SAP has announced that customers using Business Suite 7 software can count on regular maintenance until the end of 2027. Initially, applications from the software suite would be supported until 2025.
The core of the Business Suite is formed by ERP, often called ERP Central Component (ECC). This includes traditional ERP tasks such as planning and materials management. In addition to ERP as an important component, the Business Suite also comes with applications such as SAP Customer Relationship Management 7.0, SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0 and SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0.
Initially the official support for ECC would expire in 2025. After the deadline, customers would use the solution on their own responsibility. For example, security updates will then no longer be actively implemented.
Now that the deadline has been moved to 2027, companies will have extra time to migrate to the next generation ERP S/4HANA. For legacy ERP, extended maintenance is also offered until 2030. This optional support must be purchased and is two percent more expensive than standard support.
S/4HANA as the future
Despite the extended support, SAP wants its customers to switch to S/4HANA as soon as possible. For example, at the same time as the ECC news, the German software supplier announced that the next generation ERP can count on support until the end of 2040.
According to co-CEO Christian Klein, SAP customers are now showing that S/4HANA is their “future direction” and expect a long-term commitment from SAP. Recent research among US SAP users would even show that there is no company that does not plan to migrate to S/4HANA.
The deadline for ECC was announced in 2014 and has been a topic of discussion among the SAP community ever since. SAP is also increasingly working on highlighting the benefits of S/4HANA in order to convince users to migrate. Just a few months ago, for example, we wrote a background article about SAP’s intensified focus on ERP in the cloud.
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