SAP ECC to Dynamics 365 migration for Irish companies: timeline and cost in EUR

An SAP ECC to Dynamics 365 migration for an Irish company typically takes 9 to 15 months for a single legal entity and 12 to 18 months for a group with entities in Ireland, Northern Ireland or Great Britain. The project usually costs from about €250,000 for a focused single company migration to €3 million or more for a multi country group, excluding VAT and licences. For Irish businesses the timing matters as much as the budget: SAP ECC mainstream maintenance ends at the close of 2027, and Revenue's eInvoicing programme starts in November 2028, so the go live date decides whether new invoicing rules are built once or twice.

This guide is written for finance directors and IT leaders of Irish companies, and Irish subsidiaries of international groups, that run SAP ECC and are weighing Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management as the next platform. It covers the timeline, the cost in euro, the Irish specifics that change the scope, and what to ask a Dynamics 365 implementation partner in Ireland before signing.

Key facts at a glance:

• Typical timeline. 9 to 15 months for one Irish company, 12 to 18 months for a group across Ireland and the UK, plus stabilisation.
• Typical cost. €250,000 to €3 million or more for the project, excluding VAT and licences, depending on entities and scope.
• SAP deadline. SAP ECC mainstream maintenance ends at the close of 2027, with extended maintenance to 2030 at a higher fee.
• Irish eInvoicing. From 1 November 2028 all businesses must be able to receive eInvoices, and large corporates must issue them for domestic B2B sales.
• Best timing. A go live before mid 2028 lets eInvoicing be built once, in Dynamics 365, rather than first in ECC.
• Best first step. A comparative analysis of the ECC environment that fixes scope, timeline and a EUR budget before licences are bought.

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How long does an SAP ECC to Dynamics 365 migration take in Ireland?

The timeline is set less by company size than by three questions: how far the ECC design has drifted from current processes, how many systems are integrated with SAP, and how many legal entities move at once. An Irish manufacturer or distributor with one entity, a few integrations and clean master data can move in about nine months. An Irish group with a Northern Ireland company, a UK sales entity and links to a US or European parent needs longer, mainly because each entity adds VAT, currency and intercompany design, and because the parent's reporting requirements must be agreed early. A project that starts with a thorough analysis usually finishes faster than one that rushes into build, because the questions that would otherwise surface in testing are answered on paper.

Moving from SAP is always a new implementation rather than an upgrade, so the phases look like a Dynamics 365 implementation with a heavier data and integration stream. Master data from SAP, including customers, vendors, materials, bills of materials and the chart of accounts, needs cleansing and mapping, and interfaces built on IDocs or custom ABAP programs are rebuilt. The table shows a typical phase plan for a midsize Irish company.

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Which Irish deadlines should shape the migration plan?

Two calendars overlap for Irish SAP customers. SAP's ends at the close of 2027 for mainstream maintenance, with extended maintenance to 2030 at a premium. Revenue's begins in 2028: according to Revenue's published implementation phases, from 1 November 2028 VAT registered large corporates must issue eInvoices for domestic B2B transactions with real time reporting, and all businesses must be able to receive eInvoices. From November 2029 the obligation extends to businesses in cross border EU B2B trade, and from July 2030 the EU's VAT in the Digital Age requirements apply to cross border transactions, as also summarised in EY's overview of the Irish announcement.

The consequence is a planning window rather than a single deadline. A company that goes live on Dynamics 365 before mid 2028 can design eInvoicing and real time reporting once, in the new system, with time to test them before November 2028. A company that stays on ECC beyond that date must build the same capability into SAP, maintain it under extended maintenance, and then rebuild it during the migration. Working backwards from a go live in the first half of 2028, the analysis needs to start in the first half of 2027 at the latest for a single company, and earlier for a group. Irish companies that are part of US groups should add one more check: whether the parent plans its own SAP move, because a two tier model with Dynamics 365 in Ireland and SAP at the parent is often the faster route.

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What does an SAP ECC to Dynamics 365 migration cost in EUR?

