Still on ECC in 2026? Here’s What U.S. Companies Are Facing

2026 is a turning point for U.S. SAP users. Learn what changes when ECC support ends and why many companies are implementing S/4HANA now.

To migrate or not to migrate? That has been the question for many SAP customers over the past decade. But this question is about to disappear very soon.

Not because the debate was resolved in theory, but because external pressure is closing the room for delay. By 2026, staying on SAP ECC stops being a neutral choice. It becomes an exposure. And here is why.

• Regulatory expectations: Public companies now face growing pressure from the SEC to produce faster, more granular, and more traceable financial reporting.
• Workforce reality: A large share of experienced SAP ECC specialists is reaching retirement age. Many have already left the market. Replacing them is not a training problem; it is a supply problem. New SAP professionals are trained on S/4HANA. They do not build careers around ECC systems.
• There is also a structural shift in how SAP delivers new capabilities: Advanced analytics, automation scenarios, and AI-based features are designed for S/4HANA data models. ECC systems cannot support them without heavy custom development, if at all.

As a result, the discussion has changed. The question is no longer whether migration makes sense at some point. The question is how long a business can operate with rising compliance risk, shrinking talent availability, and shrinking system relevance.

Below are 10 U.S. business drivers that explain why this shift matters now.

1. SEC & SOX Compliance Automation

U.S. financial reporting is moving faster. Since 2025, expectations around reporting speed, traceability, and internal controls have tightened. Filing timelines are shorter, and audit questions appear earlier in the close cycle. In this environment, delays are no longer a technical inconvenience. They are a compliance risk.

SAP ECC relies on batch processing and separate data structures for Financial Accounting and Controlling. Data alignment happens after postings, often hours later. When inconsistencies surface, finance teams rely on manual checks and spreadsheets to explain the numbers. From an SOX perspective, this increases control effort and expands audit scope.

SAP S/4HANA removes this structural gap. The Universal Journal records financial and controlling data in a single table. Postings update all views at once. There is no later reconciliation between FI and CO. Auditors can test controls directly on transactional data instead of reconstructed reports.

Research cited by Gartner shows that companies using traditional ERP systems spend around 30% of finance time reconciling financial and operational data. S/4HANA reduces this effort by design. For CFOs, the benefit is clear. Fewer manual reconciliations mean fewer control exceptions, fewer audit questions, and lower reporting risk under SEC and SOX scrutiny.

2. Access to SAP Business AI (Joule)

SAP Business AI capabilities are delivered through Joule and are built into SAP S/4HANA Cloud. They are not available on SAP ECC. This creates a clear functional boundary between legacy systems and SAP’s current product direction.

Joule operates directly on transactional data stored in S/4HANA. It supports finance, procurement, supply chain, and operations tasks using the same data model that runs core business processes. Examples include proposing account assignments, identifying posting anomalies, supporting invoice matching, and assisting with forecast updates. These functions rely on real-time access to clean, unified data. ECC does not provide this foundation.

In finance and supply chain operations, this has practical implications. High-volume accounts payable environments benefit from AI-supported invoice classification and exception handling. Planning teams can run demand and supply forecasts on current operational data instead of reconciled snapshots. The system assists users during execution rather than after the fact. This shortens cycle times in areas that directly affect working capital and margin control.

For U.S. companies operating under sustained cost pressure and higher interest rates, this matters. Faster invoice processing reduces days payable outstanding variability. More frequent forecast updates improve inventory and procurement decisions.

3. Solving the Legacy Talent Shortage (“The Silver Tsunami”)

Many U.S. companies still depend on SAP ECC systems built and customized 15 to 20 years ago. These systems rely on large volumes of custom ABAP code. The specialists who designed and maintained this code are reaching retirement age, and many have already left the workforce. Finding replacements is difficult, and daily support often depends on a small number of individuals with system-specific knowledge.

This is not a training gap. New SAP professionals are not entering the market to maintain ECC environments. Most are trained on S/4HANA, cloud platforms, and standardized processes. When an ECC expert leaves, companies face longer incident resolution times, higher contractor rates, and increased operational risk. In some cases, changes are postponed because no one wants to touch fragile legacy code.

S/4HANA changes how systems are extended and maintained. Many use cases that once required custom ABAP can now be handled with configuration, APIs, and SAP Build tools. Business users can adjust workflows and forms without deep technical work. IT teams can hire developers with cloud and integration skills instead of searching for rare ECC specialists. This shift reduces dependency on retiring talent and makes system ownership more predictable over the next decade.

