Standard ECC support ends on December 31, 2027. SAP offers extended maintenance through 2030. Third party support starts immediately. The cost gap is wide and the scope gap is wider.
SAP standard maintenance on ECC 6.0 ends on December 31, 2027. SAP offers two paid extensions. Mainstream maintenance through 2027 is the default. Extended maintenance runs January 2028 to December 2030 at a two percent premium. Customer specific maintenance runs from 2031 at four percent.
Third party support is the alternative. Vendors like Rimini Street, Spinnaker, and Support Revolution price the service at roughly fifty percent of SAP support fees. The cost gap is real. The scope gap is real too.
Read this alongside the third party support compared article, the SAP third party support service, the SAP knowledge hub, the SAP advisory practice, and the Vendor Shield subscription.
SAP holds a published support timeline for ECC 6.0. The dates have moved twice since the original announcement. The buyer side response is to read the current dates as fixed.
| Window | Premium over base | What is included | What is excluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mainstream | 0 percent | Full support, fixes, legal, regulatory | Nothing |
| Extended | 2 percent | Same as mainstream | Nothing on covered components |
| Customer specific | 4 percent | Limited fixes | Legal and regulatory updates |
| End of life | Not available | Nothing | Everything |
SAP extended maintenance preserves the support service the customer already buys. Fixes, legal patches, regulatory patches, and the SAP Support Portal access all continue. The premium is the only cost change.
| Year | Base annual support | Premium | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 mainstream | $5M | $0 | $5M |
| 2028 extended | $5.1M | $102K | $5.2M |
| 2029 extended | $5.2M | $104K | $5.3M |
| 2030 extended | $5.3M | $106K | $5.4M |
| 2031 customer specific | $5.4M | $216K | $5.6M |
Third party support replaces SAP as the support provider. The customer continues to use the SAP software under the existing license but no longer pays the SAP support fee. The third party covers fixes, tax updates, and incident response.
| Provider | Typical discount vs SAP | Indemnity | Tax and regulatory coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rimini Street | 50 percent | Wide market indemnity | 150 plus countries |
| Spinnaker Support | 50 percent | Standard indemnity | 100 plus countries |
| Support Revolution | 50 to 55 percent | Standard indemnity | UK and EMEA strong |
| SAP standard | 0 percent | SAP standard terms | All SAP supported countries |
The cost gap between SAP extended maintenance and third party support is the single biggest variable. The buyer side response is to model the full five year horizon, not the year one saving.
| Year | SAP extended path | Third party path | Annual saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | $5.0M | $2.5M | $2.5M |
| 2028 | $5.2M | $2.6M | $2.6M |
| 2029 | $5.3M | $2.65M | $2.65M |
| 2030 | $5.4M | $2.7M | $2.7M |
| 2031 | $5.6M | $2.8M | $2.8M |
| Five year total | $26.5M | $13.25M | $13.25M |
Third party support carries five specific scope gaps against SAP support. The buyer side response is to map each gap before signing.
| Workload | SAP extended fit | Third party fit | Buyer side response |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECC 6.0 stable production | Acceptable | Strong | Third party usually wins |
| S/4HANA on premise active project | Strong | Weak | Stay on SAP |
| SAP cloud products | Strong | Not available | Stay on SAP |
| BW on HANA on premise | Acceptable | Strong | Hybrid path possible |
| S/4 migration in flight | Strong | Weak | Stay on SAP |
The customer that drops SAP support and returns later pays the support fees that would have been paid during the gap, plus a reinstatement penalty that ranges from twenty to fifty percent of the cumulative gap. The buyer side response is to treat the third party decision as semi permanent and model the full five year cost.
The buyer side has eight specific moves across the SAP maintenance decision. Each maps to one cost line or one risk line.
| Move | Cost line | Typical saving | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third party as renewal lever | SAP support discount | 15 to 25 point discount widening | Medium |
| Move to third party | Annual support | 50 percent on the support line | High |
| Hybrid path | Annual support | 20 to 35 percent on the support line | Medium |
| Extended premium negotiation | Extended premium | 1 percent on the support line | Low |
| Back support cap | Reinstatement risk | Reduce penalty exposure by 20 to 30 points | Medium |
The third party support decision is rarely about saving every dollar. It is about applying a credible renewal lever against SAP and carrying optionality on the workloads that do not need SAP itself.
The eight step checklist is the buyer side starting position on every SAP ECC maintenance review.
Standard mainstream maintenance for ECC 6.0 ends on December 31, 2027. Extended maintenance runs January 1, 2028 to December 31, 2030 at a two percent premium. Customer specific maintenance starts January 1, 2031 at a four percent premium and excludes legal and regulatory updates.
Third party support typically costs around fifty percent of SAP support. The leading providers (Rimini Street, Spinnaker Support, Support Revolution) all price in that range. The buyer side saving on a five million dollar base is roughly twelve to thirteen million across a five year horizon.
Yes for HANA on premise. No for HANA Cloud. The third party providers cover HANA on premise database deployments under the standard service. HANA Cloud and SAP managed cloud products remain on SAP support. The buyer side response is to carve out the cloud workloads in any third party contract.
Yes. SAP charges a reinstatement fee equal to the support fees skipped during the third party term, plus a penalty ranging from twenty to fifty percent of the cumulative gap. The buyer side response is to treat the third party decision as semi permanent and negotiate a back support cap upfront.
No. Third party support does not deliver new SAP version upgrades. The customer remains on the version that was running when they switched. Customers planning an S/4HANA migration typically stay on SAP support during the migration and consider third party only for legacy components.
Redress runs SAP support reviews inside Vendor Shield, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. The work covers component mapping, third party RFP execution, extended maintenance negotiation, back support cap design, and the hybrid path architecture. Always buyer side, never SAP paid.
Redress runs SAP maintenance reviews inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. Every engagement is led by a former SAP commercial executive on the buyer side.
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