SAP S/4HANA conversion negotiation in 2026. Migration credits, RISE packages and the 2027 deadline.

Treat the conversion as four separate decisions: path, migration credit, Digital Access scope and RISE package. Settled one at a time on your own evidence, they typically land 25 to 35 percent below SAP's opening RISE proposal.

How much can you save in an SAP S/4HANA conversion negotiation?

A well prepared buyer usually finishes 25 to 35 percent below SAP's opening RISE proposal. SAP's account team prefers to table one bundled offer, and accepting it is where most of the value goes. The saving comes from splitting the conversion into these four decisions and settling each on its own evidence:

• Path. RISE public edition, RISE private cloud or S/4HANA on premises, plus the technical route you take to get there.
• Migration credit. How much of what you already paid for ECC licenses SAP applies to the new contract.
• Digital Access scope. Which integrations create licensable documents, and what cap applies for the term.
• RISE package and user count. Base, Premium or Premium Plus, and how many Full Usage Equivalents (FUEs) you commit to.

For most SAP customers this is the largest commercial event between now and 2030. SAP uses the December 31, 2027 end of mainstream maintenance on ECC 6.0 to shorten your preparation and fold indirect access, the RISE package and a contract restructuring into one conversation. The deadline is real, but the urgency is mostly a negotiating tactic.

The shrinking discount on perpetual S/4HANA licenses is the steepest curve in our 800 contract Vanishing Discount benchmark for 2026, which tracks the same squeeze at Oracle, Microsoft and Salesforce.

What does the December 31, 2027 ECC deadline actually change?

It ends mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 core applications, including ECC 6.0. It does not switch anything off. From 2028 you can buy extended maintenance until December 31, 2030, and your systems keep running and keep receiving support.

SAP first set 2025 as the end date when it announced the maintenance plan in 2014. After customer pushback, it moved mainstream maintenance to 2027 in its February 2020 policy update and added optional extended maintenance to 2030. The current dates are on SAP's maintenance strategy page.

What does extended maintenance cost in practice?

Say your maintenance basis is $20 million and you pay SAP Enterprise Support at 22 percent, or $4.4 million a year. Extended maintenance adds 2 percentage points, so the rate becomes 24 percent and the bill $4.8 million. You pay $400,000 more a year, or $1.2 million across 2028 to 2030.

Set that against the price of a rushed migration: a weaker credit, an oversized RISE package and Digital Access exposure you never measured. When those cost more than $1.2 million, a credible plan to run on extended maintenance carries weight at the table. Our comparison of extended maintenance and third party support sets out both options.

Does the 2033 transition option change the deadline?

Only for a narrow group. In February 2025 SAP announced the SAP ERP, private edition, transition option for its largest and most complex customers. It keeps an ECC based system supported in SAP's private cloud from 2031 to 2033, at higher fees.

The condition is that the system has moved to SAP ERP private edition on SAP HANA before the end of 2030. The option covers SAP ECC, not the full Business Suite 7, and can be bought from 2028. On premises ECC support dates do not change.

Which S/4HANA migration path fits your company?

Pick the path that matches how much custom code you run, where you want to host, and whether you prefer subscription or perpetual economics. You are making two choices at once, a commercial deployment model and a technical route. SAP's commercial team tends to present RISE as the default for every ECC customer.

Across the enterprise customers we see, RISE public edition fits about 30 to 40 percent operationally and RISE private cloud fits another 30 percent. The remaining 30 to 40 percent are better served by S/4HANA on premises with the perpetual model they already own.

Customers who default to RISE because SAP prefers it give up bargaining power. They also often land on a path that does not match their systems.

How does the technical route affect the license count?

• New implementation (greenfield). You rebuild processes on standard S/4HANA. User roles are redefined from scratch, which is the best moment to classify users correctly and retire unused modules.
• System conversion (brownfield). You convert the existing ECC system with its history and custom code. It is faster, but old role assignments and old integrations come across unchanged, and so does their licensing footprint.
• Selective data transition. You move chosen company codes, processes or years of data. You can phase the migration by business unit, which only pays off commercially if the contract allows phasing.

Existing SAP customers usually meet the public edition through RISE. SAP positions GROW with SAP mainly for new customers, and our private versus public cloud guide covers the operational tests in more detail.

How do SAP migration credits work?

A migration credit applies part of what you already paid for ECC licenses to the cost of S/4HANA. SAP calculates it as a percentage of your existing perpetual license fees. It lands either as a one time discount on the new contract value or, in a RISE move, as an offset spread across several years of subscription fees.