Partner services are the largest part of the budget, and they scale with entities, integrations and data rather than with user numbers. Licences are a separate recurring line from go live and are charged per user and role, with a full Finance or Supply Chain Management user at a list price of USD 210 per month, a second app for the same user at USD 30 and lighter activity licences at USD 50, billed in local currency under Microsoft's price list. Hosting of production and sandbox environments is included, which removes the SAP infrastructure, database and Basis administration costs for the core ERP. Irish companies often find that these savings, together with avoided extended maintenance fees, offset a meaningful part of the licence cost. The comparison should be made over five to ten years, because the savings recur while the project cost is incurred once.

Internal effort is the line most often missing from early budgets. Key users typically spend 30 to 50 percent of their time on the project during design and testing, and SAP master data cleansing is best started months before the build. The indicative ranges below are for midsize Irish companies and groups, exclude VAT and licences, and are replaced by a fixed figure once the ECC environment has been analysed.

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What is different about Irish companies on SAP?

Irish SAP estates have a few recurring features that change the scope of a Dynamics 365 project. Many are subsidiaries of US or continental European groups, so they report to the parent under one set of accounting rules while filing locally under another, which calls for a carefully designed ledger and reporting structure from day one. Many trade across the border with Northern Ireland and with Great Britain, which brings EUR and GBP in daily use, different VAT treatments for goods and services, and, for goods trade involving Northern Ireland, VAT numbers with the XI prefix. Many also run SAP integrations to logistics providers, banks and parent systems that were built over a decade and are poorly documented. Items worth confirming early in an Irish project:

• eInvoicing readiness. The design for receiving eInvoices from November 2028, and issuing them where the company is a large corporate.
• Group reporting. Parent company reporting rules, consolidation and intercompany flows across Irish and UK entities.
• Cross border VAT. Treatment of trade with Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the EU, including XI VAT numbers for goods.
• Currencies. EUR, GBP and USD handling, revaluation and bank integrations for each currency.
• Parent systems. Which interfaces to the parent's SAP or other systems remain, and how they will be rebuilt.

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What should you ask a Dynamics 365 implementation partner in Ireland?

Irish companies rarely have a large choice of local partners with deep Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management experience, so many work with partners based in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. That is workable when the partner's working day overlaps with Irish hours, someone senior can be on site at critical moments, and the team understands Irish and UK localisation. A partner's experience with SAP data matters as much as its Dynamics 365 skills, because most of the risk in an ECC exit sits in master data, open items and integrations rather than in configuration. The questions below separate partners that can deliver an SAP exit from those that have mainly implemented Dynamics 365 from scratch:

• SAP data. How do you extract, cleanse and reconcile SAP master data and open items, and with which tools?
• Irish localisation. How will VAT, eInvoicing readiness and cross border trade with Northern Ireland be handled?
• Group reporting. How will parent reporting and consolidation work if the parent stays on SAP?
• Team and hours. Who leads the project, where is the team based, and how much of it overlaps with Irish working hours?
• Fixed scope. What does your analysis deliver, and will it give us a fixed EUR budget before we commit?

A partner that answers these with specific examples, and is willing to price an analysis before the main contract, is usually a safer choice than one that leads with day rates.

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How ANEGIS supports Irish companies moving from SAP ECC

ANEGIS is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications focused on Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, with 98 Dynamics 365 specialists and more than 170 experts in Poland and the UK, including a registered UK company, ANEGIS UK LTD, in London. Its teams work one hour ahead of Irish time, so the working days overlap almost entirely. The SAP ECC to Dynamics 365 migration service starts with a comparative analysis of the environment before any licence is bought, and the move can be made in full or in stages, starting with selected subsidiaries or countries, with risk managed from balance reconciliation to the go live contingency plan.

ANEGIS has worked for groups whose operations include Ireland. For Exterion Media, one of Europe's largest outdoor advertising companies, serving advertisers in the UK, Ireland and five other countries, ANEGIS implemented AXAD, its own media management solution built on Microsoft Dynamics. In the UK it moved BUUK Infrastructure to Dynamics 365 in the cloud after more than ten years as its ERP partner, with a 14 month implementation and go live on 3 July 2023. For a broader checklist on choosing a partner, see our guide to 10 questions Irish companies ask before choosing a Dynamics 365 partner.

Plan your SAP ECC exit before the 2028 deadlines

The best time to fix the go live date is before both the SAP and Revenue calendars start to press. Contact ANEGIS to book a free consultation or a comparative analysis of your SAP ECC environment and a EUR budget for Dynamics 365.

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