SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC)

Ensuring business continuity and resilience with your current SAP ECC investment

Business Value

Maximizing Value From Your Existing ECC Investment

What is SAP ECC?

SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) is the immediate predecessor of S/4HANA, SAP’s next-generation ERP product. SAP ECC is an on-premise enterprise resource planning system that helps integrate digital information from multiple business units in real-time and offers several modules to help organizations have greater control over their key business processes.

Future of ECC

SAP will be supporting ECC and other core Business Suite 7 applications until the end of 2027, with optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030. So, current customers of SAP ERP ECC must prepare for S/4HANA, which is the future of SAP.

Securing value from your existing ECC system in SAP

Focusing on your company’s differentiated business processes (unique value proposition) will allow you to derive long-term value from your current SAP ECC system.

Internal development and innovation will help extend the value of your current ERP system till you migrate from SAP ECC to S/4HANA.
Choosing third-party cloud extensions and integrated applications that are compatible with your current ECC system in SAP will ensure minimum disruption to your existing business processes.
Investing in best-of-breed cloud analytics tools will help you gain more value from existing investments than ever before.
Overhauling existing processes and deploying new functionality within your current SAP ECC system will provide a lot of value for your money.

Planning to roll out any change to your existing ECC landscape? Hiring the services of a certified SAP partner can minimize disruptions to your core business functions.

Approaches

Options Available for Current Users to Deal with ECC End of Life

Current ECC users opting for extended support until 2030 will have to pay more for premium support and maintenance. It’s important to carefully weigh up the options available for existing ECC users.

Option 1: Maintain your SAP ECC system

Consider this option only if your ECC system works stably with minimal maintenance and support effort.
Perform a cost analysis to understand how much you will have to pay for availing premium ongoing support for ECC after 2027.
Assess the maintenance workload and the long-term business requirements that could not be supported by the dated ECC system.
If opting for ECC premium support costs less than converting to SAP S/4HANA before 2027, it’s better to stay on ECC for a while.
Existing on-premise ECC users can consider migrating their environment to the cloud as it will reduce their infrastructure costs, improve agility, and help prepare for S4/HANA down the road.

Option 2: Modernize to SAP S/4HANA

Savvy business leaders are using the 2027 deadline as a trigger to explore the business case to move to SAP S/4HANA. The point here is to determine whether you need a complete transformation or a staged, incremental approach.

There are 3 top strategies for SAP ECC to S/4HANA conversion.

Greenfield Migration: If you are migrating from a legacy, non-SAP ERP system or an older version of SAP like ECC, you can implement a fresh start using the Greenfield approach. Organizations that want to build an ERP system that meets their future business needs can go for a fresh start by choosing greenfield conversion.
Brownfield Migration: If you are currently using an older version of SAP (ECC) and want to migrate to SAP S/4HANA while continuing to retain some legacy components, Brownfield migration is the best approach to opt for. Brownfield takes a gradual, cost-effective, less-disruptive, and risk-averse approach to using S4HANA capabilities.
Incremental Transformation: This approach allows using Selective Data Transition (SDT) tools to accelerate data conversion from the old ECC system to the new SAP S/4HANA setup. As the name implies, this approach involves transferring data from one or more existing ERP solutions to a new S/4HANA solution.

Planning your transition to the new digital core with an experienced SAP consultant will help you gain both business and IT value from SAP S/4HANA conversion.

Comparison

SAP ECC vs. SAP S/4HANA - Similarities & Differences

Similarities between SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA

Both ECC and S/4HANA offer modules and components that enable business operations for sales, procurement, manufacturing, distribution, service, quality, accounting operations and plant maintenance.
Both ERP versions help centralize the operational information of a company into a single database.
Both ECC and S/4HANA enable standardization and automation of routine tasks and serve as a single source for operational reporting.
ECC and S/4HANA are designed as modular systems, so businesses can configure and use the pieces they need in a way that makes sense for their business requirements.
Both SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC share almost 90% of their core features and functions.

Differences between SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA

SAP ECC

Can run on third-party databases like Oracle, MaxDB, and IBM
Traditional processes constrained by the legacy database
Maintains separate customer and vendor files
Finance (FI) General Ledger (GL) accounts are mapped to Controlling (CO) primary cost elements
Can run on either a "classic" GL structure or the "new" GL structure
Legacy graphical user interface (SAP GUI)
Supports on premise deployment
Lack of intelligent technologies
ERP suite supported until 2027

