SAP vs Microsoft: How two leading ERP vendors are handling their legacy deadlines

SAP faced an EU investigation and came out with binding commitments capping return-to-support charges and allowing mixed or third-party support across installations. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft has set Dynamics NAV and GP end dates of 30 April 2031 (SL's is earlier on 15 January 2030), with no migration discount, licence credit or promotion in the announcement. 

What SAP’s binding commitment entails

Until last month, cancelling SAP’s on-premise maintenance service and later returning meant paying back-maintenance for the whole gap. The European Commission has now accepted binding commitments that cap that charge at the lower of six months of fees or 50% of the fees for the period you were off support, and remove return-to-support administrative fees entirely.

The commitments run globally for ten years and cover on-premise maintenance only, while cloud contracts remain untouched. Also buried in SAP's commitments is the fact that unused licences can be terminated due to workforce reduction, bankruptcy, divestiture, or implementation failure.

Further recommended reading: ERP migration steps (an easy-to-follow checklist)

The vendor with the antitrust problem is paying customers to move, while the vendor without one is enforcing a date and letting the market sort it out.

Copilot seats hit 30 million in the same quarter Dynamics 365 decelerated to 13%. AI seat monetisation and business applications growth have come apart. Meanwhile, the legacy deadline is enforced without any incentive to meet it, which is the opposite of SAP's approach. 

What this means for Dynamics GP users

The constraint most GP users will hit first is not security patching, but rather the licensing sentence. After the deadline, you can’t renew service plans or subscription licences, or buy additional perpetual users for an existing on-premises deployment.

Growing businesses on GP therefore have a shorter effective deadline than the published date implies. If you plan to add twenty finance and warehouse users in 2029, you either need those licences before the wall, or you need to have moved.

Microsoft's announcement includes no migration incentive of any kind. Budget for that, and start the conversation while there is still competition for your project.