Turning point for S/4 migrations

2026 will be the turning point for the migration to SAP S/4 Hana. PAC surveys show: Over half of companies will have largely completed or almost completed the changeover this year. As a result, the market for qualified consultants is easing as demand slowly decreases and new technologies accelerate the migration process. In particular, AI-supported migration tools and the increasing acceptance of the public cloud edition of S/4 Hana are reducing effort and costs - especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for the majority of upcoming migration projects and also start with smaller project volumes.

Time pressure remains, conditions improve

This is good news for companies that are about to migrate or are just starting out. Less than two years remain until the end of standard maintenance for SAP ECC. The time pressure is high, but the falling demand for consultants is reducing bottlenecks and costs. At the same time, intelligent, AI-based tools are accelerating the changeover. Companies that have already made the switch also benefit: More available expertise facilitates downstream adjustments and innovative enhancements.

For traditional SAP service partners, this development means growing pressure. Many have greatly expanded their teams in recent years in order to meet the demand for migrations. However, simple conversion projects will no longer be enough to ensure capacity utilization in the future. Consultants need to reposition themselves: towards SAP line-of-business solutions, AI-driven use cases and innovation projects. Success will depend on being able to deliver future-oriented, customer-specific solutions with high business value and fast ROI - supported by their own IP modules such as industry-specific use cases or functional SAP S/4 Hana extensions.

What CIOs should consider now

New opportunities are opening up for user organizations. They should ensure that their service providers have their own AI-based migration tools and tried-and-tested templates and use these to make migrations leaner and faster.

This in turn has consequences - in short, it creates more scope for price negotiations in certain segments of a migration or integration project. The use of AI is already widespread, particularly in software development, in the analysis of customer-specific legacy system code and in testing. Providers with strong skills in integrating AI into project work are often prepared to offer fixed-price projects. This requires a very good understanding of the scope of the project on both sides and a stable partnership.

At the same time, the need for experienced consultants with a deep understanding of specific customer concerns and industry-specific requirements is increasing. Their daily rates will tend to increase.

Overall, the change offers the opportunity to enrich the target environment with innovative enhancements after the migration. The benefits of a new S/4 Hana environment should go beyond pure efficiency gains: It's about future-proofing the SAP landscape. This also includes preparing the organization for innovation - through effective change management. And this is usually a greater challenge in the long term than the technical migration.

This article is part of the PAC contributions that venture an outlook for 2026 and beyond. All PAC forecasts for 2026 can be found at: rb.gy/eoy33o

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