Germany Ran Out of Gummy Bears. Blame the Software

In 2018, Germany ran short of gummy bears. Haribo had just switched its factories to new business software, made by a company most people never think about: SAP. • SAP has given thousands of the world's biggest companies a deadline: December 31, 2027, when the version most of them run stops getting regular support. • Moving can take years and cost a fortune. Gartner projects around 17,000 companies won't make it in time. Lidl spent years on a new SAP system, stopped in 2018 and, per the German press, had spent about €500 million (Lidl said the decision was about economics, not a dispute with SAP). • When these systems break, they break on a supermarket shelf, in a factory, in a payroll, in a pharmacy. And every piece of software you depend on has an end date too: find out when your devices stop getting updates. Full video (11:46): "The SAP Deadline Nobody Is Talking About" on this channel. Sources • CIO.com, on Gartner's ECC migration estimates (2025): https://www.cio.com/article/4000543/ • German press on Lidl's eLWIS (2018) and Haribo (2018–2019) • SAP, ECC mainstream maintenance until December 31, 2027 Does the place you work run on SAP? 👇 ⚡ Wiredeep — the tech you use every day, explained in under a minute. 👉 Follow for more! #sap #software #tech