BS7 Checklist 2027: Ten Steps to Your Migration Decision
Mainstream Maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 EhP 6-8 ends at the close of 2027. That is less than eighteen months away. Organizations that reach this deadline unprepared will have made a decision by default on January 1, 2028, without ever consciously making one: Extended Maintenance with a two-percentage-point surcharge on the entire Maintenance Base, or a Transition Option carrying a 20 percent surcharge and a mandatory success plan through 2033.
The switch can still be set. But certain questions need answers now, not in the final weeks of 2027.
This checklist outlines what you, as a Director SAP Platform, need to clarify over the coming months so that your decision rests on solid data rather than time pressure.
Step 1: Verify which EhP version you are running
This sounds trivial. It often is not. Not every SAP landscape is cleanly documented.
EhP 6, 7, and 8 have Mainstream Maintenance through end of 2027. EhP 0 through 5 already reached their Mainstream end at the close of 2025 and have been running under Customer-Specific Maintenance (CSM) ever since. If you are unsure whether your systems are on EhP 6 or higher, that is your first step: run the SAP Readiness Check or review your system documentation directly.
Infrastructure governance moment: before you evaluate options, you need to know which options you actually have.
Step 2: Take a full inventory of your SAP landscape
Extended Maintenance does not apply to individual systems. It is an all-or-nothing rule: either you register your entire BS7 landscape (all Core Applications, add-ons, Runtime DB), or you register none of it.
That means you need a complete list of all productive SAP ERP systems, their add-ons, and the associated maintenance contracts. Third-party maintenance agreements, AMS contracts, and separate support arrangements are frequently missing from this inventory.
Usage governance moment: what is not in the inventory gets overlooked. What gets overlooked creates billing surprises later.
Step 3: Determine your current Maintenance Base
The Maintenance Base is the calculation foundation for the Extended Maintenance surcharge. At a standard rate of 22 percent Enterprise Support, Extended Maintenance brings the total rate to 24 percent. That sounds modest until you look at the base.
If your Maintenance Base is EUR 1 million, that is EUR 20,000 in additional costs per year from the surcharge alone. At a base of EUR 3 million: EUR 60,000.
Request your current Maintenance Base from your SAP contract and check which products are included. Many organizations discover at this step that their base contains products that have not been actively used for years.
Cost governance moment: knowing your base lets you reduce it deliberately before the cutoff date.
Step 4: Identify usage rights you no longer need
Before Extended Maintenance takes effect, you have the opportunity to retire usage rights you no longer need. This directly reduces your Maintenance Base and therefore the surcharge itself.
Concrete starting points: deactivated BO modules, engines already licensed differently under S/4HANA, BW users sitting at a fraction of licensed volume. Real-world SAP examples show how far this can go: reducing a base from EUR 1 million to EUR 30,000 is achievable with a systematic approach.
This step takes time because it requires a precise analysis of actual system usage, not just contracts. Plan for three to six months.
Cost governance moment: if you do not look now, you will pay the surcharge on a base that could still have been reduced.
Step 5: Assess your add-ons for Transition Option eligibility
If you are considering the Transition Option (on-premise operation through end of 2033), you need to know which add-ons are supported within it and which are not.
The Transition Option supports EhP 7 and EhP 8 only. Earlier EhP versions must be upgraded before a subscription is possible. And not every add-on is available in the Transition Option. The supported list covers categories including Supply Chain (EWM 9.5, APO 7.0 Connector), Finance (Revenue Accounting, Treasury), HCM (HR Renewal, SuccessFactors EC Integration), Compliance (Global Invoicing), and Integration (C4C, CPQ, PLM).
Add-ons without an S/4HANA equivalent and not listed in the Transition Option represent a separate decision path. The earlier you identify them, the more room to maneuver you retain.
Authorizations governance moment: role design and add-on eligibility determine the contractual latitude you have during the transition period.
Step 6: Assess your cloud readiness with a concrete timeline
The question is not: do we want to move to the cloud at some point? The question is: can we migrate all systems to RISE Private Cloud Edition (PCE) by January 1, 2028?
If yes, Extended Maintenance is included in the subscription price. If no, you need either Extended Maintenance as a separate addendum or the Transition Option.
