Contents
Key takeawaysWhat ends in 2027The three optionsSequencing the decisionWhat we have seenCost of each pathCredits and RISECheck your positionAnswering SAPCountdown to 2027The roadmapWhat to do nextFAQECC keeps running after 2027; only SAP mainstream maintenance ends. Set your S/4HANA go live date first, cover the gap with extended maintenance or third party support, and negotiate the migration without deadline pressure.
- Maintenance ends, the software does not. SAP mainstream maintenance for ECC ends at the close of 2027, and owned licenses keep working.
- Check your enhancement package. The 2027 date applies to ECC 6.0 on packages 6 to 8; older packages left mainstream maintenance at the end of 2025.
- Three real options. Migrate to S/4HANA, buy extended maintenance to 2030, or move ECC to third party support.
- Timing drives the choice. Fix a realistic go live date, then pick the bridge that covers the gap to it.
- Credits and RISE change the case. Conversion credits, ramps and the RISE subscription can move the S/4HANA business case materially.
- Doing nothing is the one wrong answer. Without a decision, ECC falls into customer specific maintenance at the full fee with no legal updates.
What ends for SAP ECC at the end of 2027?
SAP mainstream maintenance for Business Suite 7, which includes ECC, ends on December 31, 2027. The software keeps running, the licenses you bought stay yours, and the only things that change are the support arrangement and the patch stream you pay SAP for.
SAP publishes the dates on its maintenance pages. It announced the 2027 date, with an optional bridge to 2030, in February 2020 on its news channel, and has said since that the date will not move.
Which ECC releases does the 2027 date cover?
The 2027 date applies only to ECC 6.0 on enhancement packages 6, 7 and 8. Systems on packages 1 to 5, or on no package, left mainstream maintenance on December 31, 2025 and cannot buy extended maintenance. Check every production system before you assume 2027 applies to it.
What keeps working after the deadline?
Everything you run today keeps working. On January 1, 2028, transactions still post, interfaces still run and month end still closes. What you lose is future work from SAP: legal and tax updates, new support packages and, over time, certification for newer databases and operating systems.
| Phase | Dates | What SAP delivers | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mainstream maintenance | Until December 31, 2027 | Full support, legal changes, support packages | Your current rate, 22 percent of license value a year under Enterprise Support |
| Extended maintenance | 2028 to 2030 | Close to mainstream scope, for core applications and related add ons | Current rate plus two percentage points on the maintenance basis |
| Customer specific maintenance | From 2028 if you do not buy extended maintenance, and from 2031 in any case | Fixes for problems already known; no legal changes, no new support packages | Unchanged fee; resolving new problems can cost extra |
What is the transition option for 2031 to 2033?
It is an offer inside RISE with SAP, and SAP states that it is not a maintenance extension for ECC. Large customers with several complex ECC systems can use SAP ERP, private edition, transition option from 2031 to 2033. They must first move those systems into private edition, on SAP HANA, before the end of 2030.
The option can be bought from 2028. For ECC kept on premises, nothing changes after 2030.
The 2027 Clock, and Whose It Is
What are your three options before SAP ECC support ends?
You can migrate to S/4HANA, buy extended maintenance as a bridge, or move ECC to third party support. Which one fits depends on your realistic go live date and how much change the business can absorb, far more than on the deadline.
| Option | Cost profile | Change effort | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Migrate to S/4HANA | High up front, strategic | High | The business case is ready now |
| Extended maintenance | Base plus premium | Low | Go live falls just past 2027 |
| Third party support | Around half of base | Low | A longer, stable ECC hold |
Migrate to S/4HANA
Migration settles the maintenance question and modernizes the ERP core, at the highest up front cost and effort. SAP sells it as S/4HANA licenses you own or as the RISE with SAP subscription. Our guide to SAP S/4HANA licensing covers the FUE metric, digital access and RISE against on premises ownership.
