Rimini Street extends SAP support to 2040, promises savings

Rimini Street has announced the extension of its full support coverage for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases through 2040, eliminating the requirement for migrations to S/4HANA on RISE that SAP mandates for clients wishing to retain full support through its own Annual Support programmes.

This extension means that organisations using SAP systems can keep their existing software operational, maintain compliance with tax and legal regulations, and potentially redirect IT budget savings towards innovation projects.

According to Rimini Street, switching to its support services could result in total annual maintenance savings of up to 90%, while sparing businesses from the costs and risks associated with migrating to S/4HANA on RISE.

SAP's Mainstream Maintenance for ECC 6.0 users is currently scheduled to end by 2027.

For clients on enhancement packs 0–5, the end date is set for 31 December 2025. Several S/4HANA releases have already passed their support deadlines or will reach them between 2025 and 2027, depending on the version. While SAP does offer Extended Maintenance for some ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA versions, this comes with a significant cost increase and is not available for all releases.

Joe Locandro, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Rimini Street, addressed the challenges facing organisations considering migration.

"The problem today is that many organisations aren't migrating to the latest ERP versions because they lack the resources, time, or clarity around their long-term ERP strategy," he said.

"At the same time, budgets remain tight, and there's still pressure on CIOs to innovate. Even if SAP was to extend its own support to 2030, businesses are still being asked to commit to a future ERP model that may be entirely different."

"We predict the future of ERP will forever be changed in the next five to ten years, with ERP software replaced by new, faster and more flexible genetic ERP processes. That uncertainty creates significant risk for CIOs when it comes to investment planning. By extending support for all SAP ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA releases through 2040, Rimini Street offers a compelling alternative."

"We enable organisations to maintain existing systems without vendor lock-in, and redirecting funds typically spent on maintenance towards meaningful innovation. And if the future of ERP does become agentic, those who've taken this path will already be more agile and better positioned than those tied to a potentially monolithic ERP solution."

Rimini Street noted that its clients are not affected by SAP's end-of-maintenance dates.

Users remain in compliance and are able to extend the service life of their current SAP systems while gaining savings they can use for innovation initiatives. The company has been providing support for SAP products for over fifteen years and currently supports hundreds of clients using both ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA systems.

The extension to 2040 applies to new and existing customers who may seek to maximise the return on their SAP investment while avoiding the migration costs associated with SAP's future roadmap.

Nobuo Norisue, President of AUTOBACS Digital Initiative, shared the perspective of an existing client: "Rimini Street's announcement that it will support all SAP releases until 2040 is most welcome news to SAP ECC customers such as ourselves. As a very satisfied client of Rimini Support for SAP since 2016, having the option to stay on our ECC system until 2040 with the support of Rimini Street opens up many new doors for us, especially at a time when we are designing our next-generation IT foundation and architecture while balancing budgets and delivery timeline. Rimini Street's continued support provides us with more time, funds and options for a smart path forward."

Industry analysts estimate that around 20,000 SAP ECC licensees have not adopted S/4HANA, with many others yet to complete migration to S/4HANA or S/4HANA on RISE. Seth Ravin, Chief Executive Officer of Rimini Street, commented, "According to industry analysts, an estimated 20,000 SAP ECC licensees have not even licensed S/4HANA, and many of those who have licensed S/4HANA still have not completed an S/4HANA or S/4HANA on RISE migration."

"The SAP ECC 6.0 and older S/4HANA releases can deliver excellent and stable operations for 15 or more years with Rimini Street's proven, ultra-responsive support for SAP."

"There is no need for SAP licensees to undergo major costs, risks and disruption to their operations for a software migration that many believe is unnecessary and low value, compared to the value of investing in new technologies like enterprise AI, workflow and task automation – that can bring immediate value to the organisation."

Clients of Rimini Street are offered support that includes immediate savings of up to 50% off SAP annual support fees, with total support cost reductions potentially reaching 90%.

Each client is assigned a dedicated Primary Support Engineer backed by a global team of SAP experts and Rimini Street's proprietary AI tools. The company also provides comprehensive support for customisations at no additional charge, and guarantees service level agreements with a ten-minute response time for critical cases—averaging less than two minutes for Priority 1 and 2 cases in 2024.

Ravin also discussed projected changes in the ERP landscape, stating, "We predict the future of ERP will forever be changed in the next five to ten years, with ERP software replaced by new, faster and more flexible agentic ERP processes that we are already deploying for clients," adding that, "Already, Rimini Street clients have saved USD $9 billion dollars in IT operating costs and are self-funding innovation to propel them forward without being slowed down with unnecessary, costly and risky upgrades, migrations and replatforming."

"Rimini Street clients are disruptors, not the disrupted."