Your SAP Support Clock May Be Ticking Faster Than You Think

Scott Hays
Senior Director, Product Marketing
Rimini Street
2 min read

If you’re running SAP ECC 6, your support clock is ticking—perhaps faster than you realize. Not to worry, you’ve got options and we can help.

By now, just about every SAP customer knows that 2027 is the end date for ECC 6 mainstream maintenance support. But that’s only half the story. That’s because for half of ECC 6 customers, the end date arrives much earlier, in 2025.

To qualify for extended support through 2027, you must be on enhancement pack 6 (EHP 6) or later. If you’re on EHP 5 or earlier—and that’s half of ECC customers—mainstream support will time out December 31, 2025. That’s something The Register dubbed an “ERPocalypse” especially as 40% of those impacted don’t know about it.

Additionally, there are likely thousands more S/4HANA clients on releases for which mainstream maintenance also expires in 2025, many of whom have no idea their support clock is ticking.

How to read the SAP support clock

Let’s take a closer look at the maintenance timelines for SAP ERP 6.0:

  • ECC 6 customers with EHP versions 0 through 5 will see the end of mainstream support in 2025 with no Extended Maintenance offered.
  • ECC 6 customers with EHP versions 6, 7, and 8, will face the end of mainstream support in 2027. Extended Maintenance is offered—but at an estimated additional cost of two percentage points—through 2030.
  • With S/4HANA version 2020, mainstream support ends 2025. Extended support will cost you an additional four percentage points on estimate.
  • For S/4HANA version 2021 the end comes in 2026; and for version 2022, it’s 2027. Again, it’s either migrate or pay more for extended maintenance if you stick with SAP support.

So where does this leave SAP customers who might not want to reimplement to the cloud, and who also need support beyond SAP’s deadlines? If your SAP support clock is ticking, know that you have options, and we can help.

Turn back the clock

Rimini Street guarantees its clients full support for whatever SAP version they are running for at least 15 years from the time they begin Rimini Support™. Our clients save 50% on annual support fees and up to 90% on total support costs by switching from software vendor support. Plus, they gain the deep bench of expertise Rimini Street’s Primary Support Engineers (PSEs) offer, bringing an average 20+ years of experience, backed by a full team of on-staff experts worldwide.

Clock out from the SAP stress

Today, implementing an ERP software upgrade or undergoing a cloud reimplementation just to stay fully supported can be a thing of the past. SAP’s support timeline is theirs—it doesn’t have to be yours. Rimini Street delivers comprehensive support that’s more responsive and facilitates control of your IT roadmap, on your timeline.

Learn more: Discover Rimini Street Services and Support for SAP.

Scott Hays

Senior Director, Product Marketing
Rimini Street

Scott Hays is a seasoned veteran in enterprise software technology for ERP and customer experience. At Rimini Street, Hays is responsible for the go-to-market strategy, messaging, and content for end-to-end software support, products and services.

Prior to Rimini Street, Hays served as senior vice president of product marketing for Epicor, a mid-market ERP provider, and vice president of solutions marketing for Verint, a global leader in customer engagement solutions.

Earlier in his career, Hays was with Clarus Corporation as a development manager and product manager for financials, procurement, and business intelligence solutions, and was a retail buyer and systems manager with Macy’s Department Stores.

Hays holds a degree in Economics and Sociology from Stanford University.

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