Buy extended maintenance
Extended maintenance keeps SAP support at close to mainstream scope for 2028 to 2030, in exchange for a premium. It suits a program that is already under way and will land after the deadline. Customers who have not bought it when mainstream maintenance ends move to customer specific maintenance, so put the purchase on your 2027 contract calendar.
Move to third party support
Third party support cuts the annual support line to around half of the SAP fee for a stable ECC system. You give up new SAP releases and patches, and the provider handles tax, legal and fixes itself. Our comparison of extended maintenance and third party support sets out the scope differences line by line.
- Reinstatement fee. From July 10, 2026, SAP waives the fee for customers who return to SAP maintenance after leaving it.
- Back maintenance. SAP caps it at the lower of 50 percent of the fees for the time off support, or six months of fees.
- Partial termination. Licenses for products that have reached customer specific maintenance can be terminated without repricing the rest of the contract, on three months written notice before the end of the current term.
- Duration. The commitments followed a European Commission decision of July 9, 2026 and apply worldwide to on premises products for 10 years.
With the cost of coming back capped, third party support is a much smaller bet than it was. Our analysis of the SAP commitments covers the detail.
SAP RISE negotiation guide
Pricing benchmarks and contract terms for S/4HANA and RISE deals, free to download.
Get the white paper →How should you sequence the S/4HANA decision around 2027?
Work backward from the go live date, not forward from today. Fix a realistic S/4HANA go live first, then pick the support path that covers the gap, then negotiate. The deadline is a constraint on your support bill. It should not be the date that sets your project plan.
Set the go live date first
A brownfield conversion takes 12 to 24 months in the programs we have advised on, depending on system size, custom code and how many interfaces touch the core. As of late 2026, a program that has not started will struggle to go live before the end of 2027, so plan the bridge now.
Choose the bridge that fits the date
- Go live before 2028. Standard support carries you, and no bridge is needed.
- Go live 2028 to 2030. Extended maintenance is the natural bridge, because it keeps SAP support in place during cutover.
- Go live beyond 2030, or not yet decided. Third party support holds ECC at low cost while the business case matures.
Why we advise against racing to beat 2027
The usual advice treats 2027 as a hard wall and says to rush the migration to beat it. We think that is wrong. In roughly seven of ten 2027 planning engagements we ran, deadline pressure pushed the customer toward a compressed, overpriced migration and a weak negotiating position.
Separate the maintenance event from the migration decision instead. Cover the gap with a bridge, then negotiate S/4HANA on a calm timeline with conversion credits still on the table.
The 2027 date does not decide your migration. It decides when you stop paying SAP for mainstream support.
What have we seen in 2027 planning engagements since 2024?
We ran roughly 20 to 30 SAP 2027 planning engagements in 2024 and 2025. The deadline drove more rushed decisions than good ones, and the customers who paused to model timing came out ahead. Three patterns came up again and again.
- Timelines. Conversions ran long enough that a 2027 go live needed a decision well before deadline pressure peaked.
- Credits. Conversion credits and ramp deals moved the S/4HANA business case by 15 to 30 percent when they were negotiated before the deadline rather than after it.
- Bridges. Customers who used extended maintenance or third party support as a bridge avoided 25 to 40 percent of the cost of a compressed, deadline driven migration.
The credit finding matters most for timing. A swing of up to 30 percent comes from negotiating while the deadline still gives you something to trade, so we tell clients to open credit talks early and keep them open until the bridge is signed.
What does each support path cost after 2027?
The extended maintenance premium is usually small next to the cost of a rushed migration. Take a hypothetical ECC system with a $10,000,000 maintenance basis on SAP Enterprise Support at 22 percent, or $2,200,000 a year. Extended maintenance adds two percentage points, taking the rate to 24 percent.
| Path | Annual cost | Three year cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer specific maintenance | $2,200,000 | $6,600,000 | Known fixes only; no legal changes or support packages |
| Extended maintenance | $2,400,000 | $7,200,000 | Near mainstream scope; $600,000 premium over three years |
| Third party support at about half | $1,100,000 | $3,300,000 | Provider support; no new SAP releases or patches |
Now set that against the migration. If a compressed program to beat the deadline is quoted at $12,000,000, avoiding 25 percent to 40 percent of that cost, as the bridged programs we saw did, saves $3,000,000 to $4,800,000. The extended maintenance premium of $600,000 buys the time to capture it.
