Why Call Centers Can’t Wait on S/4HANA
— And Don’t Have To

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Modern call centers aren’t just answering phones -- they’re expected to resolve issues instantly, personalize every interaction, and operate with ruthless efficiency. Customers demand seamless, real-time support across channels while agents require fast, accurate data to be effective. Leadership faces mounting pressure to reduce costs, improve KPIs like Average Handle Time (AHT) and First Call Resolution (FCR), and drive digital transformation.

For organizations running SAP ECC, meeting these goals is a challenge. The industry-wide push to migrate to SAP S/4HANA is ongoing, yet many companies are stuck in limbo. According to a 2024 SAPinsider Benchmark Report, fewer than 30 percent of SAP customers have completed the move to S/4HANA. Meanwhile, Gartner estimates that full ERP transformations can take 3–5 years and cost more than $100 million. For call centers, that’s too long to wait.

The good news: Transformation doesn’t require a complete ERP overhaul. There are emerging methods that allow companies to unlock real-time intelligence from ECC, streamline workflows, and modernize customer engagement—without middleware, replication, or disruption. The key lies in enabling real-time execution of SAP’s native processes and business logic in the systems that call center agents already use and are familiar with.

ECC to S/4HANA – Not Without Challenges for Service Centers

The move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA is one of the most significant enterprise technology shifts in recent decades. Migrating to S/4HANA isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move that transforms how customer service is delivered. Call centers and customer service organizations that approach the transition as an opportunity to modernize and digitize service processes can unlock significant gains in efficiency, insight, and customer satisfaction.

However, while SAP S/4HANA represents a transformative leap forward, its delivery and adoption have not been without significant hurdles, both from SAP’s side and the customer side. The promise of S/4HANA is clear—but the path to get there hasn’t always been smooth. Enterprises with ECC have experienced missed timelines, poor customer readiness, and a lack of product maturity. More importantly, the bigger challenge has been that ECC is being phased out as SAP ends mainstream support in 2027, which was abruptly extended to 2030 for some customers recently.

For customer service, especially, the gains in responsiveness, personalization, and efficiency are compelling—but only if the underlying transition to S/4HANA is well-executed. In the interim, companies need to go in with realistic expectations, a clear roadmap, a trusted partner to guide them, and consider an alternate approach.

Reframing ECC as a Strategic Advantage

Still, SAP ECC powers over two-thirds of SAP customers. Its business logic is mature. Its data is reliable. The problem isn’t what ECC can do—it’s how accessible that capability is.

Disconnected systems often force contact center agents to swivel between applications, manually re-enter data, or wait for back-office support. This not only delays resolutions, but it also erodes the customer experience. By embedding ECC intelligence into the call center platform —whether Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, or proprietary CRMs—organizations can bridge this gap.

Copying tables or returning raw data, this approach enables the orchestration of real-time SAP workflows within the call center interface. The result? Faster answers, less friction, and dramatically better agent and customer experience.

Real-Time ECC Execution Fuels Predictive Support

Modern support centers must move beyond reactive service. They must anticipate needs, reroute issues proactively, and personalize responses based on customer history and operational status. But predictive intelligence is only as good as the data driving it. If that data is trapped in ECC or arrives too late, even the best-designed workflows fall short.

Real-time SAP process execution can: 1) forecast staffing needs by aligning agent availability with live supply chain signals; 2) reroute incoming requests based on real-time order or delivery status; 3) identify emerging issues basedon open orders or fulfillment bottlenecks; 4) surface performance gaps or training needs before they