When SAP Customers Say “Not Yet” to S/4HANA: What Kingfisher’s ECC Strategy Means for You

For years, the loudest message in the SAP ecosystem has been simple: move from ECC to S/4HANA now, or risk falling behind. The pitch usually comes packaged with familiar phrases like “end of support,” “technical debt,” “future-proofing,” and “clean core.”

Here’s the problem: a lot of organizations are not buying that urgency.

A recent example is Kingfisher, a major European retailer with roughly 2,000 stores, that decided to stay on SAP ECC instead of moving to S/4HANA, while still pushing forward with modernization, AI, and innovation.

This is a useful case study because it reinforces a point that gets lost in vendor messaging: you have options, and you can set the tempo.

The real question isn’t “When will you upgrade?”

The real question is: What is the business case, and who benefits most from the timing?

Many SAP customers still have not started the ECC-to-S/4HANA journey. That does not automatically mean they are reckless or behind. In many cases, it means leaders are doing what leadership should do, pausing long enough to ask:

• What value will S/4HANA create for our business?
• What will it cost (not just implementation, but operating costs)?
• What risk does it reduce, and what new risk does it introduce?
• What alternatives exist that deliver outcomes without a rip-and-replace?

Kingfisher’s decision is interesting because it highlights a path that many organizations quietly consider but rarely talk about publicly.

What Kingfisher did instead of upgrading to S/4HANA

Kingfisher did not “do nothing.” They kept ECC as the system of record, then modernized around it.

1) They moved ECC to the cloud without rebuilding the core

Instead of using S/4HANA as the “ticket” to modern infrastructure, Kingfisher moved their ECC environment from on-premises to Google Cloud.

That matters because it preserves what many organizations have spent years building inside ECC:

• customizations that reflect real operational needs
• embedded business logic and process knowledge
• historical data and reporting structures
• integrations that keep the business running

This approach treats ECC like what it often is: a stable back-office backbone that can remain in place while other layers evolve.

2) They addressed ECC support using third-party maintenance

One of SAP’s biggest leverage points is support timelines. Kingfisher chose an alternative route by signing with a third-party support provider (Rimini Street was referenced, with other providers also existing in the market).

The upside is straightforward: it can create runway, potentially extending ECC support far beyond SAP’s standard deadlines, giving the organization time to modernize on its terms instead of under pressure.

The bigger message here is not “third-party support is always the answer.” The message is: support strategy is a decision you can control.

3) They pursued innovation using third-party AI tools

One common assumption is that real innovation, especially AI, requires S/4HANA and SAP’s newest feature set.

Kingfisher challenged that assumption by adopting non-SAP AI capabilities focused on customer and commercial outcomes, such as:

• recommendation engines
• personalization
• flexible pricing
• customer-service chatbots

The point is not whether these tools are “better than Joule” or SAP’s roadmap. The point is that AI value often lives above the ERP layer, especially when ERP is primarily acting as a transactional system of record.

4) They rebuilt the architecture around APIs

This part is the quiet power move.

Rather than treating ERP as the monolith that everything must orbit around, Kingfisher leaned into an API-driven integration approach, creating a more modular environment where ECC sits at the core and other applications plug in cleanly.

This reduces the “all-or-nothing” nature of ERP decisions. It also positions the organization for a future where systems can be swapped, upgraded, or expanded without ripping out everything underneath.

Why Kingfisher rejected the S/4HANA narrative

According to the story shared, their CTO cited a projected massive increase in cloud costs with S/4HANA, reportedly on the order of magnitude that made the business case hard to justify.

That may sound obvious, but “obvious” is often what gets ignored when shiny-object momentum takes over.

Many boards and executive teams get pulled into the logic of:
“Newest equals best, therefore newest equals necessary.”

Kingfisher essentially said: show us the ROI, not the slogan.

What this means for other SAP customers

Kingfisher is only one company, but it may signal something broader: a growing willingness for customers to push back, slow down, and demand clearer value.

This moment also resembles the dynamic many organizations lived through in the late 90s and early 2000s during Y2K, when fear-driven urgency triggered waves of rushed upgrades. The difference now is that many customers are more skeptical, better informed, and surrounded by more alternatives than existed 10–20 years ago.

Competition matters here. SAP still leads the ERP market, but the ecosystem is no longer a one-horse race. More options in enterprise tech mean less vendor leverage and more negotiating power for customers.

The “dark side” to be aware of

This ECC-centered strategy can be smart, but it is not a forever answer.

Third-party support has limits. Roadmaps can change. Providers can consolidate. Regulatory and security expectations can evolve. It creates runway, not immortality.

That runway can still be extremely valuable if you use it correctly: to modernize deliberately, clean up data, reduce complexity, strengthen integration architecture, and build a roadmap based on business outcomes rather than vendor timelines.

A practical takeaway: set your pace, then build a plan

If you are currently on ECC and feeling pressure to jump into S/4HANA, a better way to frame the decision is:

1. Define the outcomes you actually need (speed, analytics, standardization, agility, cost reduction, automation).
2. Evaluate whether those outcomes require S/4HANA or whether they can be achieved through architecture, tooling, process redesign, and targeted modernization.
3. Build a timeline that matches organizational readiness, not vendor urgency.
4. Treat support strategy as a lever, not a threat.
5. Make ROI your filter. If the numbers do not work, the timing is wrong, or the scope is bloated, pause.

If you want a more detailed, independent playbook for navigating an S/4HANA journey (or deciding whether it is the right move right now), Third Stage Consulting has a guide focused on successful S/4HANA implementations and risk management.