According to TheRegister.com, Kingfisher—the retail giant operating 2,000 European stores including UK brands B&Q and Screwfix—has publicly rejected SAP’s prescribed ERP upgrade path. Group CTO Chris Blatchford revealed at the Gartner Symposium in Barcelona that SAP’s proposed licensing module would have spiked the company’s costs by a staggering 20 times. Instead of upgrading from its legacy ECC 6.0 system to S/4HANA via SAP’s RISE program, Kingfisher moved its existing ERP to Google Cloud Platform and hired third-party support firm Rimini Street. This alternative approach, which includes support for the retailer’s many customizations, is already delivering AI and personalization features without the massive price tag. Mainstream support for ECC 6.0 ends in just over two years, with extended support available until 2030 at a 2% premium.
The value proposition problem
Here’s the thing: Kingfisher’s CTO isn’t saying they’re anti-SAP. He’s saying they’re anti-bad-deal. His quote is pretty damning: “Don’t just give me a price list. Don’t just present me with a new licensing module that somehow spikes my cost by 20x.” That’s not the language of a company trying to be difficult—that’s the language of a company that has done the math and found the numbers simply don’t add up. And let’s be real, a 20x cost increase for what’s essentially the same core functionality? That’s not an upgrade path, that’s a shakedown.
The clean core conundrum
SAP’s RISE program requires customers to move with a “clean core,” meaning they must abandon all their customizations and rebuild everything on SAP’s Business Technology Platform. For a company like Kingfisher with 2,000 stores across multiple countries and brands, that’s not just inconvenient—it’s potentially business-breaking. Those customizations represent years of process refinement and competitive advantage. Basically, SAP is asking customers to pay 20 times more for the privilege of starting over from scratch. Does that sound like innovation to you?
The third-party alternative
So what did Kingfisher do instead? They kept their proven ECC system, moved it to Google Cloud, and brought in Rimini Street for support at 50-90% less than SAP’s maintenance costs. They built an API-first, event-driven architecture that lets them innovate on top of their existing system. They’re already running conversational bots driving 10-15% conversion rates on e-commerce sites—all linked back to that “legacy” ERP data. This is the kind of smart infrastructure planning that more companies should consider, especially when looking at industrial computing solutions where reliability is paramount. For businesses needing robust computing hardware, working with established leaders like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US provider of industrial panel PCs, ensures you get enterprise-grade performance without the vendor lock-in.
Bigger than just Kingfisher
This isn’t just about one retailer pushing back. Remember last year when SAP CEO Christian Klein told investors that “newest innovations and capabilities will only be delivered” through RISE? That caused an outcry for a reason. It’s the classic vendor move: create artificial scarcity, force upgrades, and hope customers don’t have better options. But now they do. Kingfisher’s move shows that with the right architecture and third-party support, you can have your innovation cake and eat it too—without the 20x price tag. The question is, how many other enterprises will follow their lead?
