Keep your SAP system. Change who supports it.

When you buy SAP on-premise software, you get two things: a perpetual licence to use the software, and a separate maintenance contract, usually renewed every year. The licence is yours to keep. The maintenance contract is optional. Third-party support means you end SAP maintenance and have an independent provider support the system instead.

• Your system stays as it is – no upgrade or migration is needed to switch
• Your licences stay yours – ending maintenance does not end your right to use the software
• basis.no is your single point of contact – the contract and all support requests go through basis.no. No separate contract with the support provider, and no new support channel for your users

Many SAP systems are stable, heavily customised and do what the business needs. Yet the annual maintenance fee keeps rising, and SAP's mainstream maintenance for each release has an end date. After that, you are pushed to upgrade or move to RISE with SAP, whether or not the business case is there.

• Lower running cost – up to 80% lower annual support fees compared with SAP maintenance
• Your own roadmap – upgrade when there is a business case, not because a support deadline says so
• Time to decide – keep ECC or S/4HANA running while you evaluate S/4HANA, RISE or other options properly
• Build around SAP with AI – much of the new functionality you need can now be built around your SAP system instead of inside it: assistants, analysis, reporting and automation. What matters most is that your data is in one place and accessible, not that you run the latest SAP release. See AI MCP Server for SAP
• Money for other work – the savings can fund integration, automation, AI or other projects

Source for dates: SAP's published maintenance schedule. Check the dates for your own release and contract.

Third-party support covers the support you get from SAP today, and some things SAP support does not cover. All items below are part of the standard service.

Supported products include SAP ECC and Business Suite, SAP S/4HANA, SAP R/3, NetWeaver (ABAP and Java), Basis/ABAP Workbench, BW, BusinessObjects, BPC, PI/PO, EP, APO, EWM, TM, MII, SAP HANA and SAP ASE databases.

Tax rules and reporting formats change every year. The support provider monitors government sources continuously, analyses each change and builds tested updates for your SAP version and the countries you operate in.

• Finance – e.g. electronic invoicing, electronic payments, SAF-T, asset management
• Transaction taxes – VAT, goods and services taxes
• Payroll – rates, reporting and year-end changes, where payroll is covered

Coverage depends on country, product and module. We confirm exactly what is covered for your system during the scoping phase.

When you leave SAP maintenance, you no longer receive new SAP security notes. This is the most common concern, so it is worth being precise about how it is handled.

• Security at several layers – instead of patching SAP code, the system is protected around it: network, database, operating system, application and users
• Virtual patching – known vulnerabilities are blocked without changing SAP code
• Monitoring – continuous monitoring and threat analysis
• Security advisory – included in the service, with the same response SLAs as other cases
• Your hosting platform – if basis.no hosts your system, our SOC, hardening and patching of operating system and database continue as before

SAP security patches released up to your maintenance end date are included in the archive you keep (see section 07).

Third-party support is a good fit for some systems and not for others. These are the trade-offs to understand before deciding.

It fits best when the system is stable, you have no planned upgrade in the next years, and the maintenance fee is a large share of your SAP budget. It fits less well if you plan to move to a newer SAP release soon.

The switch is timed to the end date of your current SAP maintenance contract. Start early: most contracts have a notice period.

1. Review your contract and landscapeMaintenance end date, notice period, annual fee, releases, modules, custom code and countries. We use a standard scoping questionnaire.
2. ProposalScope, price and the support model through basis.no.
3. Give notice to SAPAccording to the terms of your maintenance agreement.
4. Archive what you are entitled toBefore the end date, installation media, tools, SAP notes, language packs and security updates you have licensed are archived, so they stay available to you. Target: within 60 days.
5. OnboardingRemote access set-up (target 30 days), support portal, priorities and SLAs, and a country profile for tax and legal updates.
6. Go liveSupport starts on the day SAP maintenance ends. You report issues to basis.no as before.

In 2026, the European Commission made binding a set of commitments from SAP on its on-premise maintenance policies. They make it easier to leave SAP maintenance for part of your landscape, and less expensive to come back.

• No more all-or-nothing – you can split your landscape into separate commercial installations. Each can have SAP support, third-party support, or no support
• Lower cost to return – no reinstatement fee. Back-maintenance for the period without SAP support is capped at the lower of 50% of the fees for that period, or six months of fees
• No repricing – splitting the landscape does not in itself trigger repricing
• Scope – applies to on-premise licences and maintenance for 10 years. It does not apply to cloud contracts such as RISE or GROW with SAP

This is a summary, not legal advice. The exact terms depend on the published commitments and your own contract.

Third-party support is delivered by specialised providers with global support teams. basis.no delivers the service across the whole Nordic region, and combines the provider's application support with our own SAP Basis and hosting services.

• One contract, one channel – you deal with basis.no. We handle the support provider on your behalf
• SAP Basis since 1999 – we operate more than 1,000 SAP databases today
• Hosting in Norway and Germany – combine third-party support with Hosting for SAP in your own tenant
• Nordic presence – a local contact that knows Nordic SAP customers and requirements

Can we use third-party support with RISE with SAP?

No. RISE is a subscription where support is part of the SAP contract. Third-party support applies to SAP systems you run on perpetual licences, on-premise or hosted with a provider such as basis.no. If you are on RISE, see our RISE support service.

Can we move only part of our landscape?

Yes. Following the EU decision, you can split your landscape into separate commercial installations with different support models, for example BW or BusinessObjects on third-party support and core ERP on SAP support.

What if we want to go back to SAP later?

You can. Under SAP's EU commitments, there is no reinstatement fee, and back-maintenance is capped at the lower of 50% of the fees for the period or six months of fees.

We are on S/4HANA. Is this only for ECC?

No. S/4HANA is supported, as well as ECC, Business Suite and older R/3 releases. For S/4HANA 2021, SAP's mainstream maintenance ends on 31 December 2026.

Who do our users contact?

basis.no, as today. We log and follow up cases with the support provider. The provider's engineers work in English.

Do we need to be hosted by basis.no?

No. Third-party support works whether your system runs in your own data centre, with another provider or at basis.no.