SAP S/4HANA

Runs only on SAP HANA, the in-memory database of SAP
Intelligent processes enabled by new technology and SAP HANA
Combines common data structure elements into a Business Partner record
Structure of the universal journal is used to store both GL account and cost elements
Uses only the new GL, which is a prerequisite for new asset accounting
SAP Fiori - modern, customizable, and intuitive User Interface
Complete choice of on premise, cloud, or hybrid deployment
Embedded AI & ML, advanced analytics, and digital assistants with voice recognition
Supported until 2040

Considerations

Factors to Consider Before Deciding to Move From SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA

If you’re considering a platform change from ECC to S/4HANA, it’s important to consider these factors:

Analyze your current business processes that are linked to the capabilities and limitations of your ECC system and their impact on your investment.
Cost and change management, that is, ways to lower initial cost of conversion as well as maintenance expenses.
Organizational change management, that is, the impact of change on your existing processes (scale of impact).
Estimate the cost of retaining your people on a new software platform.
Assess the level of support you will receive from internal stakeholders for a successful major platform change.
Number of business processes that will have to be remade in order to ensure compliance with the new software standards and limitations.
Total number of suppliers, vendors, business partners, and customers who will use the new platform.
Evaluate whether it is really possible for your business to quickly gain a true competitive advantage from S/4HANA migration.

By engaging a certified SAP partner, you can quickly turn SAP’s latest innovation into your company’s unique advantage.

Benefits & Risks

Pros & Cons of Moving From SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA

Pros of moving from ECC to S/4HANA

Improved business performance with high speed of transaction processing and reporting.
Analyze a higher amount of data within the shortest time frame and gather real-time data insights to improve decision-making.
Better opportunity to impart agility to the business, unlock new revenue streams, and earn more profits.
Fully-automated data with simplified data table structure and data access, along with a user-friendly interface and trendy designs.
Innovative solutions powered by built-in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), and analytics.
Access data reports at a faster pace by reducing the data footprint needed to run your SAP ERP application.
Faster development lead times with restructured data models, in-memory data platform, and a device-agnostic Ui5 layer.

Cons of moving from ECC to S/4HANA

The financial implications of deciding between “big bang vs. phased” approach to S/4HANA implementation.
Maturity levels of the same functionalities offered by ECC and S/4HANA could be different in some cases.
Complexity of the migration process as well as the cost and timeline needed for the transition.
Database lock-in since S/4HANA can run only on the SAP HANA database.
Financial investment considerations to factor in when it comes to reinventing business processes and revamping an ERP.

Customize or Not?

Lowering Risks With SAP ECC Customization

SAP ECC customizations will have long-term implications on your business, so it’s important to carefully consider your customization approach. Business leaders and decision-makers need to understand exactly what customizations are and how much it costs to develop and maintain the customizations.

In some cases, customizations can make ERP software upgrades more complex and expensive in future, so it’s important to decide whether you need custom development or a feasible alternative to customization that can help meet your unique requirements.

Best alternatives to ECC customizations

Opting for enhancements is less risky than customizations because they don't require modifying the core ERP code.
Side-by-side extensibility is another low-risk method for accommodating specific business requirements. It involves developing an external application and then making programmatic calls to that application from within ECC.
Existing ECC users who are planning to migrate to S/4HANA down the road can also choose the SAP Business Technology Platform to meet their unique business requirements.
Hybrid cloud applications developed by third parties or by SAP itself can also help accommodate the specific requirements of existing ECC users.
SAP’s Industry Cloud program enables businesses belonging to a wide range of industries to achieve specialized capabilities.

What our SAP experts recommend

With SAP planning to eventually sunset ECC, existing ECC users will need to transition to S/4HANA sooner or later. Limiting customizations and opting for simple enhancements, side-by-side extensions, and Industry Cloud software programs will allow your business to be better prepared during the migration to SAP S/4HANA.

Continue with ECC or migrate to S/4HANA? A few words of strategic advice from our top SAP experts will help you decide before the time’s up.

Client Stories

Success Stories Featuring SAP ECC to S/4HANA Conversion

1. SAP S/4HANA system conversion for a high-tech manufacturer

Fingent enhanced the operational efficiencies and capabilities of a leading high-tech manufacturer by helping them convert from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA. Conversion to SAP S/4HANA 1709 was performed by following the Lift and Shift Methodology along with comprehensive Fit-Gap Analysis.

2. Migration from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA

Thermo Pads, a leading manufacturing firm, enhanced their sales and purchase processes and streamlined their finance models by migrating from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA.

3. Migration from legacy ERP to SAP S/4HANA

Fingent helped Sonic Biochem, a global manufacturer and supplier of processed food items, to seamlessly migrate from their legacy system to SAP S/4HANA.

Insights

More Insights on SAP ECC Maintenance, Support, and S/4HANA Conversion

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SAP AMS: Making SAP Support Available at Your Hand

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