Automation Services Cut ERP Migration Costs 254 Percent
IT leaders managing SAP upgrades can use automation to reduce developer hours and maintenance costs before the 2027 support deadline.
Updated on Oct. 29, 2026 in Business Strategy
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A new Forrester Consulting study indicates that firms using smartShift services to automate SAP S/4HANA migrations can achieve a 254% return on investment. The findings arrive as businesses face a 2027 deadline to move away from SAP ECC mainstream support.
Why it matters
With SAP ECC support ending in 2027, companies must reconcile the high cost of manual custom code migration with the efficiency of automated alternatives. This study quantifies the potential for operators to save on developer hours and infrastructure expenses during critical ERP transitions.
A composite organization with $60 billion in revenue and 150,000 custom ABAP objects realized $10.5 million in net present value. This included $3.5 million saved in maintenance costs and $1.1 million in legacy infrastructure savings.
The players
smartShift
A technology services firm providing automated migration tools for enterprise software landscapes.
Forrester Consulting
A research and advisory firm that provides quantitative modeling and strategy analysis for business technology investments.
The details
The model achieved these savings by automating the migration of complex custom code, which avoided nearly 100,000 manual developer hours. By retiring 25% of existing custom code during the transition, the organization reduced the volume of technical debt requiring dual maintenance by 30%.
Timeline
October 29, 2026: smartShift announced the study results.
2027: SAP ECC mainstream support ends.
Market Landscape
This migration strategy follows the industry trend of automating legacy ERP transitions as companies face the 2027 SAP ECC mainstream support expiration. It marks a departure from traditional manual coding migrations, prioritizing code retirement to lower long-term overhead.
Operators planning for the 2027 SAP deadline should evaluate whether automation can offset high developer labor costs for custom code refactoring. Focus on calculating the potential reduction in dual maintenance costs against the upfront service fees for migration vendors.
The takeaway
Automating technical code cleanup can significantly reduce the infrastructure and maintenance burden of ERP upgrades. Operators should prioritize conducting a code audit now to identify how much legacy technical debt can be retired rather than migrated.
Further reading
For more on managing enterprise transitions, see our Business Strategy section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Financial Post.
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