SAP promises to support SAP S/4HANA at least through 2040

SAP on Tuesday committed to supporting SAP S/4HANA at least through 2040, in an attempt to assure large enterprise customers that moving to the ERP platform is a worthwhile endeavor. 

Additionally, SAP will be offering longer support for Business Suite 7, moving their end of mainstream maintenance from 2025 to 2027.

While SAP is offering more time to customers undergoing a digital transformation, SAP's Geoff Scott warned in a statement that "this announcement is not a signal to slow down." 

"With today's news, we still believe SAP customers should move forward as far in advance of any deadline as possible," said Scott, CEO of Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG). "The decision about a company's 'ERP of the future' should not just center on a technical upgrade to SAP S/4HANA. It should be about how best to prepare a company's business for the future." 

However, according to Rimini Street, providing two more years of support for Business Suite 7 doesn't address the issues that may be slowing down digital transformations. 

"This announcement is further acknowledgement that SAP is feeling the pressure from Business Suite 7 licensees' reluctance to embark on huge re-implementations to S/4HANA, which can be expensive, time-consuming and incredibly disruptive to the business," Eric Robinson, GVP & GM of SAP Services for Rimini Street, said in a statement. 

Rimini Street provides third-party support services for enterprise software systems, including SAP. Third-party support can offer support for Business Suite 7 software through at least 2035, Robinson said.

SAP said that its customers don't have any qualms about moving to S/4HANA. The new commitments, the company said, simply reflect an acknowledgement of the different paces at which customers are moving. 

SAP pointed to a recent survey from the Americas' SAP Users' Group, which showed that the number of customers who have no plans of moving to SAP S/4HANA has dropped to zero. Meanwhile, a survey of the German-Speaking User Group indicates that over 49 percent of customers plan to migrate to SAP S/4HANA within the next three years.