For most SAP customers, the end of 2027 is the date that matters: SAP mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC) ends. Manufacturers usually treat it as a software deadline. In practice it is becoming a people deadline, because many companies are trying to staff S/4HANA programs in the same window, and the experienced functional leads who can run a migration are already committed elsewhere.
- SAP mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 on enhancement packages 6 to 8 ends at the end of 2027. Systems on enhancement packages 0 to 5 already left mainstream maintenance at the end of 2025.
- Optional extended maintenance runs from 2028 through 2030 at a higher fee. The SAP ERP, private edition, transition option (2031 to 2033) is a RISE with SAP offer, not a maintenance extension.
- The constraint for most manufacturers is not licenses or tools. It is experienced S/4HANA leads in FICO, MM, SD, PP, QM and warehouse management who have done a conversion before.
- Staffing should be planned by program phase, starting with the leads who make the design decisions, months before the system integrator needs them.
What actually happens at the end of 2027
ECC does not stop running. Owned licenses keep working after 2027; what ends is SAP mainstream maintenance, meaning regular updates, legal changes and standard support. The dates break down like this:
- End of 2025: mainstream maintenance ended for SAP ERP 6.0 on enhancement packages 0 to 5.
- End of 2027: mainstream maintenance ends for SAP ERP 6.0 on enhancement packages 6 to 8 and the rest of Business Suite 7.
- 2028 to 2030: optional extended maintenance, at an additional two percentage points on the maintenance basis.
- 2031 to 2033: the SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, for customers that commit to RISE with SAP private edition and move to SAP HANA before the end of 2030. SAP states that it is not a maintenance extension for ECC.
Extended maintenance and the transition option buy time. They do not remove the migration, and the talent needed to run it does not get cheaper while a company waits.
Why the talent shortage arrives before the deadline
A typical S/4HANA program for a manufacturer runs well over a year from planning to go-live, and the people who shape it are needed at the start, not at cutover. Companies aiming to go live before 2028, or soon after on extended maintenance, are hiring for the same roles at the same time.
The scarce people are not generic SAP consultants. They are leads who have carried a module through an ECC-to-S/4HANA conversion or reimplementation and supported it after go-live: someone who has handled the move to the Universal Journal and the business partner model in finance, or redesigned production planning and MRP in an S/4HANA environment. That experience only comes from programs that have already happened, so the pool grows slowly while demand rises.
The deadline is a software date. The shortage is a calendar problem: everyone needs the same leads in the same eighteen months.
Where manufacturers feel it most
- Finance (FICO): leads who understand S/4HANA finance changes and can protect month-end close through cutover.
- Supply chain (MM, SD): people who know procurement, pricing and order-to-cash processes in a plant context, including EDI with customers and suppliers.
- Production and quality (PP, QM): specialists in planning, production orders, inspection and, in many plants, variant configuration.
- Warehouse management: WM-to-EWM decisions and the specialists to carry them out, since classic WM is not the long-term path in S/4HANA.
- Plant-floor integration: the people who connect SAP to MES, WMS and shop-floor systems, and own those interfaces after go-live.
How to staff an S/4HANA program now
- Decide the target date first. Pick the go-live date and the support bridge (mainstream, extended maintenance or the transition option), then work backward to when each role must be in seat.
- Staff the design leads before the build team. The FICO, supply chain and production leads make the decisions everything else depends on. Bring them in during planning, not after the integrator is mobilized.
- Budget for lead time. According to Maxary, lead times for qualified FICO, MM and SD leads are currently 6 to 12 weeks. Open these requisitions before the program needs them.
- Interview for conversions, not keywords. Ask candidates to walk through a cutover they ran, what broke in the first month, and how they fixed it. "S/4HANA" on a resume does not answer that.
- Plan stabilization at the same time. Name who supports the system after go-live and overlap them with the design team. Our article on why ERP transformations fail after go-live covers this in detail.
Questions to answer this quarter
- Which enhancement package is each ECC system on, and does the 2025 or the 2027 date apply?
- Which support path will bridge the gap if go-live slips past 2027?
- Which three roles would stop the program if they were vacant next quarter?
- Who on the current team has been through a conversion before, and who needs backfill?
Maxary places SAP S/4HANA and ECC specialists for manufacturers, qualified by practitioners who have led these programs. Shortlists are delivered within 48 hours of the brief. See what we staff.