On premises, SAP uses two routes named in its transition policy:

• Product conversion. Individual ECC products are swapped for their S/4HANA equivalents.
• Contract conversion. Your whole license contract transfers to the S/4HANA price list, with a credit for the value already paid.

The 2020 update, covered in the SAP newsroom, also gave dual use rights on Business Suite 7 and S/4HANA until your transition is complete.

Standard credits range from 30 to 60 percent, depending on the path, the size of your commitment and the negotiation. The credit is the single largest source of value in a conversion, larger than the headline discount.

A worked example of the credit gap

Say you paid $12 million in ECC license fees and choose RISE private cloud. SAP's first offer at 40 percent gives a credit of $4.8 million. A well prepared counter lands at 55 percent, or $6.6 million. The $1.8 million difference is worth $360,000 a year over a five year subscription.

To recover the same amount through the subscription discount alone, you would need to take $360,000 off every annual invoice. The credit is also the number SAP's first proposal presents least clearly, so ask for it as a separate line with its own calculation.

How do you value your existing entitlements?

• Contract file. Collect every order form, amendment and license schedule since your first SAP purchase, and total the net license fees actually paid.
• Maintenance basis. Reconcile that total against the maintenance basis on your current support invoice. Gaps usually point to missing paperwork or older conversions.
• Measurement results. Run USMM and consolidate with SLAW (the License Administration Workbench) to see which users and engines you actually use. Our guide to USMM, LAW, SLAW and STAR explains the outputs.
• Shelfware list. Mark the engines and packages you no longer use. They still count toward the value you paid, and SAP should credit them.

Why we disagree that the credit ratio is fixed policy

SAP account teams often say the migration credit ratio is fixed policy and not open to negotiation. We disagree. In roughly 6 of 10 conversions we ran, the credit improved materially once the buyer tabled a documented valuation of prior license investment and a credible willingness to delay.

Value your entitlements precisely, open with a higher conversion ratio, and let the 2027 deadline put pressure on SAP's sales targets. Our migration credit benchmarks help set the opening figure.

How do you limit Digital Access exposure before you sign?

Measure it and cap it in the conversion contract, before signature. Migration scoping documents every integration you run, and that inventory often reveals indirect access exposure you did not know about. Once the contract is signed, SAP has that list and you have little left to trade.

SAP introduced Digital Access in 2018 to license indirect access per document created instead of per user. It counts nine document types when a third party system creates them:

• Sales documents, invoice documents, purchase documents and financial documents, each counted per line item
• Material documents, counted per line item at a 0.2 multiplier
• Service and maintenance documents, manufacturing documents, quality management documents and time management documents

We sort every connection into one of three groups:

• Document creators. They create one of the nine document types and need Digital Access licensing.
• Service consumers. They read data, run reports or call functions without creating documents, so under SAP's own contractual definitions they do not need it.
• Hybrid connections. They do some of each and need a line by line review.

Most enterprise customers find that 30 to 50 percent of the connections SAP scopes as licensable are service consumers. In the case of a German automotive manufacturer that avoided €4M in audit risk, reclassification cut 4,200 connections to 1,400 licensable ones. Indirect access fell from €4.2M to €1.1M, and the RISE migration closed 31 percent below SAP's proposal.

Our note on how Digital Access carries into S/4HANA and RISE contracts covers the contract side.

How to check your own integration exposure

1. List every RFC destination in transaction SM59 and every IDoc partner profile in WE20.
2. Export the interface catalog from your middleware, whether SAP PI/PO, Integration Suite or a third party platform.
3. Pull system and communication users from SU01 and check which of them create documents, and of which type.
4. Count documents created by those users over the last 12 months, by the nine types above.
5. Tag each interface as creator, consumer or hybrid, and keep the evidence with the tag.

Which RISE with SAP package should you buy?

Buy the lowest package that covers what you will use in the first contract years, then add specific services. SAP's opening proposals often default to Premium Plus because it produces the most revenue. The current RISE with SAP private edition packages are Base, Premium and Premium Plus.

The package applies to the whole contract, so the per user saving comes from how users are classified. RISE private edition counts FUEs: 1 advanced user is 1 FUE, 5 core users are 1 FUE, 30 self service users are 1 FUE, and a developer is 2 FUEs. SAP's first draft usually classifies too many people as advanced.

A worked FUE example

The same 3,000 people cost 42 percent fewer FUEs once each role is mapped to what it does in the system. Our FUE guide explains the role mapping. Then model RISE against an S/4HANA license on a hyperscaler you contract directly, on the same scope and term, before committing to the bundle.

What have we seen in recent S/4HANA conversion negotiations?

