The Hidden Cost of Custom Code
Why Legacy ABAP is the Biggest Risk to SAP S/4HANA Migration—and How Intelligent Automation Changes the Equation
A practical guide for CIOs, SAP Program Managers, Enterprise Architects, and SAP CoE Leaders navigating ECC modernization and SAP Clean Core adoption.
The Hidden Cost of Custom Code
Why Legacy ABAP is the Biggest Risk to SAP S/4HANA Migration—and How Intelligent Automation Changes the Equation
A practical guide for CIOs, SAP Program Managers, Enterprise Architects, and SAP CoE Leaders navigating ECC modernization and SAP Clean Core adoption.
Executive Summary
Across industries, organizations are accelerating their transition from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. While infrastructure modernization and business process redesign often receive executive attention, one challenge consistently delays projects, increases costs, and introduces unnecessary business risk:
Custom ABAP Code
Over years—or even decades—SAP environments accumulate thousands of custom developments.
These include:
Reports
Enhancements
Interfaces
Forms
Function Modules
User Exits
BAdIs
Custom Transactions
Many of these objects support mission-critical processes.
Unfortunately, most enterprises have little visibility into:
- which code is still used
- which code is obsolete
- which code is incompatible with S/4HANA
- which objects require remediation
As migration projects begin, organizations discover that custom code consumes 30–50% of the overall migration effort, becoming one of the largest contributors to schedule overruns and consulting costs.
The traditional response—manual code analysis and remediation—is no longer sustainable.
Automation is becoming essential.
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