it before, I'll say it again
Like a badger
The problem here is that SAP are only seeing the world from their own perspective, which is "our way or the highway". SAP intend to drop their own customers in the shit because it suits SAP, and their only offer of a way forward is cloud based, topped with a need for complete new systems design and build, followed by a migration, all of which the customer can pay for.
This seems to ignore that a business faced with the pain and expense of essentially a complete new ERP that's struggling to make a business case will evaluate alternative options (even if they too are cloud based and requiring new design). I can't help think that SAP are shooting themselves in the foot, but that does seem to be a common thing amongst tech companies.
Re: Said it before, I'll say it again
ParlezVousFranglais
100% agree that the business processes should dictate the ERP configuration not the other way around, but that said as for most businesses, SAP's primary duty is maximising profit for it's shareholders, that's capitalism for you (and many of those clients will treat their own clients the same way whenever they can)
If the clients don't like it then they have every right to migrate to a different platform (and just get screwed by Larry instead...)
Said it before, I'll say it again
Suppliers have no right to "push" their customers into a slot that suits the supplier's Board better than it does the customers livelyhood.
You support a business-critical software for thousands of your customers ? You have THE DUTY to ensure that your customers get the results they need.
Your shareholders can go fuck themselves.