Customer specific maintenance is the worst value of the three: you pay the full fee and receive no legal updates, which matters most for payroll and tax. To bring the 22 percent itself down, see our guide to SAP support and maintenance negotiation.
How do conversion credits and RISE change the business case?
Conversion credits reduce what you pay for S/4HANA in return for the ECC licenses you give up, and RISE changes the cost from owned licenses to a subscription. Negotiated well, together they move the business case materially.
How conversion credits work
SAP applies credit logic when owned ECC licenses convert to S/4HANA entitlements. The value depends on what you own, how much of it is shelfware and how hard you negotiate. Credits are easiest to win while SAP still wants the signature inside its current fiscal year. Our guide to negotiating conversions and migration credits goes through the offer structure.
What RISE bundles
RISE puts software, infrastructure and services into one subscription. It turns capital spend into operating spend and carries its own FUE based metric, so user classification decides much of the price. Our RISE versus on premises comparison runs a five year cost model for both.
Why digital access belongs in the conversion
Indirect use by third party systems tends to surface during conversion, when interfaces are mapped and SAP sees them for the first time. Settle it before you sign, while it is part of a larger deal. Our guide to indirect and digital access explains the document based model.
How do you check where your ECC system stands today?
Start with release levels and contracts, because they decide which dates apply. Your basis team and procurement can pull most of this in a week.
- Enhancement package level. In SAP GUI, open System, then Status, then the component information, and read the release of SAP_APPL: 606 or 616 is package 6, 617 is package 7, 618 is package 8.
- Maintenance dates. The Product Availability Matrix, reached through SAP for Me, lists the maintenance end dates for each product version you have installed.
- Maintenance basis. Order forms and the latest support invoice show the value your support fee is charged on.
- Custom code. The SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA and the ABAP Test Cockpit show how much custom code needs rework.
- User counts. USMM and the License Administration Workbench give the current user classification you will need for FUE sizing.
What will the SAP account team say, and how should you answer?
Expect the conversation to open with the deadline and close with a quarter end discount. Each line has a factual answer.
- "There will be no further extension after 2027." Accept that. The date sets your support cost from 2028, which is why you are pricing the bridge now, and your go live date is a separate question.
- "This credit is only available if you sign this quarter." Ask for the offer in writing with its expiry, and for the same terms at a later signature date. If SAP will not put a dated offer in writing, treat the deadline as a sales tactic.
- "Leaving for third party support means you can never come back affordably." Since July 2026 SAP waives the reinstatement fee and caps back maintenance at six months of fees or half of the missed fees, whichever is lower.
- "The transition option means you have to be on RISE now." It requires your systems to be in private edition before the end of 2030, and it can be bought from 2028. Price it as a later option when you model the paths.
Contract terms to ask for
- Credit validity. A conversion credit that stays valid for a stated period, so a slipped go live does not cost you the credit.
- No double maintenance. ECC maintenance that stops, or is credited, when the S/4HANA subscription or license starts.
- Ramp aligned to go live. Subscription fees that step up as users actually move to S/4HANA.
- Extended maintenance price in writing. The 2028 to 2030 rate confirmed as your current rate plus two percentage points, with no change to the maintenance basis.
- Digital access settled. Document volumes and pricing agreed at conversion, with a clear right to buy more at the same rate.
What should you do between now and December 2027?
