Healthcare SAP Customers Weigh Continuity over Speed as IS-H Winds Down

SAP healthcare customers facing the end of SAP IS-H development are prioritizing continuity and risk management over rapid cloud migration, signaling a more cautious, hybrid approach to SAP Cloud adoption in regulated clinical environments.

SAP’s decision to stop developing its IS-H (Industry Solution Healthcare) application has created urgency across hospital IT organizations, particularly in Europe. IS-H has long supported administrative and logistics processes such as patient administration, billing, materials management, pharmacy, catering, and maintenance. While SAP will continue maintenance under its broader SAP Business Suite timelines, the solution will not be re-engineered for SAP S/4HANA, leaving customers without a direct SAP-native successor.

This shift aligns with SAP’s broader platform strategy. SAP noted legacy industry solutions like IS-H are not part of its S/4HANA roadmap, reinforcing SAP S/4HANA as the digital core and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) as the primary extensibility layer going forward. Mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite applications ends in 2027, with extended maintenance options available through 2030.

Hybrid Healthcare ERP Strategies

Snap Consulting positions its SnapWare GHT solution as a continuity-focused response to IS-H’s phaseout. As of January 2025, Snap assumed exclusive responsibility for SAP’s Strategic Health Template, including maintenance and development. The solution continues to support core hospital logistics processes and is currently in use at more than 60 hospitals and university clinics across the DACH region.

Rather than pushing customers into immediate cloud migrations, Snap advocates a hybrid approach centered on SAP S/4HANA on-premises systems combined with selective use of SAP cloud services. The company outlines a roadmap that leverages SAP BTP for extensions such as mobile applications, external system integration, analytics, automation, and SAP Business AI use cases, without destabilizing mission-critical hospital operations.

This approach mirrors broader industry sentiment. Analysts and system integrators note healthcare providers are unlikely to tolerate disruptive ERP changes due to patient safety, compliance, and staffing pressures. As a result, many hospitals are extending existing SAP landscapes while evaluating replacement or partner-led solutions for IS-H functionality rather than pursuing rapid SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud transitions.

Other third-party vendors and partners also offer successor or replacement options for hospital information and administrative systems. Some solutions aim to cover the functions IS-H handled, while others integrate via standardized interfaces (such as FHIR) into SAP S/4HANA environments. This shows why healthcare organizations are planning carefully and slowly, as they must preserve or replace core processes like patient records and billing without disrupting clinical operations.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Healthcare ERP modernization is being shaped more by risk tolerance than by vendor roadmaps. The IS-H transition illustrates how regulated industries weigh system stability, compliance, and patient safety above aggressive cloud timelines. For SAP customers in healthcare, transformation strategies are increasingly defined by continuity planning rather than speed.

SAP BTP is an accepted modernization layer for healthcare landscapes. Instead of rewriting core systems, hospitals are using BTP to extend functionality, integrate external platforms, and introduce automation incrementally. This reinforces SAP’s architectural message that innovation should live outside the digital core, particularly in environments where downtime carries clinical and legal consequences.

Industry-specific partners are filling strategic gaps. With SAP stepping back from direct healthcare industry solutions, trusted partners are assuming long-term responsibility for maintaining and evolving sector-specific functionality. This highlights the growing importance of partner due diligence as part of ERP roadmap decisions.