For customers of SAP ECC 6 versions EHP0-5, there’s a hard deadline coming December 31, 2025, when mainstream support from SAP will end for those versions.
SAP isn’t offering extended support for EHP0-5. The deadline is a fork in the road created by the vendor. At that point, customers will be automatically converted to customer-specific maintenance, in which SAP no longer updates the release with legal changes or adapts it to support new technologies.1 In addition, according to SAPinsider, the cost of customer-specific maintenance would have to be negotiated separately and new fees may be imposed to resolve new problems.2
Who will be affected by this deadline? According to research from Gartner, as of 2Q 2024, 63% of ECC customers have not purchased licenses for S/4HANA.3 Data from SAP presented at a German-speaking user group conference showed that half of ECC customers are on EHP0-5 and not in line for the support extension after 2025. And to add to the frenzy, 40% of those customers aren’t aware of the 2025 deadline because “everyone is talking about this end of maintenance in 2027,” according to Jens Gleichmann, managing director of German SAP consultancy Crossload.4 Whether they know it or not, many customers will have to make a choice between self-support, third-party support or taking on an upgrade.
Many EHP0-5 customers have had a chance to upgrade but didn’t see the value in doing so. There have been several new releases since EHP5. Here’s how many customers have responded to the releases:
What’s going on here?
It’s simple, customers are adhering to the age-old wisdom: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You can consider this a testament to the stability and useful functionality of ECC. Customers have seen that it works well and does what they need it to do, hence, the lack of a strong need to upgrade. Apparently for these EHP0-5 customers, there wasn’t enough compelling new functionality in EHP6-8 or S/4HANA to warrant all the effort, time and money required for those upgrades or for a migration.
There’s also a good chance that the software has been highly customized by customers, which can be a further deterrent to upgrading since upgrades are known to sometimes cause problems with customizations. At a minimum, an upgrade requires a thorough regression test, and possibly tweaking of customizations – this comes with risks of breakage and possible snowballing of problems to the business.
Many find there’s little justification to upgrade to S/4HANA
In 2014, SAP initially announced the 2025 end-of-mainstream-support deadline for Business Suite 7 and ECC 6.5 (SAP later extended the deadline to 2027, but only for EHP6-8.6) At the time, 2025 probably seemed a long way off for EHP0-5 customers. But now it’s right on the horizon and coming up fast.
SAP benefits from customers moving to S/4HANA, and they’re using the end of support as a “motivator.” There’s the option to upgrade to EHP6-8 to get another two years of mainstream support, but that’s hardly worth the effort. Gleichmann estimated, “such a project could take two to two and a half years, meaning for some it would already be too late.”4
Many customers have already demonstrated that they’re doing just fine with what they’re running. In fact, companies such as RSA Insurance Group in the UK are thriving, leveraging the durable ECC release to carry out an innovate-around-the-edges strategy, while taking the significant savings from not having to upgrade to, instead, invest in the latest technologies to help gain a competitive advantage and meet their growth and profitability goals.
Again, kudos to SAP for creating such durable, functional software with ECC.
Alternative: The Rimini Smart Path
Fortunately, there is a way for these customers to:
- Continue using EHP0-5 for several more years with full support
- Get support for their customizations as well
- Continue to receive tax, legal and regulatory updates as needed for their operational jurisdictions
- Modernize the underlying operating systems, browsers and email integrations to the latest available, without making changes to the applications
- Save up to 50% off of their annual support fees, and up to 90% on their total cost of ownership
- Get 15 additional years of coverage availability from the day of signing, regardless of the software version
Rimini Street provides you the options, time and flexibility you need so you don’t have to succumb to vendor pressures or deadlines.
You can control your IT roadmap and own your future. We’ll get you there™.
Learn more:
- Take a closer look at the maintenance timelines for SAP ERP 6.0 and get fact-driven resources to clarify your options – The SAP ECC Support Clock is Ticking.
- Explore SAP strategies that can lead to positive business outcomes – download the eBook “3 Steps to Innovation for Your SAP Roadmap.”
- See how executive peers from leading organization NEXEN are taking ownership of their SAP strategy, investing in AI/ML and making smart, business-driven, ROI-positive decisions in partnership with Rimini Street.