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SAP Gives Enterprise IT Customers an Extension

ERP giant SAP wants all its customers to migrate to its new platform S/4HANA, but it's a time consuming and expensive process. So the company is extending maintenance on its earlier platform.

When you invest a lot of money in something, whether it's an automobile or a software platform, you expect it to last. When it does last and works just fine, you may not be in any kind of hurry to upgrade to the next model or version. Why fix what is not broken? Why not get the most use out of your existing investment?

But the longer you hold onto it, the less the manufacturer makes in new product sales. After all, they are investing in new features for new versions of their products and services. They would rather invest in the new versions than provide extended maintenance on that product you bought 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.

IT enterprises have faced this disconnect over the years as software companies have urged them to upgrade, a process that may take considerable time and resources and result in just a newer version of what they already have. Meanwhile, their own internal budgets, operating constraints, and more pressing priorities have caused them to defer any kind of upgrades. There is a lot of pressure for digital transformation, multi-cloud initiatives, and getting AI into production.

Enterprise IT won the most recent round of this battle of wills with SAP as the ERP giant announced on Feb. 4 that it would extend mainstream maintenance support for core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 software until the end of 2027, followed by optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030. 

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