Evaluate realistically what a complete migration by end of 2027 means: which systems, which business processes, which dependencies. If some systems are ready and others are not, you are in a hybrid scenario. That also has contractual consequences that need to be addressed separately.
Infrastructure governance moment: a migration plan without a timeline is not a plan. It is an intention.
Step 7: Map your on-premise credits against RISE ACV
If you are planning a migration to RISE, as an existing SAP ERP customer you have the option to apply existing maintenance investments as credits through the Cloud Extension Program. Three credit types are relevant: Maintenance Credits, Service Credits, and Cloud Credits.
The amount is subject to negotiation and depends on when you enter that negotiation. The earlier you start, the more room you have. What does not get credited automatically: add-ons, AMS contracts, and third-party agreements.
Clarify now which credits are in principle applicable to your portfolio. This gives you a negotiating position before you sit down with SAP.
Cost governance moment: organizations that do not claim their credits leave investment offsets on the table that were contractually available to them.
Step 8: Run all three scenarios with real numbers
Only once you know your Maintenance Base, have resolved your add-on situation, and understand which cloud options are realistic can you compare scenarios with actual figures.
The four scenarios from the BS7 framework:
Scenario 1: Migrate the entire landscape to RISE/PCE by January 1, 2028. Extended Maintenance is included in the subscription price. Prerequisite: complete migration of all systems without gaps.
Scenario 2: Remain fully on-premise. Extended Maintenance as an addendum with a +2 percentage-point surcharge on the entire Maintenance Base, January 1, 2028 through December 31, 2030.
Scenarios 3 and 4: S/4HANA Contract Conversion or Product Conversion. Retire usage rights you no longer need, then use the remaining base as the foundation for Extended Maintenance.
Run all scenarios against your actual contract data. Abstract percentages help little. Concrete euro amounts do.
Cost governance moment: without quantifying the scenarios, a well-founded decision is not possible.
Step 9: Set an internal decision deadline
The official cutoff is end of 2027. Your internal decision deadline should be well before that.
Why: negotiations with SAP over credits, a Transition Option subscription (window: 2028 to 2030, meaning earliest January 2028), or RISE contract structure all require lead time. Internal approval processes, budget planning, and IT roadmap alignment need to be coordinated. Migration or conversion projects need to be scoped and commissioned.
A realistic internal decision deadline for a structural decision of this magnitude is 12 to 18 months before the technical cutoff, meaning: end of 2025 to mid-2026. Organizations that decide in 2027 decide under time pressure and surrender negotiating leverage.
Cost governance moment: time pressure in contract negotiations has a direct impact on outcomes.
Step 10: Build ongoing contract governance into your organization before the decision is final
The migration decision is a project. The contract governance that follows is an ongoing discipline.
Regardless of which scenario you choose: after the decision, you enter a phase in which contract details become continuously relevant. FUE shifts between on-premise and cloud during the dual-use period. ACV development during ramp-up. Credit reconciliation. SLA alignment at the transition to the hyperscaler. Maintenance delineation between on-premise upkeep and the RISE subscription.
Organizations that integrate these governance moments into their operating model before the project begins will have no knowledge-transfer gaps after go-live.
Usage, authorizations, infrastructure, cost governance moments: all four dimensions of contract governance change simultaneously during the migration phase. That is not an exception. It is normal operations during a structural transition.
What to do right now
The first five steps of this checklist do not require a final decision. They deliver the data foundation that makes a well-founded decision possible. You can start today, regardless of which scenario you ultimately choose.
If you want to know where your Maintenance Base has optimization potential, which credits are realistic for your situation, and which scenario fits best given your contract terms: a Contract Check gives you clarity in four weeks. Fixed price, no ongoing commitment.
Further reading: SAP On-Premise Migration: Maintenance End 2027, Transition Option, and Contract Governance: the complete pillar covering all options, deadlines, and contract mechanics.
Author: Bernhard Mändle, FinOptory
Next Steps
If you would like your current contract reviewed for risks and available commercial levers: the FinOptory Contract Check is a fixed-price engagement that delivers a structured basis within four weeks.
This article is part of our topic hub on on-premise migration and the SAP transition option. To have one specific contract assessed, the FinOptory Contract Check delivers a structured basis within four weeks.
Last updated: July 2026