Britain's biggest nuclear site looks set to outlast SAP support again

Sellafield considers using legacy ECC software beyond extended 2030 cut-off

The government-owned company that runs the UK's most important nuclear site is weighing up whether to keep its legacy SAP software running beyond the vendor's extended support deadline.

Sellafield Limited, which runs the site in West Cumbria, has begun market engagement with a view to procuring up to £90 million in technology services to support its applications and infrastructure.

Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, has been the center of the UK's nuclear industry since the 1950s. While the site is home to a number of companies and the government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Sellafield Limited is a British nuclear decommissioning Site Licence Company controlled by the NDA.

Included in the plans set out in a published tender document are application management services, in an agreement worth up to an estimated £41.51 million over five years, from April 2027 to April 2032 with the option to extend another two years.

It said 118 applications are set to come under the arrangement, including Sellafield's SAP ERP system, which, although classed as a single business application, comprises 19 products and components, as well as HANA and Adaptive Server Enterprise databases.

Accompanying documents set out that the SAP ERP system would be "a significant proportion" of the application management role. Sellafield said it relies on an on-premises system based on ECC6 Business Suite, SAP's legacy ERP system first introduced in 2005. The organization also consumes SAP SaaS for HR, learning, and expenses.

The body said that as SAP upgrades to its latest software would be "only available to customers with Cloud SAP contracts," it plans to move to "a full cloud-based ERP solution in a phased transition approach between 2027 and 2030."

"We have not determined the precise implementation/migration order nor precise timeline at present," Sellafield said.

"We anticipate that support for the on-premises SAP solution will be required until December 2030. Support may be required post 2030 whilst the controlled decommissioning of the on-premises solution is undertaken."

SAP has maintained that mainstream support for ECC will end at the close of 2027, while extended support – at a 2 percent premium – will be available until the end of 2030. Users signing up to SAP's special commercial arrangements to move to the cloud might see support extended beyond 2030 while they complete migrations.

There is also an option of third-party support beyond 2030, but German-speaking user group DSAG recently said it would be tantamount to a decision to move off SAP as it would mean the loss of license discounts.

The Register has asked Sellafield if it plans to use extended support, how it plans to support the software beyond 2030, and where it plans to migrate to after ECC. SAP's preferred path is to S/4HANA in the public cloud, where it requires a "clean core" before moving the application. Users are recommended to adopt standard business processes. Any customization transferred to the new platform must be rebuilt in SAP's cloud-based Business Technology Platform.

"By December 2030 we will have fully migrated to a cloud-based ERP solution, removing the on-premises SAP solution and the current support requirements for SAP from [application management service]," Sellafield's procurement document said.

The organization said it would launch a separate procurement for a dedicated ERP cloud implementation and support partner "in parallel," with that contract likely to "run on a coterminous basis" to the new application support contract.

"Beyond 2030 we anticipate that a new support model will be required for the replacement ERP solution as we operate a full cloud capability. We expect to undertake a Make Versus Buy exercise to determine the scope of a potential future procurement, noting that ERP will provide a managed cloud service," the documents said.

Observers might view Sellafield's timeline with concern. Although it has five years until SAP pulls the plug on ECC support, it has yet to start the procurement process for a partner to help with the application migration.

In June, Parliament's spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, said: "Sellafield Ltd's performance in delivering major projects... has historically been very poor, with large cost increases and delays occurring all too frequently.

"There are signs of improvement – however, given Sellafield's track record, we are yet to be fully convinced that this is not another false dawn."

A spokesperson at Sellafield Ltd, told The Register:

"We have successfully migrated into a Service Integration and Management (SIAM) organisation through a significant programme of work which is now in the maturing phase.

"The supporting contracts are entering their renewal period. We will be looking for suppliers to support us in a consolidation of on-premise infrastructure and applications, as well as exploiting cloud offerings.

"This will be a significant journey for Sellafield and will enable the transformation of services across the business." ®