Dear SAP Support — I’ve Met Someone Else
I don’t think we should see each other anymore. It’s not you; it’s me. Actually, on second thought, it’s mostly you. Our relationship started as expected, but we’ve grown apart. We now want different things. Let me explain. You’ve changed It used to be that my annual maintenance fee got me support, maintenance and new […]
No More FOMO – SAP ECC Customers Are Not Missing Out on New Features
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a thing, mostly in social media and personal endeavors. But it also has a parallel in enterprise software roadmaps. Stay with me and I’ll explain. ERP software – it first hit the scene in the 1960s. In the decades that followed, the number and variety of ERP […]
Thanks, But No Thanks – SAP ECC6 EHP0-5 Customers Just Don’t See the Value of a Forced S/4HANA Upgrade
For customers of SAP ECC 6 versions EHP0-5, there’s a hard deadline coming December 31, 2025, when mainstream support from SAP will end for those versions. SAP isn’t offering extended support for EHP0-5. The deadline is a fork in the road created by the vendor. At that point, customers will be automatically converted to customer-specific […]
From TCO to TCC: Don’t Give Up Cost Control to a Vendor “Landlord”
The acronym TCO stands for “total cost of ownership” – a phrase that reminds us that the cost of a technology solution is rarely just the price of the solution. Oftentimes, there are numerous other components that comprise the total cost. But there is a fundamental problem when considering TCO for a technology solution: It […]
Independent, Third-Party Support Definition (in 1,000 Words or Less)
This blog was originally published in July 2020 and was updated in June 2024 Many organizations around the world are familiar with independent, third-party support. Many others are not. Still others have some preconceived notions about what it is and how it helps. What is Third-Party Support? A simple definition. Third-party support is software support […]
Your SAP Support Clock May Be Ticking Faster Than You Think
If you’re running SAP ECC 6, your support clock is ticking—perhaps faster than you realize. Not to worry, you’ve got options and we can help. By now, just about every SAP customer knows that 2027 is the end date for ECC 6 mainstream maintenance support. But that’s only half the story. That’s because for half […]
ERP Strategy Lessons from Sweden’s CIO of the Year
Ingo Paas is the CIO of Green Cargo, a sustainable logistics partner serving 270 locations across Scandinavia, transporting some 22 million tons of freight annually. Recently, my colleague Luiz Mariotto and I had the privilege of hosting Ingo and a roundtable of IT leaders. Afterward, Ingo shared a deeper dive on his bold strategies that […]
Rethinking the SAP ECC to S/4HANA Migration Mandate
Contrary to what SAP may want you to think, ECC to S/4HANA migration isn’t mandatory for your enterprise. In fact, independent support can extend your current ERP investment beyond SAP’s projected end of mainstream maintenance for ECC in 2027. I sat down with three of our SAP ERP experts to discuss the options businesses have. […]
No Extension to SAP ECC 6 and Business Suite 7 Mainstream Support End Date in 2027
Did Christian Klein just burst your SAP bubble? Back in 2020, SAP announced that it would extend the end of mainstream ECC 6.0 support from 2025 to 2027. At the time, that wasn’t a big surprise. There was speculation among the SAP community that SAP would extend the deadline again. As they say, “Sorry to burst […]