SAP · White Paper · 44 Pages

SAP Cloud Migration Cost Guide: The True Cost of S/4HANA & BTP

SAP's migration pitch always focuses on the licence and infrastructure cost. It never tells you about the £2M–£18M in SI fees, custom code remediation, test execution, data migration, and business change costs — or the 3–5 year implementation timeline that creates the real commercial exposure. This guide gives you the numbers SAP doesn't.

£18M+
Max S/4HANA migration cost (large enterprise)
3–5 yr
Typical implementation timeline
60%
Support cost saving via TPS alternative
📊

SAP Cloud Migration Cost Guide

44 pages · SAP S/4HANA · BTP · RISE with SAP

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What's Inside the Guide

44 pages of cost analysis, case data, and strategic frameworks your SAP account team won't show you.

01

The S/4HANA Total Cost Stack

Beyond licence and infrastructure — full breakdown of SI fees, custom code remediation (ABAP adaptation costs), test execution budgets, data migration, and business change costs. Calibrated by deployment size.

02

RISE with SAP: The Subscription Trap

RISE with SAP is not just a licence change — it is a long-term subscription lock-in with exit costs. We model the 5-year and 10-year total cost of RISE vs. on-premise TPS vs. selective cloud migration.

03

Custom Code: The Hidden £1M–£5M Cost

ABAP custom code remediation is the most underestimated cost in S/4HANA migrations. We analyse the custom code footprint in typical ECC landscapes, SAP's own remediation tool (ABAP Test Cockpit) output, and realistic remediation budgets.

04

SAP BTP: The Integration Rebuild Bill

SAP Business Technology Platform is positioned as the integration layer for S/4HANA. Organisations with PI/PO landscapes face a full integration rebuild — we model BTP integration costs and compare against maintaining PI/PO under TPS.

05

Third-Party Support as a Strategic Alternative

For organisations with stable ECC landscapes and no strategic case for S/4HANA features, TPS delivers 60–65% support cost reduction without a migration project. Full TPS coverage analysis including custom ABAP and integration layer.

06

The Decision Framework: Migrate vs. TPS vs. Hybrid

A structured framework for evaluating S/4HANA migration vs. TPS on current ECC vs. selective cloud adoption. Includes the 7 questions every IT and finance leader should answer before committing to a migration programme.

Chapter Overview

44 pages covering the full commercial landscape of SAP cloud migration — from initial licence and infrastructure cost through to post-go-live operational cost and strategic optionality.

  • Ch 1Why S/4HANA migration costs exceed initial estimates — the 6 underestimated cost categories
  • Ch 2SAP licence model changes: what you lose in S/4HANA vs. what you gain
  • Ch 3SI fees by deployment size — 4-profile cost matrix (500–25,000 employees)
  • Ch 4Custom code remediation: ABAP Test Cockpit analysis and remediation budget framework
  • Ch 5Data migration: SAP Data Services, BODS, and data quality costs
  • Ch 6SAP BTP: the integration rebuild cost and API Management pricing
  • Ch 7RISE with SAP: 5-year and 10-year TCO modelling vs. on-premise alternatives
  • Ch 8Third-party support as an alternative to migration — full coverage and saving analysis
  • Ch 9Hybrid strategy: selective cloud migration + TPS for stable workloads
  • Ch 10The migration decision framework — 7 questions before committing

Key Data Points in This Guide

£4.2M
Average SI fee for mid-size ECC to S/4HANA migration (2,000–5,000 employees)
42%
Proportion of S/4HANA projects that exceed original budget by more than 30%
£1.8M
Average custom ABAP remediation cost for ECC landscapes with 500+ Z-objects
3.4 yr
Average actual implementation timeline for S/4HANA migrations (vs. 18-month SAP estimate)
60%
SAP support cost reduction available via TPS while migration programme is evaluated

What Our Clients Say

"We were 6 months from signing an £8M S/4HANA migration programme when we ran the full cost model in this guide. The TPS alternative analysis showed we could achieve the same cost objective — 60% support cost reduction — without the migration risk. We switched to GoVendorFree TPS and redirected the capex to growth."
CFO, FTSE 250 Industrial Manufacturer · SAP ECC 6.0 EHP8
"The RISE with SAP TCO model in this guide was the most honest analysis we'd seen. Our SAP account team had modelled RISE at 12% above current on-premise cost. The guide showed our 5-year RISE cost was 2.4× our current landscape under TPS. The board made the right decision."
Group CIO, European Pharmaceutical Group · SAP ECC + BW + PI/PO
500+
SAP clients globally
60–65%
Average SAP support saving
Est. 2016
10 years SAP TPS expertise
98.7%
Client retention rate

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Instant access. No sales call. The numbers SAP doesn't want you to see — in one 44-page guide.

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