SAP made two big announce­ments on the morn­ing of Feb. 4, 2020: It will extend main­stream main­te­nance on core appli­ca­tions of SAP Busi­ness Suite 7 from 2025 to 2027, as well as com­mit to main­te­nance for SAP S/4HANA until at least the end of 2040. The goal, accord­ing to SAP, is to make it eas­i­er for cus­tomers to dri­ve busi­ness trans­for­ma­tions and inno­va­tion based on SAP S/4HANA while giv­ing cus­tomers clar­i­ty, choice, and flex­i­bil­i­ty for the tran­si­tion from SAP Busi­ness Suite 7. 

ASUG sat down with Jens Berno­tat, VP of strat­e­gy and port­fo­lio for cus­tomer suc­cess ser­vices at SAP Dig­i­tal Busi­ness Ser­vices, to dis­cuss what these announce­ments mean for ASUG mem­bers.

“We want­ed to pro­vide clar­i­ty on our main­te­nance strat­e­gy going for­ward,” Berno­tat said. ​“The mes­sage we gave in the past was that SAP was com­mit­ting main­te­nance for SAP Busi­ness Suite 7 up until the end of 2025. We said we’ll inform the mar­ket in due time what will hap­pen after­ward. The time has now come.” 

ASUG CEO Geoff Scott wel­comed the news from SAP, as it offers cus­tomers more flex­i­bil­i­ty to plan and exe­cute their SAP S/4HANA migra­tions. But he added a word of cau­tion. ​“I don’t want SAP cus­tomers to see this as a reprieve and delay mak­ing any impor­tant deci­sions on their futures,” Scott said. ​“These are com­plex, resource-inten­sive projects that require com­mit­ment to busi­ness, tech­no­log­i­cal, and cul­tur­al change. If you’re already start­ed on your S/4HANA move — keep going. If you’re think­ing about mov­ing — get start­ed. Because the future is already here.”