An SAP transaction often relies on decades of ABAP logic, exits, enhancements, and dependencies. Rebuilding a look alike version from scratch, inevitably leads to functional gaps, incorrect results, or hidden inconsistencies. SAP code is complex and has been refined for decades.

The hidden risks of lookalike solutions

Accessing legacy SAP data through simplified look alike solutions often produces wrong or incomplete results. Achieving a perfect lookalike typically requires copying SAP code, which raises serious legal and intellectual property concerns once customers no longer hold an SAP ECC license.

On top of that, SAP compatibility packs are reaching end of life, removing large portions of legacy ECC code from S/4HANA environments. This makes copy based or emulation driven approaches increasingly fragile. Check what support packs remain in place after 2027 deadline for SAP ECC support.

Explaining why a generic display strategy, enriched with APIs and query capabilities, was the only sustainable option used to be a recurring and difficult conversation.

Clean core changes everything

Today, the landscape is changing decisively.

Copy-based products are now directly blocked by SAP clean core principles. Forty years of legacy ABAP code is no longer allowed in S/4HANA RISE environments. What used to be a workaround is no longer acceptable, nor future proof.

This confirms what we, at TJC Group, have advocated for years. In modern IT, what used to be a brilliant solution often end up deprecated. This is why vision and architecture matters.

The durable way to access legacy and archived SAP data

Legacy system access should be delivered through a generic, configurable display layer. That is why ELSA (Enterprise Legacy System Application) was developed for.  ELSA enables secure access to archived SAP data and decommissioned systems, avoiding SAP code duplication. It provides an audit trail for compliance proof, from data extraction through storage to database loading.

• Compliant and auditable historical data access: ELSA stores data in secure, long-term repositories with easy retrieval, ensuring regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, tax audits) and audit trails. Data remains accurate and accessible for decades, without relying on outdated systems, aligned with SAP’s  “Clean core” principles.

• Risk reduction: By decommissioning vulnerable legacy systems, ELSA eliminates data breach risks, bridges technology/knowledge gaps, and minimizes maintenance efforts. No more supporting obsolete hardware or training on old ECC interfaces.
• Large data sets for AI use: ELSA offloads historical and archived data into AI-ready formats, enabling machine learning models to analyze trends across years of records. See as the fuel for analytics for better sales forecasting or supply chain optimization.
• Cost reduction: Archiving slashes operational expenses by shrinking active databases (up to 80-90% reduction in some cases), lowering storage fees, and freeing IT resources for strategic initiatives.
• Durability: ccompatibility with a modern architecture, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP BDC, and Joule.

When advanced analysis is required, your analytics platforms do the job using ELSA provided data, without recreating obsolete SAP logic.

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Choose durability when decommissioning SAP

Access to archived and legacy SAP data is not just a technical requirement. It is a long-term architectural decision. When selecting a decommissioning solution, always question its durability:

• Is it independent from obsolete SAP code?
• Is it compatible with S/4HANA clean core?
• Will it still work when compatibility packs are no longer available?

Conclusion

Managing legacy data and legacy systems is not just an isolated IT decision; it’s a company-wide decision with financial, regulatory and security implications. Opting for a durable and structured SAP decommissioning approach future-proofs an organisation’s data strategy while maximising the return on their S/4HANA investment.

Today, companies are undergoing structural SAP transformations—such as migrating to S/4HANA via RISE with SAP, and they have to manage vast volumes of legacy data without compromising efficiency, compliance, or innovation. TJC Group’s Enterprise Legacy System Application (ELSA), built on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), transforms this challenge into a strategic advantage.