Your Warehouse Management choices in S/4HANA: why SAP EWM matters

February 23, 2023

4 minutes

Digital supply chain SAP ERP Services Flexso Supply Chain

Have you recently upgraded your old ECC system to S/4HANA? Then you might be wondering which WMS (Warehouse Management System) is the right choice for your company. Can you stick with your current WM set-up, or should you upgrade to SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM)? And if you do, is the basic or advanced version your best choice? This blog will help you make the right decision. Let’s jump in!

Continue using SAP WM or upgrading to SAP EWM

Many companies are converting their old ECC system to SAP S4/HANA, and rightfully so. If this is the case for your company and you’re currently using WM – the WMS linked to ECC – then you have another big decision ahead of you. Can you keep operating WM, or should you upgrade to SAP’s new Extended Warehouse Management (EWM)?

What is EWM?

EWM stands for Extended Warehouse Management. It’s SAP new WMS-system which was built from scratch. As a result, there are no technical similarities between WM and SAP EWM. SAP will still support WM until the 31st of December 2025. Afterwards, WM will be converted automatically into Stock Room Management with limited functionalities compared to WM. There will be no more improvements or upgrades. If you want to avoid this situation, it’s recommended to switch to EWM.

Update (2025):

Please note: the deadline for using Warehouse Management (WM) in S/4HANA depends on your deployment model.

On-premise S/4HANA: Support for WM in compatibility mode ends at the end of 2025.
RISE with SAP (cloud): Customers who choose RISE benefit from an extended deadline and can continue to use WM in compatibility mode until the end of 2030.

This means that organizations moving to RISE now have several more years to keep their existing WM processes, even if they use functionalities that will not be supported in Stock Room Management in the future. For on-premise customers, the original deadline of end 2025 still applies.

There is no magical upgrade button from SAP WM to SAP EWM, it’s an entirely new implementation. If you’re using WM now and you’re upgrading to S/4HANA, you need to decide if you want to upgrade to Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) as well. SAP’s strategic and recommended warehouse solution is SAP EWM in S/4HANA, either embedded or decentralized. Here are your options:

Explore 4 migration scenarios for SAP Warehouse Management.

Use the basic SAP EWM along with S/4HANA

Basic EWM is included in the S/4HANA license. Here are the main advantages of basic EWM:

No additional license costs!
EWM is task-oriented: divide the labor/activities in your warehouse in a smarter and more efficient way.
EWM runs on all mobile devices. Very handy for all the available Fiori apps.
SAP best practices are available for EWM. That means accelerated implementation!

The basic version of EWM is the option for you if:

You’re already upgrading to S/4HANA and you want the best WMS solution without any additional license costs. The basic EWM is included in the S/4HANA license and covers most of the functionalities of EWM.

Upgrade to the advanced SAP EWM

The release of SAP EWM comes with two license models. Besides the basic EWM mentioned above, you can also opt for the advanced EWM.

This carries an additional license cost, but the advanced system offers some important extra functionalities:

Material Flow System (MFS): integration with automatic warehouses.
Cross-docking: pick goods directly from the staging area.
Wave management: group your warehouse requests to improve picking efficiency.
Cartonization planning: fill up your cartons as efficiently as possible during picking.

The advanced EWM is the best option if:

You run advanced warehouse processes and need functionalities like automatic warehouse integration.

Continue use WM (Stock Room Management as of 2026)

Is your WM solution 100% tailor-made to your warehouse? Then you probably don’t want to upgrade (yet).
The good news: SAP keeps supporting WM until December 31, 2025. That means it will keep working the same way it did in ECC. The downside: there are no more improvements, no Fiori apps, no new dashboards …

As of 2026, WM will still be included in S/4HANA, yet under a new name: Stock Room Management. This is basically a light version of WM with reduced functionalities. As long as you’re not using any of these functionalities, you don’t need to upgrade to EWM:

• Cross-Docking
• Decentralized WM
• Task and Resource Management
• Value Added Services
• Warehouse Control Unit Interface
• Wave Management
• Yard Management

So, should you go for option 3, and stick with WM?

Only if your WM is fully tailored to your warehouse and upgrading is not an option. Even then, make sure that you’re not using any of the functionalities that will be excluded from Stock Room Management as of 2026.

Need help making the right decision?

Do you have warehouses that run on WM? No worries, even in S/4HANA you can still use it until the end of 2025. This gives you still some time to convert your WM system to a brand new EWM-implementation. No need for EWM? In some cases, you can keep running WM within S/4HANA with Stock Room Management. Is your situation different from the above mentioned scenario’s? We are happy to look at your needs and possibilities for your warehouse management.

4 migration scenarios for SAP Warehouse Management

As of 2026, SAP will no longer support Warehouse Management (WM), replacing it with the simpler Stock Room Management (StRM) solution. What does that mean for WM users in SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA? And where does SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) come in? Explore 4 migration scenarios and read how our assessment can help ensure a smooth transition.