OpenText VIM 7.6 and 20.4 maintenance ends 31 Dec 2027: choose the next release on purpose
Here is every VIM for SAP Solutions release that OpenText's public lifecycle page (read 10 October 2026) still shows in Current Maintenance:
| VIM release | Released | Current Maintenance ends |
|---|---|---|
| 25.4 | 31 Oct 2025 | 31 Dec 2030 |
| 23.4 | 1 Dec 2023 | 31 Dec 2028 |
| 20.4 | 1 Nov 2020 | 31 Dec 2027 |
| 7.6 | 1 Nov 2020 | 31 Dec 2027 |
Two older releases have already left it: 16.3 on 1 December 2022 and 7.5 on 31 December 2023. Unlike the archive products, every VIM row closes on 31 December, so these dates line up with a year end rather than a release anniversary.
Put 31 December 2027 next to SAP's calendar. SAP's mainstream maintenance for Business Suite 7 core applications, ECC 6.0 included, also runs to the end of 2027. If VIM 7.6 or 20.4 sits on ECC in your landscape, both clocks stop in the same month. That isn't a reason for alarm. It does mean the VIM release question and the S/4HANA question are now one conversation, and it's better to hold it in 2026 than in Q4 2027.
The two real options. For most teams on 7.6 or 20.4 the target is 23.4 or 25.4. 23.4 carries you one year past ECC's mainstream date. 25.4 gives you three. A move to 23.4 can make sense if an S/4HANA cutover is already dated inside 2028 and you plan to take VIM forward again at that point. If the S/4 date is still soft, 25.4 buys room to let it settle. We'd make that choice against the S/4 plan, not against whichever release was newest the week the project kicked off.
What Current Maintenance ending actually changes is in Tuesday's post on the 21.4 archive releases. Same handbook, same terms.
The capture side already follows this list. When OpenText released Core Capture for SAP Solutions 26.3 in September (KB0871261), it offered a special VIM transport for exactly four releases: 25.4, 23.4, 20.4 and 7.6. Those are the four rows in the table above. Today that keeps every supported VIM release on the same capture path, and landing on 23.4 or 25.4 keeps you there after 2027.
Who owns the decision. In our view it sits with the VIM process owner and the SAP program lead together, with finance in the room because the timing touches renewals and close calendars. One owner can't make it alone. The VIM side knows what's been built on top of the product. The program side knows when the platform underneath will move.
Before that meeting, collect five facts:
The VIM release and support package actually in production, read from the system, not the design document.
The SAP release it runs on, and that release's maintenance date.
The target VIM release and its Current Maintenance end, written next to the planned S/4HANA go-live.
What's been built on top of VIM (BAdIs, custom roles, approval logic) that would need retesting.
Who confirms the Core Capture transport on the target release.
Fourteen months is plenty of time to do this calmly. It's not much time to do it twice.
