Building the Business Case for S/4HANA Migration Before the 2027 Deadline

A complete migration business case should also name AI-assisted tooling as its own line item, cost and benefit both, rather than letting it hide inside broader delivery estimates. That means licensing for AI-assisted tooling and copilots, benchmarked productivity gains such as the sprint acceleration KPMG has measured and the delivery-timeline reduction EY has reported from Joule-assisted development, and the ongoing cost of the governance function needed to keep that tooling delivering safely.

That governance line matters because the gains aren't automatic. Gartner's research on agentic AI projects is a useful caution here: a large share are projected to be cancelled well before 2027 over unclear ROI and weak governance. A business case that counts on AI-driven productivity without budgeting for the governance that makes those gains reliable is making the same mistake as an unrevised single-point estimate, just with newer numbers attached to it.

is the realistic range for S/4HANA migration cost, driven almost entirely by organization-specific variables. That's exactly why a probabilistic, evidence-updated model outperforms a single industry benchmark. (CIO.com)

Getting the business case right, and keeping it right as real project data comes in, is the difference between a migration that clears budget approval and one that actually lands before December 31, 2027. Orpington Technologies brings deep S/4HANA migration experience to both delivery engagements and independent business case review, using data profiling, custom code assessment, and fit-gap analysis to replace guesswork with evidence. AI-assisted delivery tooling is one of several capabilities Orpington brings to a migration, alongside functional and technical expertise built across ECC-era SAP landscapes. Learn more about Orpington's approach at orpingtontech.com.