SAP has extended mainstream maintenance for SAP ECC 6.0 to December 31, 2030, with optional extended maintenance available until the end of 2033 for customers who commit to SAP S/4HANA migration. After 2033, SAP will not provide standard bug fixes, security patches, or legal change updates for ECC — meaning organizations remaining on ECC after that date will be running an unpatched, unsupported system with significant security and compliance risk. EMUG recommends that organizations with large, complex SAP landscapes (more than 5 modules, more than 1,000 users, or significant custom code volumes) begin migration strategy and planning no later than 2026 to allow adequate time for a structured migration program before the 2030 mainstream maintenance deadline.
Brownfield conversion (technical system conversion) converts the existing ECC system to S/4HANA in place — preserving existing configuration, custom code, and historical data. It is faster and lower cost than greenfield but carries legacy process complexity and custom code forward into S/4HANA. Greenfield reimplementation starts from scratch — implementing S/4HANA on a clean basis with redesigned processes and standard functionality. It is slower and more expensive but delivers a cleaner system with lower custom code volume. Selective data transition is a hybrid — rebuilding the system configuration and processes on a fresh S/4HANA system while selectively migrating required historical data. EMUG recommends approach selection based on custom code volume, process quality, and the scale of process improvement the organization wants to achieve — with brownfield for organizations primarily seeking technical currency and greenfield or selective transition for organizations seeking significant process improvement alongside technical migration.
PLM platform consolidation programs address two challenges simultaneously: platform rationalization (selecting the target platform and decommissioning legacy systems) and data migration (moving product structures, CAD data, engineering documents, and change history from legacy systems to the target platform without data loss or corruption). EMUG designs PLM consolidation programs in three phases: assessment of the legacy landscape to understand data volumes, data quality, and integration dependencies; target platform selection based on functional requirements, engineering team preferences, and integration architecture; and phased data migration and user adoption, migrating product families or business units sequentially to manage change risk. Data migration programs use EMUG’s proven tooling for Teamcenter, Windchill, and 3DEXPERIENCE data import — reducing data migration risk and cost compared to custom-built migration tools.
A brownfield SAP ECC to S/4HANA conversion for a mid-size manufacturing enterprise (5 to 10 modules, 500 to 2,000 users, one to three legal entities) typically runs 12 to 18 months. A greenfield S/4HANA reimplementation for the same organization typically runs 18 to 28 months. A complex greenfield or selective data transition for a large global manufacturing enterprise (more than 10 modules, more than 5,000 users, multiple legal entities and currencies) typically runs 24 to 42 months. EMUG recommends a two-phase approach: a 10 to 14 week strategy and business case phase to confirm approach, scope, timeline, and cost before any implementation investment is committed, followed by the implementation program with defined milestones and governance.
SAP ECC landscapes in engineering and manufacturing organizations typically contain 2,000 to 10,000 custom ABAP developments accumulated over 15 to 20 years — representing the largest source of SAP S/4HANA migration risk and cost. EMUG addresses custom code through three steps in the RENEW framework. First, SAP ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) analysis identifies all custom code objects, classifies them by S/4HANA compatibility, and estimates remediation effort. Second, custom code rationalization — eliminating custom developments that S/4HANA standard functionality now covers, reducing the custom code volume by 30 to 60 percent before migration begins. Third, targeted remediation of the remaining essential custom code to S/4HANA compatibility. Custom code reduction before migration is the single most important factor in controlling migration cost and timeline.
Legacy enterprise systems block AI and digital programs in three ways: they lack the APIs required for AI systems to retrieve and write data programmatically; their data quality is too poor to train reliable AI models; and their architecture cannot support the real-time data flows that AI programs require. Modern SAP S/4HANA provides OData REST APIs that enable AI systems to read and write SAP data without screen-scraping or custom RFC calls. Modern Teamcenter and Windchill versions provide REST APIs for PLM data access. Cloud platforms provide the scalable compute required for AI model training and inference. EMUG designs enterprise modernization strategies with AI program enablement as an explicit design objective — specifying the API configuration, data quality requirements, and integration architecture that the AI programs in the digital transformation roadmap will need.
RISE with SAP is SAP’s managed cloud offering that bundles SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition (a single-tenant cloud deployment), SAP Business Technology Platform credits, SAP Business Network Starter Pack, and cloud infrastructure (on AWS, Azure, or GCP) into a single subscription contract. For manufacturing enterprises, RISE with SAP offers advantages in infrastructure cost predictability, reduced IT operations burden, and access to SAP’s regular quarterly update cycles. The suitability of RISE depends on data residency requirements (RISE supports EU, US, and select Asia-Pacific data centers, which may not satisfy all regional regulatory requirements), customization requirements (highly customized SAP landscapes require careful clean-core architecture design before RISE migration), and contract flexibility preferences. EMUG evaluates RISE alongside on-premise and hyperscaler-hosted alternatives in the RENEW Evaluate Options phase.
EMUG delivers enterprise modernization to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers (IATF 16949 compliance validation for modernized QMS), aerospace and defense organizations (AS9100 Rev D, ITAR-compliant cloud architecture), industrial machinery and equipment producers, energy, oil, and gas companies (regulatory data residency architecture), and engineering services and EPC firms (ISO 9001 alignment). Delivery countries include Germany, France, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
