The two SAP warehouse management solutions available from 1.01.2026 are Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) and Stock Room Management. In addition to the question of which warehouse management system is right for you, you also need to ask yourself whether you should move into the cloud or remain on-premise. Both solutions are available - sometimes to a limited extent - both on-premise and in the cloud. If you opt for an on-premise environment, both solutions are fully available to you: Stock Room Management and EWM as a basic version with basic functionalities or an advanced version with additional functions. If your company chooses to move to the cloud, the decisive question is whether you opt for the private or public cloud. While both EWM and Stock Room Management are fully available in the private cloud, the public cloud with the S/HANA Cloud WM product offers a warehouse management system with a reduced scope of basic functions.
Stock Room Management or EWM?
The two solutions are hardly comparable, as Stock Room Management is nothing more than WM with a reduced scope and EWM is a completely new solution with new objects and transactions. EWM can be used in two versions: Basic and Advanced EWM. In general, it can be said that Stock Room Management and EWM Basic are suitable for companies that have simpler logistics processes and do not expect any major changes in warehouse processes. However, it must be borne in mind that, unlike EWM, Stock Room Management will not be developed further. If your warehouse processes become more complex, you can switch from EWM Basic to EWM Advanced more easily than from Stock Room Management to EWM.
SAP WM compatibility mode in S/4HANA expires in:
Stock Room Management
Stock Room Management is nothing more than classic SAP WM with a reduced scope. It is part of the S/4HANA release and maintenance strategy and is currently being maintained until 2040. SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management License is sufficient for the solution. Stock Room Management is only designed for basic warehouse processes:
- Inventory management at storage bin level
- Storage & retrieval (ordering, inbound delivery, outbound delivery, production staging)
- Inventory
- Mobile data collection (LE-MOB) can still be used without restriction
- In-house developments & existing user exits can be used.
The following functions are no longer available in Stock Room Management:
You can find out whether and how many of these functions are used in your warehouse using the STOCKROOM_COMPLIANCE_CHECK report. If only a few functions are affected and you want to remain on-premise, there is a workaround for the functions missing in Stock Room Management, for example to replace the interfaces.
You can find an overview of the functions of the solutions in our blog post Warehouse Management on S/4HANA.
Extended Warehouse Management
The EWM solution was already available on ECC. Under S/4HANA, it is also available as an embedded solution in addition to the decentralized implementation. This means that communication between the ERP and EWM systems still takes place via the queues, but directly in the same system, which significantly increases performance and eliminates sources of error. In addition, the EWM functions in S/4HANA remain the same as in ECC. However, EWM has little in common with WM. It is a completely new system with new objects, processes and documents that map the physical warehouse processes even more flexibly, accurately and reliably. This is ensured by new functions that are available in EWM for the first time. You can find out which functions are new in EWM in our blog post Warehouse Management on S/4HANA.
EWM is available in two versions: Basic or Advanced EWM.
Basic EWM: This version provides you with the most important functions in the goods receipt and goods issue process, reporting and inventory functions as well as production and HU and quality management. There are no additional license costs for this version, as Basic EWM is included in the S/4 license.
Advanced EWM offers extended functions such as work and yard management. You can also map your material flow control in this extended, but also more cost-intensive version of EWM.
If you are faced with the decision as to whether Stock Room Management or Basic EWM is the right solution for you, you can use the graphic shown here to help you decide.
In contrast to Stock Room Management, the functions shown in the graphic are available in Basic EWM:
Summary
SAP WM can be used under S/4HANA in compatibility mode until the end of 2025. If you are still on SAP WM and do not yet have a transformation strategy, you should address the issue now at the latest: The question of which solution is sufficient but future-proof is not an easy one. SAP consultants are scarce and the countdown to the discontinuation of WM at the end of 2025 is running. It is important to know that solutions already exist for many problems or uncertainties. With an experienced partner like CONSILIO, the changeover will be successful in the time remaining.
