Nearly 60 percent of SAP migration projects are delayed and over budget as organisations underestimate complexity, allow expansion of scope, and fail to understand internal constraints, according to research from ISG.

The survey of 200 senior decision-makers in large global companies also found that fewer than one in five organisations reimplement SAP processes and technology when they move to the latest platform, S/4HANA.

Nearly half (49 percent) carry out little or no re-engineering, choosing instead to preserve legacy processes and data.

The research comes as SAP users face the support deadline for ECC, the legacy ERP platform still used by thousands of the world’s largest businesses. By the end of 2027, mainstream support is stopping while extended support at a 2 percent premium will be available until the end of 2030. SAP has also discussed another support option beyond 2030 so long as customers sign up to its migration commercials ahead of that date.

Gartner data shows 39 percent of SAP’s 35,000 ECC customers worldwide had yet to migrate as of Q4 2024, nearly a decade after S/4HANA launched in 2015.

Yet the majority of the largest organisations are still failing to stick to budgets and timelines with migration to S/4HANA.

Michael Dornan, ISG principal analyst, said even simply moving their current processes to a new platform, organisations struggled with making a plan and sticking to it.

“Some of them are trying to do this quickly, a lift-and-shift as fast and cheap as possible. This group often underestimated the complexity, scope and the constraints they have. They also suffer from scope creep and changing requirements as they go through. A lot of the delays are caused by people, not necessarily the technology.”

According to the research, 34 percent of organisations were opting for “brownfield” migrations. Eighteen percent wanted to adopt a greenfield strategy, embracing standard processes in SAP’s preferred “clean core” approach. Nearly half, however, were mixing the two approaches, so-called “bluefield.”

Dornan said more than half the survey respondents agreed they had over-customised legacy ERP to the point where standardisation now feels risky to the business.

“That’s the fear they go through. If you standardise, then you just start that whole process again. There are a lot of stakeholders in the business that actually felt that their old ERP was doing the job that they wanted to, which creates inertia,” he said.

The report states that brownfield and hybrid approaches might limit long-term benefits and make it more difficult to adopt newer technologies such as AI.

“Fragmented processes, extensive customisations, and legacy data structures often constrain which AI use cases can be effectively deployed after go-live. By contrast, environments with standardised processes and well-governed data are better positioned to realise the automation, forecasting, and operational efficiency gains enterprises expect.”

However, businesses are carefully weighing up the risks and refusing to be dictated by the vendors’ timelines.

Of the total sample of SAP ERP users, eight percent planned to stay on ECC beyond 2027 while around two-thirds were still in the planning stage for migration, making it unlikely they would make the cut-off for mainstream support.

The trend is borne out elsewhere. Airbus, for example, currently runs a patchwork of SAP versions, including legacy SAP R/3 4.6 and ECC 6.0 systems. While some divisions – finance, materials management, and parts of Airbus Helicopters – have already moved to S/4HANA, the bulk of the migration lies ahead. The company said it may not be finished by 2030.

Like thousands of other SAP users, it is trying to find the right balance between the risks of changing and the risks of staying the same.

Microsoft has pulled the plug on some of the last popular versions of OneDrive and SharePoint due to low demand, but in removing some of the cheapest plans, cloud storage could be about to become more expensive for some users.

Four of its standalone cloud storage plans – SharePoint Online Plan 1 and Plan 2, and OneDrive for Business Plan 1 and Plan 2 – will no longer be available.

Besides low customer demand, Microsoft also warned of higher operational costs and also “unintended or non-standard usage,” suggesting some users might have been using them for cheap bulk storage.

In removing these two lower tiers, the company is also pushing its Microsoft 365 plans once again: “As Microsoft continues to invest in secure, scalable, and integrated experiences, Microsoft 365 suites remain the primary way customers access SharePoint and OneDrive capabilities.”

Moving towards subscription models will also generate higher and more predictable recurring revenue for the company. In the three final months of calendar 2025, M354 Commercial cloud revenue rose 17% with M365 Consumer cloud revenue up a staggering 29%.

Affected partners are being suggested to move to M365 Business or M365 E3 and E5 plans, once the multi-year phaseout is complete.

Step one per Microsoft’s announcement, which was shared with users in late January 2026, will be the end of sale to new customers from June 2026. From January 2027, existing customer renewals will also be phased out, with ongoing contracts retiring in the following months.

By December 2029, Microsoft envisions having ended service entirely. “Customers must transition to Microsoft 365 suites, capacity packs, or pay-as-you-go storage options,” the notice reads.

The UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has completed a major technology overhaul which upgrades tens of thousands of aging devices to Windows 10.

This is despite Microsoft ending official support for the Windows 10 operating system in October 2025.

The timing of the upgrade means the department has moved from one aging platform to another that is already in its own final phase.