4. ESG & “Green Ledger” Mandates

ESG reporting in the U.S. has moved from voluntary statements to enforceable disclosure. Regulations such as California’s SB 253 now require large companies to report Scope 1, 2, and — in many cases — Scope 3 emissions with audit-ready data. This shifts ESG from a sustainability team exercise to a finance and compliance responsibility. Spreadsheets and periodic estimates no longer hold up under regulatory or audit review.

SAP ECC was not designed to record environmental data alongside financial postings. Emissions are usually calculated outside the system, then summarized and attached to reports at the end of a period. This creates gaps between operational activity and reported numbers. It also creates manual controls that auditors must test, which increases effort and risk.

SAP S/4HANA supports a different approach. Through SAP’s Green Ledger concept, carbon data can be recorded at the transaction level and aligned with financial entries in the Universal Journal. When goods are produced, moved, or sold, emissions can be assigned based on defined calculation rules and connected sustainability services. Finance teams can trace environmental figures back to individual postings instead of reconciling after the fact.

For U.S. companies facing ESG disclosure rules, this turns reporting from a manual afterthought into a structured accounting process.

5. Real-Time Financial Closing (Continuous Accounting)

Traditional financial closing is built around delays. Transactions are posted during the period; reconciliations, allocations, and adjustments happen later. The result is a reporting cycle where finance teams work intensively at month-end, while business leaders wait for numbers that already describe the past. This model increases pressure on staff and limits how quickly issues can be addressed.

SAP ECC reinforces this pattern. Its architecture separates operational and financial data and relies on batch processing for reconciliations. Accruals, settlements, and reconciliations are often postponed until closing activities. This makes interim financial views incomplete and forces teams to manage risk through estimates instead of actual data.

SAP S/4HANA supports continuous accounting. Transactions immediately update financial statements through the Universal Journal. Many reconciliations disappear because data is written once and shared across finance functions. CFOs can review balance sheets and profit and loss positions during the period, not weeks later. For U.S. companies operating in volatile markets, this shortens reaction time and reduces the operational strain of month-end closing without changing accounting rules.

6. Global ISO 20022 & FedNow Integration

Payment systems are changing worldwide, and modern banks expect richer, structured payment data to support instant processing, better fraud checks, and straight-through reconciliation. ISO 20022 has become the global standard to match this reality. Systems that cannot generate or consume these message formats introduce friction into payment and cash management processes.

SAP ECC was built around older payment formats with limited data fields. Converting messages often requires custom mappings or middleware. This creates blind spots when banks reject or delay payments due to missing or inconsistent information. Each exception requires manual follow-up from the treasury or accounts payable teams.

SAP S/4HANA supports ISO 20022 payment formats as part of its standard scope. In the U.S., this includes alignment with instant payment schemes such as FedNow. Payment files carry structured remittance data end-to-end, reducing rejections and manual clarification. Treasury teams gain clearer visibility into payment status without relying on after-the-fact bank reports.

7. Clean Core Strategy: Preparing for M&A Activity

Corporate structures change. Acquisitions, divestitures, and carve-outs are common, especially in U.S. markets. Legacy ERP systems make these events harder than they need to be. Years of custom code, hard-coded integrations, and local modifications create tight coupling between business units. Separating or absorbing entities becomes slow and risky.

SAP ECC environments often reflect past business decisions frozen in code. Changing them requires regression testing across large custom landscapes. This increases downtime risk and limits how quickly finance and IT can respond during transactions.

S/4HANA supports a clean core approach. Standard processes stay inside the ERP. Extensions and integrations run on SAP BTP using APIs and events. This keeps the ERP stable while allowing flexibility around it. During M&A activity, systems can be connected, separated, or reconfigured with fewer changes to the core system. For executive teams, this reduces integration time and lowers the operational risk of corporate restructuring.

8. Supply Chain Resilience and U.S. Nearshoring

Supply chains are no longer built for distance alone. Many companies now operate across more locations to reduce risk, shorten lead times, and respond faster to demand changes. Nearshoring adds flexibility, but it also adds coordination challenges. Inventory is spread across plants, contract manufacturers, and regional warehouses. A single delay can affect several downstream commitments.

