Only a third of current customers using SAP ECC have already initiated the transition to S/4HANA. Gartner warns companies not to wait until the last minute.

SAP is trying to move all of its customers to S/4HANA, but not every company wants to listen. Gartner conducted a study and found that only one in three companies purchased a license or cloud subscription to move to the new platform. The majority will therefore continue to stick to the old ECC platform for the time being; Hardly any companies have been active since December. Of those who have already switched, only a fifth are still fully equipped with the latest versions of the platform.

S/4HANA is a much more modern platform designed with a cloud service model in mind. The new ERP system is clearer, but above all easier to maintain, as customers largely use it as a cloud service. According to a recent study by SAP partner myBrand, fear of what could go wrong is more likely to be a reason to postpone migration than not seeing the benefits.

A postponement is not an adjustment

Gartner warns companies that they have less time than they might think. SAP will no longer support ECC from 2027; for users with an EHP5 package, this will expire in 2025. It may seem far away, but transferring your ERP systems isn’t something you can do in a day. This can take months or even years. If you don’t act now, you risk finishing too late and suffering a severe ERP hangover.

Mandatory for the cloud

SAP launched a RISE service in 2021 to help companies with the migration process. Customers can then exchange the ECC license for an S/4HANA subscription. This method is not without criticism because once you subscribe to the cloud version of S/4HANA, you can no longer leave the cloud. To the dismay of on-premise customers, SAP makes no secret of the fact that it prefers the cloud over on-premise.