Enhanced or Compatible?

If you are an SAP ECC ERP customer, you are certainly familiar with the Enhancement Packs (or EhP) concept. They are regular updates to the code, at the rhythm of one every one or two years, providing – you guessed – functionality enhancements. EhP have become the current approach to upgrades – definitely lighter, but still requiring investment of time and resources to apply. There are today 8 subsequent EhP available, and I will take the opportunity to remind that EhP 0 to 5 are going out of maintenance at the end of 2025.

Now there are also Compatibility Packs (in short, CP), and here I want to talk about these.

In the transition to S/4 HANA, the foundation code was reviewed and updated. That means that to access in S/4 Private edition the functionalities from the older SAP ECC that haven’t been updated, customers needed a compatibility pack to get the same results.

For HCM customers, there are several compatibility packs, depending on the solutions in use; they include:

• CP-SAP ERP HCM component
• CP-SAP Time Tracking Component
• CP-SAP Core HCM Component
• CP-SAP ERP Travel Management component
• CP-SAP E-Recruiting U CP-SAP Learning Solution
• CP-SAP Enterprise Learning Environment
• CP-SAP Payroll Processing for Non-profit Organizations
• CP-SAP Payroll Processing
• CP-SAP Shared Service Framework, Human Resources

Why am I telling you this?

The HCM Compatibility Packs have been meant as a temporary solution, while other alternatives can be decided on and developed. Such alternatives are:

1. Migrating to SAPSuccessFactors (long term option)
2. Migrating on S/4 HANA Public Cloud (PCE);
3. Migrating to the On premise edition of SAP S/4 HANA (nicknamed H4S4). This options provides the key functionality of SAP ERP HCM, with some exceptions, and is NOT a replacement of SAP SuccessFactors – that is to say that it doesn’t offer the same functionalities, as innovation is mostly prioritized on the SAP SuccessFactors platform.

For more information on evaluating these migrations both functionally and technically, please see the free OpenSAP course about to start “Your HR Journey to the Cloud”. https://open.sap.com/courses/sf7-2

Again, but why am I retelling this story?

Because of what will happen on Dec. 31^st, 2025. Most packs’ usage rights expire at the end of 2025; that is the case for all HCM packs. Support will also stop at the same date.

It is important that organizations using these packs are made aware now, so they can take appropriate steps.

While specific tables and transactions will not be deleted or blocked, users rights end means that productive access is a contractual breach; support and maintenance (and that include patches and legal changes) will end, as well as interfacing options. Finally, custom objects that use or refer to Compatibility Scope objects will need adjustments.

Specific notes are available to look at next steps:

https://me.sap.com/notes/3091160 on the general topic of SAP HCM approach and strategy

https://me.sap.com/notes/2383879 on the ESS and MSS technologies not available in CP

https://me.sap.com/notes/2383837 on learning solutions

and finally https://me.sap.com/notes/2976262 on travel management, not technically part of HR, but sometimes included in the scope.

What should you do?

Moving to alternative solutions includes as always an evaluation, adaptation of custom code, changes to processes and customizing, training of users and migration of data. It is a good idea to start planning NOW, leveraging the tools that SAP has provided such as the #ReadinessCheck for #HCM that can provide you with a picture of your landscape as a foundation to a #digitaltransformation.

More information:

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/08/09/compatibility-scope-what-happens-after-2025-2030/

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/10/02/h4s4-vs-sap-hcm-compatibility-packs-high-level-overview/