As the first month of 2024 has passed, we are inching ever closer to the end of mainstream maintenance for the pre-SAP S/4HANA versions of Extended Warehouse Management, such as the old NetWeaver deployments (i.e. Business Suite SAP EWM 9.5 and lower). With that said, I want to dedicate today’s blog post on providing some clarity to the implications of this end of maintenance.
What are the deadlines for end of maintenance for SCM EWM?
For SCM EWM 9.5, as well as other core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 software (including SAP ERP 6.0, SAP Customer Relationship Management 7.0, SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0, and SAP Supplier Relationship Management 7.0 applications and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA®) on the respective latest three Enhancement Packages (EhPs), SAP provide mainstream maintenance until December 31, 2027.
For lower versions of EWM, I recommend reading SAP Note 2911449 “Updated Maintenance Timelines for SAP EWM Product Versions”, as it has a detailed breakdown of each EWM release and release version lower than EWM 9.5, what are the deadlines for them, as well as which restrictions you can expect.
To stay updated on product availability and stay informed in case something changes, I recommend you consult the Product Availability Matrix. In case of any changes to the schedule, you can get from there the latest status update for your product release version.
Are there any extensions possible?
Extended maintenance may vary depending on your version of the Application Server as well as which NetWeaver version you are currently on. For a detailed breakdown list of the NetWeaver and Server versions that will or will not receive extended maintenance, please visit SAP Note 1648480 "Maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 Software including SAP NetWeaver". Beginning with their respective end of mainstream and extended maintenance deadlines, customers will enter customer specific maintenance.
Some more information to note regarding maintenance extensions:
- This 3-year extended maintenance phase comes at an additional fee on top of the respective support fee. Please be aware, extended maintenance is not available for a subset of the customer installation only.
- Customer-specific maintenance applies to all SAP applications except for some applications in the SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio and does not have an expiry date.
- During customer-specific maintenance, you must pay the maintenance fee in accordance with your maintenance contract (for example, SAP Enterprise Support or SAP Standard Support). The customer-specific maintenance does not have to be ordered explicitly.
- In customer-specific maintenance, customers receive similar maintenance services in accordance with their maintenance contract (as far as these services were delivered during mainstream maintenance for the relevant release), however, there are some restrictions in the scope of service because the release is no longer adjusted to new requirements. For a full list of all restrictions please read SAP Note 52505 “Support after end of mainstream maintenance or extended maintenance”.
What about LE-WM?
ERP Warehouse Management is still part of SAP S/4HANA running in Compatibility Mode. For the uninitiated, through the Compatibility Packages SAP provides a limited use right to SAP S/4HANA on-premise customers to run certain classic SAP ERP solutions on their SAP S/4HANA installation. Condition is that these customers have licensed the applicable solutions as set forth in their License Agreements. Compatibility Pack use rights may apply to selected private cloud deployments as well, without the prerequisite of an on-premise classic license. The extension of maintenance for Business Suite solutions has no influence on the end of compatibility pack use rights - they will be terminated after 2025.
Stock Room Management is an offering to continue running classic Warehouse Management installations in the context of SAP S/4HANA beyond 2025.
Both components are built on the same data model, and Stock Room Management covers many of the same processes but is solely targeted at basic warehouse processes. Not included are (see SAP Note 2881166 "Stock Room Management"):
- Task & Resource Management (WM-TRM),
- Warehouse Control Unit interface (WM-LSR),
- Value Added Service (WM-VAS),
- Yard Management (WM-YM),
- Cross-Docking (WM-CD),
- Wave Management (WM-TFM-CP),
- decentral WM (WM-DWM).
There will be no further investment in Stock Room Management i.e. no further developments as EWM is the strategic warehouse management solution. Access SAP Note 2882809 "Scope Compliance Check for Stock Room Management" to follow the guidelines on how to implement and execute the Compliance Check Report in your productive system to check your warehouses.
What are the consequences of going past the compatibility scope deadline for LE-WM?
Customers who continue using LE-WM system beginning with January 1st, 2026, will not be receiving any further technical and/or maintenance support. Furthermore, this also constitutes a legal breach of the Software Licensing Agreement.
Such legal matters must be analyzed on a country-by-country basis, even more so if the country belongs to a larger economic or political union, which brings in further regulations. I recommend you reach out to your SAP Account Executive and legal departments to further research what penalties may be incurred, as well as what options are available to move forward and migrate to a legally compliant solution.
What are the latest deployment options for SAP EWM?
On Premise implies that you deploy the warehouse management system in your own data centre with the options to customize and extend the suite with complete control over your environment. This option allows users to optimize their warehouse capacities towards various specializations.
For On Premise deployments there are two options available:
- Embedded EWM in SAP S/4HANA – in this scenario, the warehouse management system is installed on the same client as the central ERP system and the integration between the two is seamless. Embedded EWM is available in two versions
- Basic Warehouse Management
- Extended Warehouse Management (which provides additional features)
- Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA – with this option, the warehouse management system is installed on a separate S/4HANA system and works independently from the central ERP system. This allows warehouse operations to continue working even in cases when the ERP system is not available or going through maintenance. Additionally, this option is also more scalable, able to process warehouse operations in high-volume, high-intensity environments. Furthermore, this option can remediate network latency issues by being locally deployed at or near the warehouse, which improves response times for Material Flow Systems and Radio Frequency dialogs.
SAP Extended Warehouse Management for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition on the other hand, is deployed with powerful cloud hyperscalers, where SAP manages the IT infrastructure. Like most Cloud pricing models, this is a subscription service, where users can experience new innovations via regular, bi-annual releases and updates, fast time to value and lower total costs of ownership (TCO). As with the On-Premise version, the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition deployment also supports two versions:
- Embedded SAP EWM in SAP S/HANA Private Cloud Edition
- Decentralized SAP EWM on SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition
Functional & Technical Comparison Between the Deployments
The release information and restriction notes for Embedded EWM and Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA provide conceptual and functional comparisons between the deployments of the latest versions for SAP EWM as well as comparison to SAP EWM 9.5.
Note 3376453 “SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS00: Release information and restrictions for EWM in SAP S/4HANA” – this SAP Note contains release information and restrictions when using embedded SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) in SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS00.
Note 3376455 “Release information and restrictions of Decentralized EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS00” – This SAP Note contains release information and restrictions when using SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) on a separate decentralized SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS00 system.