We advised on roughly 20 to 30 S/4HANA conversions in 2024 and 2025. The migration credit ratio was the most negotiable item in almost every one, and the one buyers used least. Three patterns came up again and again:

• SAP's first credit offers covered 50 to 70 percent of prior license value, and there was still room to push higher.
• Indirect access exposure surfaced late in 4 to 6 of every 10 conversions and raised the bill.
• Buyers who modeled RISE against a license plus hyperscaler alternative cut committed cost by 10 to 25 percent.

One European industrial group we worked with finished 29 percent below SAP's opening proposal. The team modeled the extended maintenance scenario, sized the RISE package to operational need and reclassified the indirect access perimeter before the first formal exchange. Our SAP services practice runs the same work for other conversions.

The 2027 deadline binds both sides. SAP needs the conversion signed as much as you need a supported platform.

How should you sequence an S/4HANA negotiation?

Run it over 18 to 24 months and keep the four decisions in order. SAP's account team will push to compress the calendar because its bargaining position weakens as your preparation improves. The indirect access analysis and the migration scoping cannot be rushed, so the full timeline protects you.

What SAP's account team will say, and how to answer

• "Your support is at risk if you do not sign this year." Reply that extended maintenance to 2030 is already priced into your plan and you will sign when path, credit and scope are agreed.
• "Premium Plus is standard for companies your size." Ask SAP to name the Premium Plus services you would use in year one, and to price Base with those services as add ons beside it.
• "Digital Access can be settled after go live." Reply that the document count, the measurement method and the cap go into this contract or you do not sign.
• "This discount expires at quarter end." Ask for the same terms in a quote valid through your board approval date. Quarter end matters to SAP's targets, as our note on SAP fiscal quarter timing explains, so your readiness to sign near quarter end is worth trading for better terms.

Which S/4HANA contract clauses are worth redlining?

Eight clauses carry most of the value you negotiate, and each needs defined terms with numbers and dates. Review them against SAP's standard agreements and terms, because anything your order form does not change is decided by those standard terms.

Our SAP RISE Negotiation Guide is a forty page white paper with the full redline library for these clauses, along with Digital Access, package sizing, migration credit and phased migration guidance. For benchmarks on the uplift cap, see what SAP buyers get on uplift caps.

Questions to ask SAP before you sign

• What exactly is the migration credit, as a percentage of which license value, and when does each part apply?
• Which Digital Access documents are included, how will they be measured, and what happens above the cap?
• Can FUE user types and the RISE package be adjusted at each anniversary, in both directions?
• What are the renewal price terms, in writing, for the first renewal after this term?
• Which hyperscaler, region and service levels are included in the RISE price, and which are extra?
• What does the contract say if our go live slips by six or twelve months?

What mistakes cost buyers the most in an S/4HANA conversion?

Five errors cost buyers the most: treating the deadline as an emergency, defaulting to RISE public edition, bundling the issues, accepting SAP's Digital Access scope and starting late. Each is avoidable if you catch it before SAP's first proposal lands.

1. Treating the deadline as an emergency. After 2027 your systems keep running on extended maintenance. Plan the migration around your operational capacity, or you pay for speed you did not need.
2. Defaulting to RISE public edition. It is one of three paths. Companies with meaningful customization or strict data residency needs should evaluate private cloud or on premises first, or they pay later in rework and exceptions.
3. Negotiating everything in one conversation. SAP prefers to settle indirect access, the RISE move and the migration timeline together. Separating them produces materially better terms on each one, because a concession on one item cannot be hidden inside another.
4. Accepting Digital Access scoping as presented. A large share of the connections SAP scopes as licensable only read data or call functions. Reclassification is some of the highest value work in the whole project.
5. Starting too late. Buyers who start at twelve months get weaker results, because the indirect access work cannot be compressed and SAP's own scope becomes the default.

What to do next

1. Value what you own. Total the license fees you have paid SAP and reconcile them with your maintenance basis before any conversion talks begin.
2. Compare all three paths. Map RISE public, RISE private cloud and on premises against your custom code and hosting needs, and choose the one with the best cost profile.
3. Open high on the credit. Present your valuation and ask for a conversion ratio at the top of the negotiated range for your path.
4. Measure and cap Digital Access. Classify every integration and write the cap into the conversion contract before signature.
5. Model RISE against the alternative. Price an S/4HANA license on a hyperscaler you contract directly on the same scope and term, and test your figures in the RISE TCO calculator.
6. Set your own calendar. Keep your project plan independent of SAP's quarter so the deadline pressure sits with SAP.
7. Redline the priority clauses. Start with price protection, the audit covenant and renewal uplift. For help, contact us, ask about Vendor Shield for ongoing SAP advice, or browse the SAP Knowledge Hub.

Frequently asked questions