The squeeze is real but uneven
Generic ABAP capacity is available. Experienced S/4HANA functional consultants in logistics and finance who have done a full cutover are not, and their availability windows are usually planned six to nine months out.
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The S/4HANA deadline is a capacity problem before it is a technical one
The end of mainstream maintenance for older SAP ERP releases has concentrated an enormous amount of transformation work into a few years. The technical path is well documented. The staffing path is not.
Start a conversationInsight · 7 May 2026
Plan by phase, not by headcount
Design, build, cutover and hypercare need different profiles and different intensities. Booking a full team for the whole programme wastes budget in the quiet months and leaves you short during cutover.
- Design: architects and lead functionals
- Build: technical consultants and integration
- Cutover: data migration and test leads
- Hypercare: support-capable functionals
What we tell clients
Lock in the cutover profiles first, even if the programme start date might move. They are the scarcest and the hardest to replace at short notice.
More reading
Case: keeping an insurer's S/4HANA cutover on schedule
A Belgian insurance group lost two key functional consultants eleven weeks before go-live.
Case: closing a Kafka expertise gap at an international logistics groupA conversation surfaced a missing skill set; a candidate we already knew filled it.
Contracting or permanent: how the choice differs in Belgium, the Netherlands and FranceThe same career decision has three different shapes depending on which side of the border you are on.