As the modern finance technology landscape evolves, businesses are continually adapting to new technologies and platforms to maintain efficient and effective operations. This has never been more important for finance teams who are the interpreters of business information on behalf of the business.
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) was once a leading solution in the enterprise performance management space, offering robust functionalities for financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. However, with the failure of SAP to invest for many years and now, the looming end of maintenance for SAP BPC, organisations must look ahead to alternative solutions that can support their evolving needs.
Understanding the End of Maintenance for SAP BPC
After a number of extensions, SAP has now given clear timelines for the end of maintenance for the different versions of SAP BPC1.
The Microsoft version of BPC, which has been in Maintenance mode with no enhancements for well over 10 years, is due to be end of life in June 2025 (after a number of extensions, most recently from December 2024). The remaining users of this version have been very poorly served by SAP for many years and are hampered by a solution that is at least two generations of technology out of date and has not benefitted from any investment by SAP since it’s acquisition in 2008, now nearly 20 years ago.
The maintenance for SAP BPC 10.1 for SAP BW (NetWeaver version) will continue until the end of 2027. This version, launched in 2009 as a copy of the acquired BPC version for Microsoft, but migrated to the NetWeaver platform has similarly had no material investment for over a decade.
The latest SAP BPC release supporting the SAP BW/4HANA product line will align with the SAP S/4HANA maintenance extension and will be maintained until at least 2040. It is noted though, that not only has this variant of the BPC solution failed to benefit from any direct enhancements for many years, in the upcoming releases (version 2025) there is actually a deprecation of functionality.
Depending on the version deployed, businesses will be forced to plan their transition to new solutions, potentially very soon, if they want continuity and stability in their financial processes. However, even those on the latest releases of BPC should consider the cost of ownership and the build up of technical deficit in their business from SAP’s long term dis-investment in this solution set.
As a consequence, businesses are being forced to act to protect themselves with, as a minimum, a diligence exercise on the viability and suitability of their existing SAP BPC deployments and the risks they pose to their organisation.
The options for all of the alternative courses of action are influenced by the business requirement, current and potentially future requirements, the business culture, budget availability and many other factors.
Can BPC still be right for me?
The answer to this is possibly, but increasingly, unlikely.
Replacing SAP BPC with an alternative solution, regardless of what that solution is, has a capital project impact – this takes resources both internally and externally, so it may not be possible to do anything in the short term. BPC may also fully meet current business needs for the scope it is deployed to address – while BPC is an EPM solution, there are many instances in which it is deployed as a point solution for instance just for a statutory consolidation and it may remain fit for purpose within that scope.
However, there are challenges that may not be apparent at first sight:
- End of maintenance mean that there will be no further platform or security patches resulting in greater challenges in ‘keeping the lights on’;
- With out of maintenance software, there are corporate policy matters to address as well as potentially risks of audit qualification;
- Increasing costs of maintaining legacy platforms that cause practical challenges for IT and additional costs of managing archaic infrastructure;
- The reducing market capability to provide support and consulting services in this technology that is already driving up costs and seeing users suffer with longer outages and challenges in completing essential solution maintenance.
This is all not to mention the operational management gap that continues to build with competitors who embrace more advanced, flexible and lower overhead modern capabilities.
In our experiences over the last several years, we have seen a reducing trend in the
What about other SAP Options
SAP has a number of options available to users – from SAC (SAP Analytics Cloud) which may already be deployed by some to supplement BPC anyway to SAP S/4HANA Group Reporting, the SAP S/4HANA embedded ERP based consolidation module.
These have their merits and for anyone with a significant SAP ERP landscape should certainly be a consideration.
Alternatives to SAP BPC
Many businesses, will, though want to or should consider non SAP best-of-breed alternatives to SAP BPC. This may be driven by many factors: a simple due diligence in selecting any business technology; a desire for specific business functionality; a need to manage reporting in a heterogeneous or even just non-SAP ERP landscape; or, for many, a desire to move away from SAP as a supplier which is often seen in observed rates of dissatisfaction amongst their users.
Some of the alternatives are identified here:
1. OneStream
OneStream offers a unified platform for corporate performance management (CPM), providing end-to-end management of enterprise-wide consolidation, close, and financial & operational planning and forecasting.
2. Anaplan
Anaplan is a cloud-based business planning and performance management platform that enables companies to plan and model, make decisions, and collaborate across the enterprise.
3. Workday Adaptive Planning
Workday Adaptive Planning provides a business planning cloud that enables organisations to plan, forecast, and report on business performance.
4. IBM Planning Analytics
IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated planning solution that helps businesses automate planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis processes.
5. CCH Tagetik
CCH Tagetik delivers a solution for corporate performance management, including budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and business intelligence.
6. Fluence
Fluence is a next generation financial close and consolidation solution providing strong process support and powerful financial analytics.
There are of course many such solutions available today and understanding the scope of a solution and the business needs of the organisation will allow a focussing of the options that would be relevant.
Evaluating the Right Fit for Your Organization
When exploring alternatives to SAP BPC, it is important to assess the options based on many factors which include:
- Functional Fit: Does the alternative meet the specific financial planning, consolidation and other EPM needs of your organisation?
- Integration Capabilities: How well does the solution integrate with your source systems?
- User Experience: Is the solution user-friendly and does it offer an appropriate interface for finance and potentially non-finance professionals and business users?
- Scalability: Can the solution scale with your business growth and adapt to changing market conditions?
- Vendor Support: What level of support and maintenance does the vendor offer?
Conclusion
The end of maintenance for SAP BPC marks a significant shift for many organisations. However, it also presents an opportunity to embrace new solutions that can drive efficiency, innovation, and strategic value. By carefully evaluating alternatives and considering the unique needs of your business, you can ensure a smooth transition and continued and enhanced success in your financial planning and reporting processes.
This blog post provides an overview of the end of maintenance for SAP BPC and outlines some of the options users should consider. It is essential for organisations to considering their options and plan for a future in a timely manner and avoid either rushed or forced decisions later on.
Kabeelah are specialists in EPM and many of the team came from the former Opal Wave business who led the market in SAP BPC deployment and support over many years. Kabeelah continues to work with customers to support and manage their SAP BPC solutions as well as supporting them in the migration to newer alternative technologies.
References
1. Maintenance timelines for SAP Business Planning an… – SAP Community
Glossary
EPM – Enterprise Performance Management
CPM – Corporate Performance Management (same as EPM)
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning which includes Financial Ledgers
