Extended SAP ERP 6.0 Maintenance Unlocks Added Potential for Barcode Automation Innovation
2/4/2020- SAP announced that it will provide mainstream maintenance for core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 software (SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA) until the end of 2027, followed by optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030. …and for SAP S/4HANA, until the end of 2040.
Per Thomas Saueressig (Member of the Executive Board, SAP Product Engineering, SAP SE): “SAP S/4HANA is the architecture and platform of the future for our customers. SAP is committed to our customers’ success and choice. Offering these maintenance periods is further delivering on transparency and trust. The significant growth in 2019 confirms our SAP S/4HANA strategy and demand.”
Strong Momentum and Flexibility – SAP supports this move with a full program of offers, services and tools along with a vast ecosystem of IT service providers who represent over four decades of continuous success, innovation and growth in introducing SAP solutions. As a result of collaboration with customers, user groups and partners, as well as with other industry stakeholders, SAP offers a commitment to SAP S/4HANA until 2040 combined with longer support for SAP Business Suite 7. This will help customers unlock the potential for innovation so they can revolutionize business processes with optimal flexibility while protecting their existing investments.

Barcoding Automation Impact for SAP ERP 6.0 Users
For existing SAP ERP 6.0 users, this news delivers additional assurance and confidence knowing that existing and forthcoming investments made in inventory control optimization leveraging barcode automation will allow for maximum ROI, in addition to the existing support for future SAP software migration roadmaps.
BCC Distribution, an industry leader in inventory control and tracking optimization leveraging barcoding scanning and printing technologies specifically for SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP S/4HANA, has designed, developed, mobilized, and automated over 200 SAP Inventory Management (IM) and Warehouse Management (WM) transactions. These transactions utilize best practice standards to create consistent and easy-to-use data collection screens for mobile users. Each transaction has been designed for mobile RF scanners (handheld barcode scanners, rugged tablets, vehicle terminals, and more) with minimal words and maximum simplicity, optimized specifically to make the mobile SAP RF scanning and barcode printing system extremely easy to use for the operator. Custom transactions have also been built and exist in BCCD’s library of preconfigured transactions to achieve even greater functionality specific to manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Both optimized and custom BCCD transactions allow for streamlined customization and rapid implementation based on a company’s unique requirement- again, for SAP ERP 6.0 as well as SAP S/4HANA. BCCD’s TranASAP solution has been developed in a real-time, directly-integrated architecture, using native SAP software development platforms and connectivity tools: SAP Console, SAP ITSmobile, and UI5 (e.g. Fiori, Store & Forward).
Implementing Barcoding Today… Planning for Tomorrow
Many our clients regularly ask “Will my RF scanning and barcoding system migrate from ECC 6.0 to S/4HANA when we decide to upgrade?” In short, the answer is YES. Existing BCCD customers have upgraded their SAP ERP software from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA. BCCD’s delivered TranASAP RF scanning and barcode printing solution for ECC 6.0 can be migrated with an SAP ERP software upgrade, requiring minimal changes.
Contact BCC Distribution to learn more about how barcode automation can optimize SAP Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, and Extended Warehouse Management for your specific application, to include planning for a future migration from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA.