End of Life SAP APO by 2027
SAP APO end of life: a short history
SAP APO (Advanced Planning & Optimization) has been marked by SAP as end of life (EOL). This date has been shifted by SAP for the fourth time now (2017, 2019, 2025 and 2027). Strange that a well known company like SAP extends the EOL-date several times. And over such a long timespan: first EOL was planned in 2017, the last is now planned in 2027.
What is the reason SAP extends its EOL for SAP APO several times? There are a few main reasons why current SAP APO are not willing to migrate:
– Lack of customer confidence in S/4HANA (the replacement platform)
– Lengthy reimplementation project needed (12 – 18 months) from APO to S/4HANA
– Huge investment needed in licenses and consulting (see point above)
– Lack of functionality S/4HANA compared to SAP APO
– Poor support for existing customisations
– Lack of use cases (too little customers that moved from SAP APO to S/4HANA)
All resulting in a lower then expected migration rate of SAP APO users. With the extension of the EOL, as a company it buys you another two years. And after the EOL 2027, you can buy additional support if really needed. That is a 2% increase on top of the whopping 22% current SAP support costs, for tooling that has not seen any major upgrades lately.
What are your options?
What are your options when in doubt what to do with your current SAP APO licenses? In my opinion, this is an excellent time to rethink your options besides a possible reimplementation of S/4HANA. This reimplementation will cost thousands to millions of Euros. Other options:
– Take your loss of current investment in SAP APO (sunk costs)
– Consider cheaper alternatives
For this last option, we have a proper alternative: Pigment. Pigment is a cloud-based planning platform that stands out in flexibility and Supply Chain capabilities.
Current SAP APO capabilities (subset of capabilities mentioned, taken from the SAP website):
– Comprehensive demand forecasting tool-set
– Lifecycle, promotion, and collaborative demand planning
– Planning for different levels of detail, including aggregated planning
– Advanced safety stock planning algorithms
– Multi-level production planning
– Support for: make-to-stock, make-to-order, make-to-order with order BOM, engineer-to-order, project manufacturing, and flow manufacturing
– Product allocation for controlling commitments to key customers
– Backorder processing
– Multi-level ATP for triggering BOM explosion and performing component checks
All these capabilities can be created in Pigment. In previous implementations, we were able to outperform the expectations of our customers. With fast implementations, we delivered Demand Planning functionality in 1 – 2 months and Supply Chain Planning in 3 – 4 months. Short implementation cycles resulting in minimal consulting effort needed (we train your team to maintain the models after the project go-live and to be able to perform updates). And from a license perspective, Pigment costs a fraction of SAP licenses.
A possible solution
Pigment offers state of the art planning functionality for different use cases in your organisation: Finance, S&OP, Sales & Marketing, HR. And all can be connected in one platform: the outcome of the Demand model is input for the Supply Chain model, Demand and Supply both feed into Finance, etc.
Why wait and get further behind your competition? If you are considering alternatives to SAP APO, give us a call. We can schedule a meeting to discuss required functionality and demo the capabilities op Pigment. SAP as an operational supporting platform is fine, but for S&OP or even IBP, look for the state of the art planning platform based on current technology. Pigment has a proven track record in supporting S&OP planning processes, short implementation cycles, supporting an agile way of working and short learning curves by the business. Step into the future of Supply Chain planning!
Let me know your thoughts on the topics as mentioned in this blog. You can reach us at info@planadigm.com or contact me directly at jan.veerman@planadigm.com or +316-51884701.
Information used in this blog does come from two websites:
– SAP APO website: https://www.sap.com/products/scm/advanced-planning-optimization.html
– Support Revolution website: https://www.supportrevolution.com/blog/sap-deadline-extended-again-2027/
