More than five years ago, our President wrote a blog exploring the mystery behind SAP's customer numbers for S/4HANA . Today, I’m revisiting that discussion with an updated perspective.

Looking Back: S/4HANA Adoption in 2019

If we turn back the clock to January 2019, we know it’s not a year anyone wants to revisit—especially considering the global events that followed. However, at that time, SAP had reported in its Q4 2018 results that S/4HANA adoption had grown to approximately 10,500 customers, reflecting 33% year-over-year growth. Notably, more than 40% of new S/4HANA customers in that quarter were net new.

At SAPPHIRE 2018, SAP had emphasized the Intelligent Enterprise vision, introducing innovations such as SAP Cloud Platform, SAP SuccessFactors, Ariba, C/4HANA, SAP Leonardo, and, of course, S/4HANA. Looming over all existing SAP ECC customers, however, was the critical 2025 deadline for mainstream support.

Fast Forward to 2025: A Shifting Landscape

Now that we've arrived at 2025, SAP’s strategy has evolved significantly:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud is now the primary focus as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution.

•SAP Leonardo is gone, and SAP Cloud Platform has been rebranded as SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

•The “Intelligent Enterprise” concept has transitioned into “SAP Business Suite,” encompassing Cloud ERP, LOBs, RISE with SAP, and GROW with SAP.

•SAP Business Data Cloud has been announced (stay tuned for a future blog on this).

•The SAP ECC deadline has been extended—mainstream support now lasts until 2027, with extended support available until 2030.

•SAP Business AI, powered by SAP Joule, has become a central pillar in SAP’s strategy.

So, How Many Customers Are on S/4HANA in 2025?

If we assumed the same 33% annual growth rate reported in 2018-2019, SAP should have surpassed 50,000 customers on S/4HANA by now. However, the reality is more complex—COVID-19 and other global events impacted enterprise IT investments, and SAP’s growth rate didn't maintain its previous pace.

The last publicly reported total for S/4HANA customers came in Q2 2022, when SAP stated that adoption had reached approximately 20,000 customers, with over 14,500 live implementations. At the time, 60% of new S/4HANA customers were net new, suggesting continued adoption but not at the explosive rate seen in earlier years.

Why Does SAP No Longer Publish These Numbers?

Perhaps publishing S/4HANA customer counts quarterly has become less relevant. However, partners and customers still want visibility into adoption trends. Many of the earlier adopters were on-premise customers, making it difficult to determine whether they had started implementation or gone live.

With SAP’s cloud-first strategy, they have greater access to real-time usage data. Each quarter, SAP’s cloud revenue continues to grow, suggesting that migration to S/4HANA Cloud is progressing—but a significant number of SAP ECC customers still need to transition.

Final Thoughts

While SAP may not openly share S/4HANA adoption numbers anymore, one thing remains clear: the industry shift toward SaaS-based ERP solutions and AI-driven enterprise management is in full motion. As deadlines for ECC support loom, organizations face a critical decision—to migrate or risk falling behind.