SAP S/4HANA migration is accelerating in most organizations despite ongoing automation challenges. That’s according to a new study by Precisely and the Americas SAP Users Group (ASUG).
It found that 59 percent of companies are now fully or partially live on SAP S/4HANA, up 13 percentage points from 2024, as organizations race to meet SAP’s 2027 deadline. That’s despite having to navigate rising complexity with SAP processes and challenges with competing priorities.
However, automation adoption has plateaued at 57 percent after strong growth in previous years as migration demands divert resources and teams continue to navigate complex SAP environments, the survey indicated.
S/4HANA migration gains pace but challenges persist
According to the study, nearly two-thirds of companies (64 percent) will be fully live or in the process of migrating to S/4HANA by the end of 2025. However, migration remains far from straightforward.
Respondents cited business process change (49 percent), customizations (44 percent), and organizational resistance (37 percent) as the top barriers. Meanwhile, many companies are struggling to transform how core SAP data creation and management processes are structured, align SAP ECC customizations with SAP’s Clean Core approach, and navigate the complexities of large-scale cultural change.
Data quality also emerged as a critical but often overlooked challenge, with organizations identifying both accuracy and data transformation issues when moving legacy data into SAP S/4HANA environments.
“SAP users are making real progress on modernization, but they’re also facing some of the most complex transformation challenges in the ERP landscape,” said Ashwin Ramachandran, SVP, product management at Precisely. “Organizations successfully managing this complexity are the ones striking the right balance – keeping ongoing migrations on track while advancing automation strategies that deliver long-term value.”
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Automation initiatives slowed by migration pressures
While automation remains a central pillar of SAP modernization strategies, growth in adoption has slowed as companies concentrate resources on migration projects and work to manage ongoing complexity within their SAP environments, the study found.
Key barriers include process complexity (62 percent), integration (49 percent), and understanding and defining process requirements (49 percent).
Despite these challenges, underlying momentum remains strong. Adoption patterns show a clear shift toward more strategic, best-of-breed approaches, with organizations increasingly embracing no-code/low-code platforms and citizen development to scale automation without overburdening IT teams, Precisely noted.
Furthermore, organizations are seeking automation solutions that deliver consistency across all SAP interfaces, ensuring smooth transitions between ECC and S/4HANA while maintaining productivity for end users.
“Automation is most effective when it spans all SAP environments – from ECC to S/4HANA, and across Fiori, SAP GUI, and GUI for HTML,” said Ramachandran. “We are proud to support our customers with market-leading process automation and data integrity solutions that address these challenges, helping companies to simplify migrations, build foundations of trusted data, and accelerate meaningful business transformation.”