What’s Really Stopping Enterprises from Migrating to S/4HANA?

SAP’s campaign for S/4HANA has become impossible to ignore. Yet most enterprises are still running SAP ECC—many not even planning to migrate by the official 2027 end-of-support deadline. Why does hesitation persist, and what’s the actual price of waiting too long?

The Real Barriers to S/4HANA Migration

Despite SAP’s messaging, most organizations aren’t dragging their feet out of apathy. Three critical reasons rise to the top:

1. Lack of a Clearly Compelling Business Case: Many leaders don’t see a transformative ROI for the upfront investment required. Internal surveys reveal that nearly 25% of companies delaying S/4HANA cite “lack of corporate buy-in,” and 38% say it doesn’t yet align with their strategic priorities. The migration is viewed as costly, time-consuming, and disruptive, especially for organizations still optimizing ROI from their ECC landscape^*.

2. Skills Gap and Complexity: S/4HANA isn’t a drop-in upgrade; it’s a reimplementation. Enterprises face a worrying shortage of internal expertise in the new platform, coupled with the challenge of untangling years of ECC customizations and integrations. Migrating without deep SAP experience or clear governance introduces serious risk of disruption.

3. Migration Fatigue and Project Risk: For large organizations, ERP transformation must compete for attention, budget, and capacity with multiple other digital initiatives. End-user change management, data migration hurdles, and scope creep can derail project timelines and inflame costs.

The Real Cost of Staying on SAP ECC

While the arguments for delaying migration are understandable, they carry significant—and sometimes hidden—risks:

1. End of Support = Security and Compliance Headaches

• SAP ends mainstream ECC maintenance by 2027, with only costly (and short-term) extensions to 2030. Running unsupported software means no new security patches and compliance fixes, increasing vulnerability to cyber attacks and audit failures. Fines, operational disruption, and reputational hits are a real risk—not hypothetical.

2. Escalating Costs and Shrinking Support Pools

• The cost of maintaining ECC will rise. Extended support means higher annual fees, and as talent shifts to S/4HANA, finding skilled ECC resources will become more difficult and expensive. Integrating ECC with new cloud, analytics, or automation platforms will become increasingly complex and brittle.

3. Loss of Competitive Edge

• Staying on ECC means missing out on S/4HANA’s real-time analytics, AI automation, and digitally integrated processes. Market leaders are moving now to gain speed, agility, and intelligence. Legacy systems will increasingly become a strategic liability as the business landscape shifts around emerging tech.

The Bottom Line: While waiting may seem safe, the real risk lies in being left behind—exposed to security, compliance, cost, and business agility threats that only get worse each year after support ends. Companies not planning, budgeting, or building skills for S/4HANA now will find themselves at a severe disadvantage—with fewer options and greater exposure as deadlines loom.

Ready to break through hesitation and build a future-ready digital core? Download the DataLink Dynamics strategic eBook and take charge of your SAP roadmap today.

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