Migrate from SAP Business ByDesign to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Future-proof your ERP, remove ByDesign's performance limits, and move to SAP's next-generation cloud solution

Migration Paths — SAP Business ByDesign, a Scheer IDS topic on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

SAP Business ByDesign has served growing businesses well for years, but its roadmap is now limited to compliance and security updates — no new functionality is planned. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is the clear successor: a future-proof, scalable, intelligent ERP with SAP HANA's in-memory database for faster processing, bi-annual updates that deliver new features, AI, and automation, a modular architecture that adapts as you grow, and seamless integration of analytics and automation through SAP Business Technology Platform.

Staying on SAP Business ByDesign carries real risk: its disk-based database architecture limits performance, updates are restricted to legal and security compliance, transaction processing slows under load, and SAP is no longer promoting ByDesign to new customers. Moving to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition keeps your organization competitive, efficient, and ready for growth instead of managing around a platform SAP itself has stopped investing in.

How the migration actually works

Scheer starts with a detailed migration assessment covering your business goals, processes, and current SAP Business ByDesign environment, followed by Fit-to-Standard Workshops that align your requirements with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition's functionality — the platform includes more than 850 standard functional scope items, giving your organization's end-to-end processes a strong chance of a direct fit.

Our SAP Business Technology Platform experts are trained specifically in SAP Business ByDesign customizations. They map your existing customizations to S/4HANA Cloud's standard modules, and address any genuinely unique requirement through SAP Business Technology Platform extensibility rather than custom code in the core.

For your ByDesign data, Scheer keeps your existing environment available in read-only mode for audits and reporting, while migrating only the data your organization actually needs into SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition — keeping the new system streamlined instead of carrying over everything by default. On licensing, Scheer's conversion model compares your current ByDesign license structure to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition model, including SAP Business Technology Platform, so you go in with a clear view of total cost of ownership and optimized licensing.

Why migrate with Scheer Netherlands?

Scheer Netherlands has over 12 years of experience with SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations, including our own migration. We ran our consulting, support, and development activities on SAP Business ByDesign from 2012 to 2020, then moved to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition in 2020, archiving our regulated ByDesign data in the process.

That experience translates directly into your migration:

1:1 functional mapping from ByDesign processes to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition,
an accelerated go-live measured in months rather than years,
compliant data migration and archiving, and post-go-live training
support to drive user adoption.

Combined with Scheer's Clean Core principles and SAP Business Technology Platform expertise, your organization gets a tailored migration rather than a generic template — and a faster return on investment.

SAP ByDesign — Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start a migration from SAP Business ByDesign?

A typical migration path begins with a detailed assessment of business goals, processes, and the current SAP Business ByDesign environment, followed by Fit-to-Standard workshops that align requirements with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition's functionality.

What happens to our SAP Business ByDesign customizations?

SAP Business Technology Platform provides the extensibility layer for SAP Business ByDesign customizations that don't map directly to a standard S/4HANA Cloud module, so genuinely unique requirements are still supported — without introducing custom code into the core system.

How do we archive our SAP Business ByDesign data?

The existing SAP Business ByDesign environment can stay available in read-only mode for audits and historical reporting, while only the data actually needed migrates into SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition — keeping the new system streamlined rather than carrying over everything by default.

How will our licenses be managed during the migration?

SAP's conversion model compares the existing SAP Business ByDesign license structure against the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition licensing model, including SAP Business Technology Platform, giving a clear view of expected total cost of ownership.

How do you assess whether our processes fit SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition?

Through Fit-to-Standard workshops that map existing SAP Business ByDesign processes against SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition's scope items. The platform includes more than 850 standard functional scope items, giving most end-to-end processes a strong chance of a direct fit without heavy customization.

Why is SAP no longer investing in SAP Business ByDesign?

SAP's roadmap for Business ByDesign is limited to compliance and security updates, with no new functionality planned, and SAP is no longer promoting it to new customers — SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is the platform SAP is actively developing instead.

What's the typical functional overlap between SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition?

Because both platforms share a similar mid-market functional scope, most SAP Business ByDesign processes map closely to existing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition scope items — giving organizations a largely 1:1 functional transition rather than a ground-up redesign.

How long does a typical migration from SAP Business ByDesign take?

Because the target functional scope is standardized and pre-configured, a 1:1 functional mapping between ByDesign processes and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition typically supports an accelerated go-live measured in months, with post-go-live training and support built into the standard approach to drive user adoption.