In many SAP ECC systems, availability checks do not reflect this reality. Data updates arrive late, and planners often rely on static reports when confirming orders. What appears to be available in the system may already be allocated or delayed. Teams compensate with safety stock or manual overrides, which increases cost and still fails during demand spikes.

SAP S/4HANA supports advanced Available-to-Promise functioning based on live data. Inventory, production capacity, and inbound supply are evaluated at the moment an order is placed. For U.S. companies working across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, this means customer commitments are based on current conditions, not yesterday’s snapshot. The result is fewer stockouts, fewer emergency shipments, and clearer planning decisions across the region.

9. Integration with U.S. Hyperscalers

Now, many enterprises run their core systems on public cloud infrastructure. Cloud platforms offer scalable compute, data services, and AI tooling that on-premises environments cannot match at the same speed. The challenge is connecting ERP data to these services without copying sensitive information or building fragile interfaces.

SAP ECC was not designed for this level of cloud connectivity. Integrations often rely on custom extract jobs or external data warehouses. Each integration adds latency and governance overhead, and security teams must review every data transfer.

SAP S/4HANA supports certified deployments on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. SAP provides standard integration patterns through SAP BTP, including connectivity to services such as Azure OpenAI and AWS Bedrock. This allows companies to apply their own large language models or analytics services directly to ERP data under existing access controls. ERP data stays governed, while cloud services are used where they add value.

10. Transition to RISE with SAP (CapEx to OpEx)

Running ERP systems has traditionally required a large upfront investment. Hardware purchases, database licenses, and multi-year infrastructure planning tie up capital. This model works poorly when business priorities change quickly or when system upgrades are required.

SAP ECC environments usually follow this pattern. Infrastructure refresh cycles are costly and hard to align with business timelines. Operating costs vary year to year, making long-term planning difficult.

RISE with SAP changes the commercial structure. Software, infrastructure, and technical operations are bundled into a single subscription. Costs shift from capital expense to operating expense. For U.S. companies, this supports predictable budgeting and reduces the financial barrier to system modernization. IT teams focus less on system maintenance and more on supporting business operations.

How Can ERP Modernization Generate Measurable Financial Benefits?

S/4HANA is a versatile system. It can include multiple modules and capabilities, which makes it impossible to list every potential advantage. Instead, we can focus on the features that directly influence cost, compliance, and operational efficiency 一 areas that CFOs and finance teams notice first.

First, finance transformation with S/4HANA Central Finance can reduce the total cost of ownership by 15–25%. This reduction happens over the first few years. By consolidating financial operations on a single platform and avoiding large-scale, disruptive ERP overhauls, companies streamline processes, shorten implementation timelines, and maintain business continuity. This frees up capital and resources for strategic initiatives.

Second, audit and compliance activities consume significant financial resources under traditional ERP setups. S/4HANA’s unified financial data and detailed audit trails allow teams to trace transactions and generate reports faster. Research shows that audit preparation time can be cut by about 50%. This allows finance teams to focus on analysis and decision support instead of manual reconciliation.

Finally, IT maintenance and infrastructure overhead can be reduced through system consolidation. Organizations moving to a central S/4HANA platform report operational cost reductions of up to 30%. All this thanks to reduced patching requirements, simplified system management, and the retirement of legacy landscapes.

How S/4HANA Reduces Costs and Risks

What S/4HANA Looks Like in Practice: Results from Real Projects

Research and benchmarks help frame expectations. Real confidence comes from production systems running under real pressure.

The following projects show how SAP S/4HANA changes daily operations when implemented with a clear business focus. Each case highlights a specific problem, a concrete solution, and measurable outcomes.

Implementing SAP S/4HANA for high-volume automotive manufacturing

A large automotive parts manufacturer needed to support rapid production growth across multiple assembly sites. Planning was fragmented. Excel files and paper-based workflows slowed reaction times. Inventory levels were difficult to align with real production demand, especially when schedules changed.

LeverX implemented SAP S/4HANA as a single digital core covering production, supply chain, logistics, and finance. Planning and execution were connected through SAP PP/DS, MM, EWM, and FICO. Manual planning and paper reporting were replaced with real-time workflows. The shop floor was integrated with SAP through the existing MES system, allowing production execution and planning to stay in sync.