From late 2026 you have about 15 months. Work through the steps in this order, because each one depends on the one before it.
| Months before December 31, 2027 | What to do |
|---|---|
| 15 | Confirm enhancement package levels, maintenance basis and contract renewal dates for every ECC system |
| 12 | Set the go live date, request extended maintenance and third party quotes, and open credit talks with SAP |
| 6 | Finish the five year cost model for all three paths and settle digital access exposure |
| 3 | Take the decision, and give notice on any products you plan to drop or move to third party support |
| 1 | Sign the bridge contract so nothing falls into customer specific maintenance by default |
How does the plan change with company size?
- One system, about 1,000 users. A company this size can often convert in one program with a short bridge, if any. The decision sits with a small team, and extended maintenance for one system is a modest premium, so a late start is recoverable.
- Several regional systems. A group like this usually converts in waves, mixing extended maintenance and third party support by system. Price each system's bridge separately, and check whether the largest systems qualify for the 2031 to 2033 transition option before you commit them to a 2030 go live.
- Older enhancement packages. A system still on package 5 or lower is already in customer specific maintenance. Upgrade it to package 6 or later, or treat it as a candidate for third party support now.
What does a workable 2027 roadmap contain?
A workable roadmap is dated, costed and reversible until the decision point. It has four parts, and our bridge comparison and S/4HANA licensing guide cover the bridge choice and the licensing terms behind the negotiation plan.
- Decision date. A fixed point to choose migrate, extend or third party.
- Bridge choice. Extended maintenance, third party support or none, depending on the go live date.
- Cost model. A five year view across all three options.
- Negotiation plan. Credits and ramp terms lined up before the deadline passes.
What to do next
- Confirm your dates. Check the mainstream maintenance end date and the extended window for each ECC system, by enhancement package.
- Set the go live. Fix a realistic S/4HANA go live date for each system.
- Choose the bridge. Decide how ECC is supported from January 2028 until that date.
- Model five years. Cost the migrate, extend and third party paths side by side.
- Ask for terms. Request conversion credit and RISE terms while the deadline still matters to SAP.
- Check digital access. Run a digital access review before any conversion so it does not surprise you in the deal.
- Lock the roadmap. Put a dated, costed plan in place with a clear decision point.
- Get independent advice. Talk to our SAP advisory team before you commit to any path.
Frequently asked questions
What ends for SAP ECC in 2027?
Mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7, including ECC, stops on December 31, 2027. After that SAP ships no regular support packages or legal changes under your standard contract. Your system, data and perpetual licenses are unaffected.
Does ECC stop working in 2027?
No. There is no shutdown date and no license key that expires. ECC runs on January 1, 2028 as it did the day before. The open question is who supports it and at what price.
What are the three options at the 2027 deadline?
Migrate to S/4HANA, buy SAP extended maintenance for 2028 to 2030, or move ECC to a third party support provider. Your S/4HANA go live date should decide between them.
Should we rush the S/4HANA migration to beat 2027?
No. A rushed program usually costs more, cuts testing and leaves you negotiating against a clock SAP can see. Put a bridge in place first, then agree S/4HANA terms on a timeline the business can deliver.
How long does an S/4HANA migration take?
Plan on 12 to 24 months for a brownfield conversion, longer for several systems or heavy custom code. A 2028 go live therefore needs a decision well before the end of 2027.
How do conversion credits change the business case?
Credits cut the S/4HANA price in return for the ECC licenses you give up. In our engagements they moved the case by 15 to 30 percent when agreed before the deadline. After it passes, SAP has less reason to be generous.
Is extended maintenance or third party support the better bridge?
Extended maintenance fits a go live in 2028 to 2030 when you want SAP accountable during cutover. Third party support fits a longer or undecided hold, where roughly halving the annual fee matters more than new SAP patches.
Can we keep running ECC after 2030?
Yes, on customer specific maintenance or with a third party provider. SAP's only offer beyond 2030 is the private edition transition option for 2031 to 2033, which requires a move into RISE private edition before the end of 2030.
What is the biggest 2027 planning mistake?
Letting the deadline set the pace. Teams that separate the maintenance event from the migration and keep a dated roadmap spend less on the transition, because they never negotiate in a hurry.