Alternative path to SAP 2027 ECC migration can unlock greater cost-savings, states Rimini Street CFO

Rimini Street is ready to support partners as they manage clients’ expectations through this tricky time.

Taking the alternative route of extending support coverage for SAP ECC 6.0 may help enterprises avoid a costly and complex migration to S/4HANA on RISE, and enable firms to reprioritize IT budgets to meet current business needs.

The option was shared by Michael Perica, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Rimini Street, provider of third‑party support and managed services for mission‑critical enterprise resource planning (ERP).

He recently spoke to Asia Pacific enterprises about the upcoming SAP 2027 ECC end-of-maintenance deadline and found that many are concerned about the high costs and commitment required for a multi-year migration.

“By country, what are we hearing? It’s consistent,” said Perica. “One, the value of what one would get to pay two to three times [to migrate] when innovation is not really happening in an ERP system that much anymore.

“And two, is the capital even available? Could I use this capital [elsewhere] if I solved the problem of the need to upgrade — particularly to invest in innovation.

“We are having [conversations] with existing clients around [saying], ‘My system as a core system record is running wonderfully. If there wasn’t a vendor trying to force me to upgrade, it’s not a business decision I would make. I would rather be investing in other areas of innovation, technology, or other components of my business.’”

This aligned with global findings from a SAPInsider report in the third quarter of 2025, which found that 50% of enterprises were still using SAP ECC or Business Suite, with another 31% using SAP S/4HANA.

Only 14% were on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and 30% were on RISE with SAP or SAP Cloud ERP Private.

The top reasons for not using RISE with SAP were equal concerns about the value of migrating to the new system (43%) as well as cost (43%). About 32% of leaders were unsure it was a critical business need, making it hard to justify the migration.

Alternative roadmap: A less costly decision?

“I'd like to point to the traditional roadmap that we have all been conditioned to for decades,” said Perica. “I joined Rimini Street because I've been subjected to these vendor-dictated roadmaps and upgrades.

“We’ve been conditioned that here is the migration — renewal path, upgrade path, and the economics are dictated and given to us by the SaaS vendors. They were able to price in what it would cost.

“The market’s telling you there are alternatives.”

Rimini Street provides one such alternative: they can offer full support coverage for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases through 2040, without any need to complete a migration to S/4HANA on RISE.

They claim that clients stand to benefit from immediate savings of up to 50% off SAP annual support fees, with savings of up to 90% on total support costs by extending their ERP system.

Additionally, Rimini Street is ready to support partners as they manage clients’ expectations through this tricky time. Perica is especially confident that Rimini Street’s vast experience can help enterprises maximize their savings on migration dilemmas.

“We have so many client references, both locally and globally, all ranging in sizes,” he said. “This is where [partners] can work with us and let us know how we can be helpful in providing those references, use cases, and assisting in getting that comfort [for clients].

“And we’re there to help them with our potential clients and prospects in understanding not only the value proposition, but also how we can keep the [system] stable. We can even have these systems perform better.”