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SAP Business Suite 2033

Members of the SAP community were surprised to read an announcement in the German business magazine Handelsblatt this week, which stated that there could be an ECC maintenance extension until 2033. If an adapted RISE with SAP contract is signed, SoH should be possible for several more years.
Peter M. Färbinger, E3 Magazine
January 23, 2025
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Maintenance ends in 2027 and 2030 for Suite with AnyDB

SAP board member Thomas Saueressig was correct in his keynote at the DSAG Annual Congress 2024 in Leipzig when he stated that under the current circumstances, there will be no maintenance extension for SAP Business Suite 7. Regular maintenance for ERP / ECC 6.0 (SAP Business Suite 7) is still available until 2027. After that, until 2030, there will be a chargeable, so-called extended maintenance.

In 2030, the database contracts between SAP and Oracle, IBM and Microsoft will expire, which means that ECC with AnyDB will no longer be possible. A similar situation exists with the Java stack from NetWeaver, as Oracle has its hand on the Java licenses and SAP is unable to reach an agreement with Oracle for its customers. At the DSAG Annual Congress in Leipzig, Thomas Saueressig argued that the end of the SAP Business Suite 7 is inevitable, logical, and justified in terms of licensing.

SAP has stated repeatedly that the end of ERP/ECC 6.0 is unavoidable for many years. However, the validity of this assertion remains uncertain. Do SAP customers require AnyDB (Oracle, IBM, or Microsoft) and the Java stack for ECC? In his DSAG keynote in Leipzig, Germany, SAP Board Member Thomas Saueressig made several key points, but did not mention that there are alternatives.

Exit strategy SoH, Suite on Hana

SAP Business Suite 7 requires a database, which can be Hana. Making a database release upgrade from AnyDB to Hana ensures compliance with both technical and legal requirements.The Suite on Hana (SoH) is a SAP innovation that combines ECC 6.0 with the SAP database, ensuring supportability through certification and release.

The SAP community is still debating the necessity of a Java stack in addition to the mandatory Abap stack, but most experts agree that it is possible to do without Java. This invalidates the two main arguments put forward by SAP Executive Board member Thomas Saueressig against an extension of maintenance. If SAP provides support, an SoH system can remain productive until 2040, so there is no need to migrate to S/4.

Business Technology Platform is the SAP lifeline

SAP currently has a number of customers with Business Suite 7 and BTP (Business Technology Platform). The BTP is not exclusively tied to an S/4 system, and the combination of ERP/ECC 6.0, SAP Hana, and the BTP proves to be a clever and efficient architecture.

BTP allows businesses to leverage modern concepts from data management, artificial intelligence, and automation in a Suite 7 environment. SAP customers can discover the capabilities of BTP at the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025 on March 5 and 6 in Heidelberg, Germany. The SAP community summit will cover all aspects of BTP, including the SAP clean core concept. Register here now.

S/4 alternatives are ECC, Hana and BTP

SAP plans to offer a maintenance extension beyond 2030 only to SAP customers who have signed a RISE with SAP contract. This is likely to be a reinsurance policy to ensure that satisfied SoH users will customize the S/4, which has been met with unpopularity.

The 2033 maintenance offering is called "SAP ERP, Private Edition, Transition Option"; "SoH Private Edition" might have been a more appropriate name. However, in the SAP community, nomenclature holds little significance. History is repeating itself at SAP: after the successful R/3, the even more successful R/3 Enterprise was developed at the urging of the DSAG user group. A similar scenario is unfolding with the release of SAP Business Suite 7 with AnyDB, which may be followed by an even more successful SoH with BTP.

Is S/4 Hana dying before its time?

Given the technical, organizational, and licensing advantages of a combined suite, Hana, and BTP, the relevance of S/4 and the future of this ERP solution are being questioned. The S/4 product has been in existence for over ten years, and a successor should be on the horizon for ERP. However, SAP has not yet provided any official statements regarding this matter. The company has announced that S/4 will be maintained until 2040, but it has not provided any details about its successor.

From a current standpoint, S/4 might be seen as a strategic decision by SAP that could potentially impact its long-term viability. A compelling solution could be a composable ERP with BTP as the foundation, leveraging the strengths of ERP/ECC 6.0 and S/4. However, the boldness of this approach, which involves opening up the ERP universe, remains a point of contention. SAP BTP is already a strategic component of every future SAP ERP system, and S/4 is only an interim solution.

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Peter M. Färbinger, E3 Magazine

Peter M. Färbinger, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief E3 Magazine DE, US and ES (e3mag.com), B4Bmedia.net AG, Freilassing (DE), E-Mail: pmf@b4bmedia.net and Tel. +49(0)8654/77130-21


1 comment

  • Das Problem ist doch nicht der fehlende Nachfolger, sondern die Wartung von einem Zoo an Möglichkeiten.
    Kein Kunde oder Partner versteht noch irgendwie die Strategie der SAP, die zwar Traumrenditen erzielt, aber ihr Partner und Ökosystem an die Wand fährt.
    Wenn der Druck nachlässt, auf S/4 zu wechseln, dann wird irgendwann eine massive Konsolidierung unter den (kleineren) Beratungshäusern einsetzen, die vor dem demographischen Hintergrund eine enorme Skill-Bandbreite abdecken sollen und erhebliche interne Schulungsaufwände haben, diese aber nicht über S/4 Projekte refinanzieren können.

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Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

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Thursday, May 22, 2025

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The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.