Did SAP take the concurrence of even one customer before deciding on going ahead with the S/4HANA product development? Did it take it for granted that all SAP customers will fall in line to the ERP behemoth’s diktat; time, money, effort, complexity and may be temporary disruption notwithstanding? The stringent timelines of transition to S/4HANA were hanging like a sword do Damocles over its clients. SAPs plan of smooth transition of its complete customers as per the timelines provided by it, seems to have run into rough weather.
One is not sure of the fact whether SAP had factored in all the complexities, in hindsight it does not seem to be so. The factsheet as per Gartner is that only 39 per cent (14,000 out of 35,000 ) of ECC customers had migrated to S/4HANA by the end of 2024, and 17,000 could still be using the aging software by the 2027 deadline. It goes on to add that even when SAP ends extended support in 2030, 13,000 companies could still be working with the old ERP system. Given this rather weird critical business scenario the independent support provider Rimini Street is offering an alternative solution to SAP customers who are unwilling to switch.
Rimini Street is now offering enterprises with ECC 6.0 software, a way to stick with the ageing ERP application until 2040. The enterprise software support provider has made a public announcement that it is ready to provide full support for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases until 2040, for both existing and new customers. This may just turn out to be the alternative they were looking for. What do the SAP wedded enterprises gain? They avoid the costs and risks of migrating to S/4HANA on RISE, and additionally, they can also achieve annual maintenance savings of up to 90%.
Many believe that the migration is unnecessary and of low value. The new technologies on the wings; enterprise AI, workflow and task automation can bring immediate value to the organisation. Rimini Support for SAP introduced over 15 years ago and it supports hundreds of SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA clients. AI was not factored in; it seems in the S/4HANA story. It is being predicted the future of ERP will forever be changed in the next five to ten years. ERP may just be replaced by new, faster and more flexible agentic ERP processes.
WHERE WILL ERP FIT IN THE CHANGED TECH WORLD ORDER, NO ONE ONES. SAP NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.