By: Bernd Schaefer
Unlike the distance between two points, the shortest and fastest route from SAP ECC to S4/HANA is far from straightforward.
Historically, organizations have had to choose one of three approaches: greenfield (a fresh implementation of S/4HANA), brownfield (an upgrade of existing ECC systems to S/4HANA) or hybrid (a blend of greenfield and brownfield).
All three paths ultimately lead to S4/HANA, but each has limitations that can inflate budgets, stretch timelines and increase risk. These obstacles, coupled with the impending ECC end‑of‑life deadline, make it increasingly difficult for companies that rely on SAP’s ERP systems to navigate their own transformations.
Now, there’s a smoother, more direct way forward: Clean Field.
Developed by Kyndryl and guided by an enterprise architecture approach, Clean Field combines agentic AI, data transformation accelerators and organizational change management. These systems and processes provide a faster, less costly and more reliable path to S/4HANA than traditional approaches.
To learn more about Clean Field, we asked Bernd Schaefer, SVP, Global Consult for Applications, Data and AI, about this methodology and how it can help organizations across industries navigate SAP transformations. These seven insights should resonate with CIOs and other leaders who are thinking about, planning or embarking on the move from ECC to S/4HANA.
Do organizations really need another way to move from ECC to S/4HANA?
In a word, yes. Over 60% of SAP clients are still on ECC with no clear path to S/4HANA.1 Their ECC systems carry years of custom code, fragmented data and inconsistent processes. These same customers often call their environments complex, fragile and difficult to change.
But the cost of not transforming is too high for enterprises trying to future-proof their organizations and drive innovation. These organizations need a way to S/4HANA that reduces the time, difficulty and cost of current approaches.
Consider a global manufacturing company that has several years’ worth of customized code and regional variants of its SAP ECC system. Beyond having to decide whether to move to S4 now or later, leaders must determine when to involve business teams, what to do with massive amounts of custom code, and how to preserve data integrity. Making it easier to address any of these issues can make the process less daunting.
Over 60% of SAP clients are still on ECC with no clear path to S/4HANA. These organizations need a way to S/4HANA that reduces the time, difficulty and cost of current approaches.
Why can’t current approaches address these issues?
Traditional S/4HANA migration approaches have significant shortcomings.
Brownfield simply shifts accumulated technical debt to a new platform without lowering total cost of ownership or helping customers drive innovation. Greenfield starts from scratch, throwing away the IP that has been built over years. And a hybrid approach just combines the problems of brownfield and greenfield rather than providing a real solution.
With all these approaches, it’s more about what you’re willing to compromise and trade off in search of the best path for you.
How does Clean Field differ from these approaches?
Unlike traditional methods, Clean Field uses agentic AI to intelligently assess, adapt and optimize SAP environments. This capability, combined with data transformation accelerators and organizational change management, delivers a tailored, holistic transformation, not a one-size-fits-all migration.
In fact, with Clean Field, you get the speed of brownfield and realize the business benefits of greenfield faster — the best of both paths. The clean core-compliant approach gets you to S/4HANA with less effort, lower costs and no tech debt.
With Clean Field, you get the speed of brownfield and realize the business benefits of greenfield faster—the best of both paths. It gets you to S/4HANA with less effort, lower costs and no tech debt.
Explain in more detail how Clean Field works
When engineers need to move components to S/4HANA, Clean Field uses agentic AI (Nova Intelligence) to document, simplify, build, test and debug code. Kyndryl’s Data Transformation Suite transfers only the business-critical data, and change management equips employees with the tools they need to use the new platform effectively.
So, instead of transferring old problems into S/4HANA or starting over completely, Clean Field selects what to keep, what to redesign and what to retire before moving systems to the new platform. This approach makes Clean Field faster, more affordable and less risky than greenfield. It also eliminates the technical debt found in brownfield projects and enables clean core compliance.
Many leaders see their customizations as strategic IP. How does Clean Field address the IP transformation dilemma?
We share the same view about intellectual property — it’s a key differentiator that creates competitive advantage. In fact, the potential loss of IP is one of the main disadvantages of greenfield.
By assessing customizations with an agentic AI-supported, fit-to-standard analysis, Clean Field helps clients mitigate concerns about lost IP while streamlining their systems. The approach also makes better use of functionality that has become standard in SAP.
Instead of transferring old problems into S/4HANA or starting over completely, Clean Field selects what to keep, what to redesign and what to retire before moving systems to the new platform.
Will agentic AI fundamentally change SAP transformation?
Absolutely. In fact, the change is already happening. Agentic AI helps us analyze existing platforms, build plans and execute modernization. We can also design new capabilities using natural language processing (NLP) prompts to create clean, compliant core code.
Simply put, agentic AI is no longer a productivity tool — it’s a new and highly efficient colleague. This new colleague needs expert help from time to time, but it can do most of the work alone with limited human oversight.
How do you expect Clean Field to impact SAP modernization moving forward?
I believe Clean Field will become the preferred approach for companies that want to move from ECC to S4/HANA. And I think the concept behind Clean Field, together with agentic AI, will become the blueprint for future transformations to the next generation of SAP platforms.
1 SAP legacy ERP customers still in no rush to adopt latest platform, The Register, March 2025
