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SAP & ERP2026-09-09

SAP ECC 2027: What the End of Mainstream Maintenance Means

Stephanie Escarciga (opens in a new tab)

Mainstream maintenance for the core applications of SAP Business Suite 7, which includes SAP ECC, ends on 31 December 2027. The system keeps running afterwards. What changes is the scope and cost of maintenance. Interfaces that read data from SAP are also subject to a separate deadline that already applies today.

Status: October 2026

What 2027 actually means

The statement "SAP ECC ends in 2027" is a simplification. For ERP 6.0 with EHP 0 to 5, regular maintenance ended on 31 December 2025. SAP provides regular maintenance for the core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 until 31 December 2027. After that, depending on the contract, these paths exist:

  • Until 31 December 2027: mainstream maintenance, the regular support
  • 1 January 2028 to 31 December 2030: extended maintenance, optional and at an additional fee
  • From 2028 without extended maintenance, otherwise from 2031: customer-specific maintenance with a significantly reduced scope
  • 2031 to 2033: SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, a time-limited offering for very large customers

Extended maintenance is not granted automatically. It covers the core applications of Business Suite 7 and the related add-ons within the landscape.

Customer-specific maintenance mainly provides help with known issues. New corrections and adjustments are only available to a limited extent.

The transition option until 2033

The transition option is not a general extension for ECC. SAP aims it at its largest and most complex customers who cannot complete their move by the end of 2030. Requirements include:

  • moving to SAP ERP, private edition by 31 December 2030
  • SAP HANA as the only database
  • a system size of at least 2 TB
  • subscribing to the Max Success plan

Three paths to SAP S/4HANA

There are three basic approaches to the move:

  • Brownfield (system conversion): the existing ECC system is technically converted to S/4HANA. Historical data, organisational structures and custom developments are retained.
  • Greenfield (new implementation): S/4HANA is implemented from scratch. Processes are redefined, data is migrated selectively.
  • Selective data transition: selected data, company codes or processes are carried over, others are rebuilt.

Even with a system conversion, not everything stays as it was. SAP describes which functions and data structures change in the Simplification List.

What changes in the system

The Simplification List contains several hundred items. Some affect almost every installation:

  • Database: S/4HANA runs on SAP HANA only.
  • Accounting: the Universal Journal (table ACDOCA) combines data that was spread across several tables in ECC.
  • Inventory management: material documents are stored in table MATDOC instead of MKPF and MSEG.
  • Material number: the field is up to 40 characters long instead of 18.
  • Pricing: sales conditions are stored in PRCD_ELEMENTS instead of KONV.
  • Master data: customers and suppliers are managed through the business partner.

Business partner instead of customer and supplier

In SAP ECC, customers and suppliers are kept as separate master records. In SAP S/4HANA, the business partner is the leading object. Customer and supplier roles are attached to this business partner.

For a system conversion, SAP requires Customer-Vendor Integration (CVI). It converts the existing customer and supplier master records into business partners and keeps both in sync.

Duplicate records, differing addresses, tax and bank details or incomplete master records surface at this point at the latest. Interfaces, forms and workflows that work with customer or supplier numbers are affected as well.

What this means for interfaces

Interfaces and programs that access ECC tables directly may read from the wrong place after the move. An extraction from MSEG or KONV no longer finds the data there in S/4HANA. A third-party system that expects 18-character material numbers fails on longer ones.

Classic paths remain in S/4HANA: BAPIs, IDocs and RFC function modules generally remain usable. The Simplification List names the changes. OData services and CDS views are added. Through them, S/4HANA provides data in a defined structure maintained by SAP.

Clean core: where extensions run in future

SAP follows the clean core principle. The standard stays as unchanged as possible, and extensions use defined paths. Since 2025, SAP classifies extensions into four levels:

  • Level A: ABAP Cloud and released interfaces, in the system or on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
  • Level B: classic, documented interfaces such as BAPIs, IDocs and RFC
  • Level C: access to internal SAP objects without a stability commitment
  • Level D: modifications and access to objects that SAP does not intend for extensions

The higher the level, the more likely an extension keeps working unchanged through future updates. Level A extensions often run entirely outside the SAP system and access it only through interfaces.

ODP via RFC: a separate deadline

Independently of 2027, a deadline applies to data extraction. According to SAP Note 3255746, the RFC modules of the ODP interface are intended only for data exchange between SAP applications. Third-party tools and custom programs may not use them.

SAP revised the note in April 2026. With the SAP Security Patch Day on 9 June 2026, SAP blocked unpermitted calls with SAP Note 3748819. The opt-out applies until December 2026, followed by SAP Note 3731818. ECC, S/4HANA and SAP BW are affected.

Data extraction into data warehouses, analytics or planning tools therefore needs a different path. SAP names ODP via OData and SAP Business Data Cloud for this. Further paths use CDS views.

Seovantis delivers new integrations and extensions outside the SAP core, for ECC and S/4HANA alike. Development usually takes place outside your SAP system, with test data or mock services for the interfaces: SAP integrations for ECC and S/4HANA

Sources

Related article: ODP RFC Blocked: Which Paths Remain for SAP Data

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