After go-live, inventory holding time decreased by 3%. Production cycle time dropped by 4%. Losses from component shortages fell by 10%. On-time delivery improved by 5%. Financial closing became structured and repeatable, and bank statement processing was automated by 96%.

Learn more about the project.

Migration from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA for a manufacturing and technology company

A global manufacturer of optical fibers and laser systems relied on SAP ECC to manage complex, regulated production processes. The system was stable, but automation, analytics, and real-time visibility were limited. Any downtime was unacceptable due to medical and industrial delivery commitments.

LeverX executed a Brownfield conversion to SAP S/4HANA using the SAP Activate methodology. The migration preserved existing processes and custom developments while moving the system to a modern architecture. To avoid business disruption, the entire cutover was completed within a three-day holiday window.

The client moved to S/4HANA without interrupting operations and gained real-time planning, improved production control, and better analytics. The system remains in productive use with ongoing enhancements.

See how it works.

SAP Joule for instant financial insights in a large enterprise

A large enterprise with nationwide operations struggled to access up-to-date financial information. Reports took hours or days to prepare. Finance teams depended heavily on IT and analysts. Decisions were often made using outdated data.

LeverX implemented SAP Joule, integrated directly with SAP S/4HANA Finance, Controlling, and SAP Analytics Cloud through SAP BTP. Finance leaders gained direct access to live financial data using natural language queries. Variance analysis, budget comparisons, and performance tracking became available on demand.

The result was a 90% reduction in the time required to obtain financial reports. Decision-makers accessed real-time figures instead of static reports. IT and analyst workload decreased, and finance teams shifted from report preparation to analysis and planning.

Read a full success story.

Adapting a global SAP S/4HANA system for an agro-industrial business

A malting plant that is part of a French agro-industrial group needed support in adjusting a centrally implemented SAP S/4HANA system to local legal and accounting requirements. Although the corporate system was already live, local rules for taxation, reporting, and documentation required precise system changes before full operational use.

LeverX reviewed the existing setup and adjusted the solution modules to match local regulations and business processes. The work included system testing, document validation, and coordination with corporate IT teams and local users. All changes followed standard SAP functionality and were completed within three months.

The plant went live with SAP S/4HANA aligned to local requirements while remaining connected to the corporate system. Management gained direct access to plant-level data, and local teams reduced dependence on parallel tools. The company established a clear structure for further SAP use without disrupting daily operations.

Learn more about the project.

Already planning an SAP S/4HANA  migration but don’t know which path to choose 一 Greenfield, Brownfield, or selective transition? This white paper explains the difference.

Download for free

A Practical Migration Plan for the U.S. Market

Many U.S. companies face the same problem in 2026: fewer experienced consultants, tighter timelines, and growing pressure to move off SAP ECC without carrying old problems forward.

Our approach focuses on controlled migration, regulatory readiness, and system behavior that fits real business use, not templates for “everyone.”

Step 1: Start with only the data that still matters

LeverX applies a selective data transition instead of a full historical copy. Transactional data, open balances, and legally required records are transferred. Obsolete master data, outdated custom tables, and unused documents are removed. This reduces HANA memory consumption, shortens migration cycles, and lowers long-term hosting costs. The result is a smaller, faster system that is easier to operate and cheaper to run.

Step 2: Address U.S. tax and labor rules from day one

We use pre-configured setups for U.S. sales tax nexus, payroll-related structures, and reporting obligations linked to employment regulations. This avoids post-go-live corrections and manual workarounds. Finance and HR teams receive a system that reflects U.S. legal reality, not a generic global model adjusted after the fact.

Step 3: Prepare AI features for real operational use

When SAP Joule or other AI-based functions are part of the scope, we focus on inference behavior, not marketing scenarios. Models are adjusted using company-specific data, customer language patterns, and regional terminology. This improves response relevance in customer-facing and internal workflows, such as order handling or support requests.

In short, the goal is not to “move faster at any cost,” but to move with fewer risks, fewer leftovers from the past, and a system that works predictably from the first day of operation.

Decisions Age Faster than Systems

2027 is not a distant milestone. It is a fixed support deadline that limits how long SAP ECC can remain a safe option. Migration capacity is already tightening, and waiting reduces both choice and control.

If you want to understand your options while timelines are still flexible, we can help. Schedule a strategic roadmap session with LeverX. We will review your current system, outline realistic migration paths, and define the next steps that fit your business, not a generic plan.