By now, almost every SAP ECC customer has made their S/4HANA decision. Some are on S/4 already, others are planning to, and some are in progress.
However, for those choosing to remain on SAP ECC for the foreseeable future, one practical question quickly pops up.
Who is going to fix it when something breaks?
It’s a straightforward question, but it’s the question every CIO, CFO, and SAP leader eventually lands on.
For organisations planning to run ECC beyond 2027, whether for one year or ten, the support model becomes a strategic decision, not an operational footnote.
Realistically, there are only three paths forward.
Extended maintenance is SAP’s official safety net. It keeps you on vendor support, gives you access to patches, and maintains a sense of continuity. For risk‑averse organisations, this feels like the least disruptive path. This path also provides extended access to most Solution Manager features.
But it comes with a couple of trade‑offs:
Extended maintenance works best for organisations with a clear S/4HANA plan and a defined migration timeline. It’s a bridge, not a long-term highway. It's the 'status quo'. The safe bet.
Once you fall out of mainstream or extended maintenance, you enter customer‑specific maintenance which is a polite way of saying SAP will help you, but only with what already exists.
You keep access to SAP Notes, but only the ones already published. When new vulnerabilities emerge, and they do every month, you’re responsible for mitigating it. If a tax rule changes, you’re building the fix yourself.
This model can work for highly stable, low‑change environments with strong internal capability. But it places the full burden of risk, compliance, and security on the customer.
Third‑party support has moved from fringe to mainstream over the past decade, especially as SAP’s timelines have shifted and budgets have tightened. Providers like Rimini Street and Spinnaker Support offer:
For organisations not ready, or not convinced, to move to S/4HANA, third‑party support provides breathing room. It provides the ability to run a stable ECC while modernising around the edges and It decouples the business from SAP’s deadlines, allowing transformation to happen on business terms, not vendor terms.
The trade‑off?
You lose access to SAP patches, there is no access to Solution Manager., and you are shut out SAP’s direct ecosystem. For some, that’s a deal‑breaker. For others, it’s a non‑issue.
The real question isn’t whether you support ECC beyond 2027. It’s how you support it, and what that choice enables.
For some, the answer is a controlled glide path to S/4HANA. For others, it’s stabilising ECC while modernising. And for a growing number, it’s about rejecting the idea that SAP’s timeline must dictate their own.
Regardless of reason for staying with ECC, how you choose to support it beyond 2027 requires more than accepting the status quo without thought.
Leg Up Software is an expert in SAP IT operational and infrastructure software automation solutions.
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