Missing the applicable notice deadline could lock your organization into another year of SAP maintenance before you evaluate the cost, value, and alternatives.
Renewing SAP maintenance commits budget, influences transformation timing, and affects how much control you retain over your SAP roadmap.
Your long-term ERP direction may still be taking shape. You could be considering S/4HANA, RISE with SAP, another cloud platform, or a different ERP strategy.
But the near-term decision is much simpler:
Should you approve another year of SAP maintenance before fully evaluating your options?
September 30 May Be the Real Decision Date
Organizations with SAP maintenance agreements that renew on a calendar-year basis may be required to provide written notice approximately three months before year-end if they intend to terminate maintenance.
SAP’s published policies reference three months’ written notice in certain termination scenarios. However, the exact deadline and requirements depend on each customer’s agreement, country, products, commercial installation structure, and renewal provisions.
That means September 30 does not automatically apply to every SAP customer. But where it does apply, missing the deadline could eliminate an important option for 2027.
You may not need to decide the future of your entire SAP landscape by September 30. But you may need to act by September 30 to preserve your available choices.
Moving Away from SAP Maintenance Does Not Mean Moving Away from SAP
Leaving SAP-provided maintenance does not require an organization to immediately replace its SAP software.
Organizations with appropriately licensed perpetual SAP software may be able to continue operating that software while obtaining support from an independent provider.
The decision is not between paying SAP and operating without support. Independent support can cover standard functionality, custom code, integrations, tax and regulatory updates, and security and vulnerability management while the organization continues operating its existing SAP environment.
SAP’s New Policies Create Additional Options
SAP’s July 2026 maintenance commitments are especially relevant for organizations with complex on-premise landscapes.
Under SAP’s published framework, qualifying customers may split a landscape into separate commercial installations. Each commercial installation may then use a different SAP support model, another maintenance provider, or no maintenance at all, subject to SAP’s technical, operational, licensing, and commercial requirements.
This gives organizations more flexibility:
Organizations may no longer need to treat the entire SAP landscape as one all-or-nothing support decision.
SAP has also announced improved terms for customers that later return to SAP maintenance. These include eliminating reinstatement administrative fees and capping back-maintenance payments at the lower of six months of maintenance fees or 50% of the fees that would have been due during the period off support.
These options require advance planning. SAP states that landscape-split requests may take up to six months to process and, once approved, take effect on the next applicable quarterly date. Organizations considering a split landscape or alternative support strategy should begin evaluating their options well before the applicable renewal deadline.
The Financial Opportunity
Organizations moving to Spinnaker Support typically save 50% to 60% or more compared with vendor maintenance fees.
That budget could be redirected toward:
- S/4HANA planning and transformation
- Cybersecurity and risk reduction
- AI, automation, and cloud modernization
- Internal staffing and strategic projects
But the larger advantage of third-party support is time and flexibility.
Instead of allowing a vendor deadline or support policy to dictate the timing of a major transformation, organizations can modernize when the business case, technology, resources, and risk profile are aligned.
How Spinnaker Support Can Help
Spinnaker Support provides independent third-party support for SAP environments, including:
- 24/7/365 access to experienced SAP professionals
- Break/fix support for standard functionality, custom code, and integrations
- Global tax and regulatory updates
- Security and vulnerability management
- Technical advisory services
- Long-term support for existing SAP releases
Spinnaker can help organizations assess their SAP landscapes, quantify the financial opportunity, evaluate operational and compliance requirements, understand the implications of SAP’s new policies, and develop an orderly transition strategy.
Don’t Let the Contract Make the Decision
If your SAP maintenance renews at year-end, now is the time to review your agreement.
Confirm the renewal date, notice requirements, delivery method, applicable products, and any provisions governing termination, commercial installations, or the withdrawal of notice.
Do not assume September 30 applies to your organization. But do not discover after September 30 that it did.
September 30 may not be the date by which you must decide the future of your SAP landscape. But it may be the date by which you must act to preserve your choices for 2027.
Review the agreement. Quantify the value. Understand the alternatives.
Talk with a Spinnaker Support SAP expert to review your maintenance timeline, evaluate your options, and maintain control of your 2027 support strategy.
About the Authors
John Klaus is a Senior Account Executive at Spinnaker Support with more than three decades of experience helping large organizations navigate complex enterprise software, support and transformation decisions. Having held strategic sales roles with IBM, Oracle, SAP and VMware, John brings a firsthand understanding of traditional vendor models and the commercial pressures shaping enterprise IT strategies. At Spinnaker Support, he helps SAP customers evaluate their maintenance options, reduce costs and preserve greater control over the timing and direction of their ERP roadmaps.
Dewey Lane is a Senior Account Executive at Spinnaker Support, bringing nearly three decades of experience in enterprise technology, business transformation and strategic sales. His background includes owning and operating a multi-store True Value retail chain, leading implementations of Strategic Technology Software, and holding enterprise sales roles with SAP, SAP SI Partner Avvale, Infor and Epicor. This combination of hands-on business ownership and enterprise technology experience gives Dewey a unique perspective in helping organizations reduce costs, increase flexibility and gain greater control over their long-term IT strategies.
