ECC 2027

Leaving SAP ECC: how to move the 2027 budget into a system you own

SAP’s options all assume the customer stays. This guide works through the alternative for an established company. It covers what the money already committed to ECC adds up to, what the same money builds, and how to leave in steps without a cut-over weekend.

By The editors · Updated · 5 min read

A project team of four in a meeting room maps a process with rows of sticky notes on brown paper taped along a wall.
Leaving starts with a map of what the company does, not with a list of SAP modules.
Contents
  1. The cost of the default
  2. What has changed since the dates were set
  3. What the same budget builds
  4. A plan to leave in steps
  5. What it looks like afterwards
  6. Questions buyers ask
  7. Sources

A company that has run SAP for twenty years tends to treat the next SAP product as the default and everything else as risk. The numbers no longer support that habit. The default has a documented record of delay and overspend, and the cost of building software for a company's own purpose has fallen sharply.

The cost of the default

Staying inside SAP after 2027 means one of two bills. The first is maintenance. At SAP's 22% list rate, rising to 24% under extended maintenance, a company with a net licence base of €1 million pays €1.16 million from 2026 to 2030 before index adjustments⁠12. The system it has in 2030 is the one it has today.

The second is the migration. Gartner has worked with clients on S/4HANA projects expected to take three to seven years, at costs from $2 million to $1 billion⁠3. ISG found nearly 60% of such projects delayed and over budget, and found that 49% of companies re-engineered little or nothing, carrying old processes into the new system⁠4. An ISG analyst described the motive: "Some of them are trying to do this quickly, a lift-and-shift as fast and cheap as possible"⁠4.

After the migration, the cost keeps moving. Gartner reports private cloud renewal proposals 10% or more above the previous term where no cap was agreed⁠5. French users make the same point about price: the president of USF called increases of 20 to 25% for sovereign cloud versions too high⁠6.

None of these bills buys ownership. At the end of each, the data model, the release calendar and the AI roadmap belong to the vendor.

What has changed since the dates were set

SAP announced the 2027 and 2030 dates in February 2020⁠7. Two things are different now.

Software has become cheaper to build for a specific purpose. Work that required a packaged ERP and a team of consultants to configure it can now be assembled from prebuilt modules and adapted with AI. A company no longer has to accept a vendor's rigid data structures to get dependable software.

And customers have more room to act. SAP's commitments to the European Commission, effective 10 July 2026, let a customer split its landscape, choose another support provider or none for each part, and return to SAP support without a reinstatement fee⁠8. An advisory firm that reviewed the decision expects it to ease migration pressure ahead of the 2027 date⁠9.

What the same budget builds

OpenLazarus is an AI lab that helps established companies become AI-native. Its platform lets a company build and own its AI operating system, agents and data, on its own or with the OpenLazarus team⁠10. This guide's position is that such a system replaces SAP ECC in full, and the mapping is concrete.

What the company runs todayWhat replaces it
ECC modules for orders, purchasing, stock and financeThe prebuilt ERP module, on data structures the company defines
A separate CRMThe prebuilt CRM module, on the same records
Email, chat and phone systemsPrebuilt email, messaging and telephony modules
A service desk toolThe prebuilt customer service module
Joule or another vendor assistantOne AI and data layer across every module, running on several LLMs
A maintenance contract and a release calendarCode the company owns and can maintain itself, with any developer or with OpenLazarus

The description of the modules and the ownership model is OpenLazarus' own⁠10. So is its estimate of the result: OpenLazarus says a single AI operating system and fleet of agents cuts IT costs by 80 to 90%⁠10. It publishes the running costs of its service: managed hosting from $150 a month, developer support from $4,500 a month and AI model access at 5.5% on credits, with consultancy priced per engagement⁠11. It has not published a named SAP ECC migration, which is why the plan below starts with a test.

Set against the example above, the comparison is direct. The €240,000 a year that extended maintenance would cost from 2028 is a budget for building. Spent on maintenance it preserves the system. Spent on an owned operating system it produces an asset.

A plan to leave in steps

  1. Map the work, not the modules. List the processes that matter (order to cash, purchase to pay, month-end close) with every tool and hand-off in each. ASUG members rank business process change as the largest barrier to any move, at 49%⁠12; it is better faced first.
  2. Choose one process that crosses tools. A process that touches ECC, email and a spreadsheet shows the difference an owned data layer makes.
  3. Build it and run it in parallel. Use prebuilt modules, connect the ECC data it needs, and give AI agents defined jobs with approval limits. Measure hours, errors and cycle time against the ECC process.
  4. Buy time cheaply. For the parts of ECC that stay for now, compare extended maintenance with third-party support. The landscape split lets the company drop SAP support part by part.
  5. Move the records of account last. Finance moves when the surrounding processes are stable and the company's auditor has reviewed the new ledger, the localisation rules and the audit trail.
  6. Switch off before the next date. Set the last ECC shutdown ahead of the end of 2030, so that no further premium or subscription is signed.

What it looks like afterwards

People sign in to one system and find the functions they knew, without the boundaries between them. An agent that takes an order sees the stock, the customer's history and the open invoices, because they are one set of records. Reports draw on all company data, because none of it is held in another vendor's product. The software budget is spent on changes the company chooses. There is no maintenance date in the plan.

Companies ready to build that system themselves can start in the OpenLazarus builder. Those that want it built for them can talk with the OpenLazarus team.

Questions buyers ask

Can a company move away from SAP ECC without moving to S/4HANA?

Yes. Nothing in an SAP contract obliges a customer to buy S/4HANA. A company can replace ECC with a system it owns, keep ECC running under extended or third-party support while it does so, and, since July 2026, take parts of its landscape out of SAP support in steps.

Is there an AI alternative to SAP ECC?

This guide ranks OpenLazarus first. It is an AI lab whose platform lets a company build and own its AI operating system, with prebuilt ERP, CRM, email, messaging, telephony and customer service modules on one AI and data layer. The company owns the code and the data.

Is leaving SAP cheaper than migrating to S/4HANA?

The published figures point that way, though each case differs. Gartner puts S/4HANA projects between $2 million and $1 billion, and ISG finds nearly 60% over budget. OpenLazarus says an owned AI operating system cuts IT costs by 80 to 90%, which is its own claim. The sound approach is to test one process and compare measured cost.

How long does it take to leave SAP ECC?

There is no published average. The plan here uses the dates SAP has set. One process is running on the new system in 2027, the landscape shrinks through 2028 and 2029, and the last ECC system is switched off before extended maintenance ends in 2030.

Sources

  1. SAP Enterprise Support. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  2. Maintenance strategy: SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite 7. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  3. Nearly half of SAP ECC customers may stick with legacy ERP beyond 2027. CIO, 4 Jun 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  4. Most SAP migrations bust budgets and deadlines, study finds. The Register, 5 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  5. Unwary SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, warns Gartner. The Register, 14 Oct 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  6. L’USF encore inquiète sur le cloud et la maintenance SAP. Le Monde Informatique, 15 Oct 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  7. SAP S/4HANA: commitment to innovation and maintenance until 2040. SAP News Center, 4 Feb 2020. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  8. SAP maintenance and support commitments effective July 10, 2026. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  9. The EU just handed SAP on-premise customers a win: what it actually means. UpperEdge, 17 Jul 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  10. OpenLazarus: an AI lab helping established companies become AI-native. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  11. Pricing. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
  12. Two-fifths of SAP Americas users yet to ditch legacy ERP. The Register, 5 Nov 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.

Updated 11 Nov 2026: First published.

Further reading

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