SAP PI/PO standard maintenance ends in December 2027. But treating this deadline as just another “lift-and-shift” migration is a missed opportunity. If PI/PO is central to your architecture, simply moving your existing interfaces means carrying over the same complexity, custom scripts, and operational bottlenecks to a new environment.
Instead, this is a rare window to modernize.
This is your moment to simplify day-to-day operations, accelerate delivery with low-code and AI, and build an agile foundation for your entire technology landscape — not just your SAP ecosystem. Below is a practical way to approach modernization with Boomi Enterprise Platform.
What you’ll learn in this blog:
- Why getting off PI/PO needs to be a broader modernization effort, not just a basic replacement.
- What “modernizing” actually looks like
- How Boomi helps you modernize off PI/PO
- How to start mapping your modernization path
Why PI/PO Migration Requires a Modernization Strategy
PI/PO is rarely just SAP-to-SAP message routing. Over time, it tends to sprawl into:
- SAP-to-non-SAP integrations such as SaaS apps and data platforms
- Batch jobs and data movement
- Partner and B2B/EDI flows
- Custom ABAP code that no one wants to touch because it’s fragile
So if the goal is simply “get off PI/PO,” it’s easy to recreate the same complexity in a new place.
Modernization is different. The goal is to come out the other side with:
- Less custom code/scripting to own
- Less operational overhead
- Faster delivery for new requests
- A platform that fits your full technology landscape — not just one vendor’s ecosystem
Defining a Modern Integration Architecture
Most teams modernize in phases. The goal is to make integrations easier to build, easier to change, and easier to operate over time.
1. Reduce Custom Work Wherever You Can
Every custom script and one-off pattern becomes future maintenance. The faster path is standard patterns, reusable components, and low-code development where it makes sense.
2. Make Change Easier
The business doesn’t slow down because your middleware is complex. If every change takes weeks and a small group of specialists, the backlog grows and the risk increases — which costs the business time and money.
3. Modernize Beyond Integration Flows
Most organizations don’t just need “integration.” They need a clean way to manage:
- Integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
- API Management (APIM)
- Data movement / pipelines
- Golden records
- Agentic workflows
- AI agent governance
If those are scattered across tools and teams, speed drops. Governance gets harder. Ownership gets fuzzy. And the business becomes less agile — which is even more important now with the pace of AI.
Accelerating PI/PO Modernization with the Boomi Enterprise Platform
For many PI/PO customers, SAP Integration Suite can look like the most straightforward next step. Before you commit to a single path, it’s worth evaluating the trade-offs — especially around day-to-day delivery speed, non-SAP scope, platform sprawl, and hybrid operations.
The goal isn’t just to “pick a tool.” It should be to modernize in a way that reduces complexity and cost over the long run.
Modernize Faster With Low-code, Reusable Components, and AI
Boomi is built to help teams move quickly without turning every interface into a custom build. That matters when you’re migrating dozens (or hundreds) of PI/PO flows and want to avoid recreating a hard-to-change integration estate.
A big part of that speed is component reusability. Instead of rebuilding the same endpoint settings, mappings, and utility logic across dozens of flows, Boomi is designed around centrally managed, reusable building blocks (connections, operations, maps, shared subprocess logic, and more). Teams can standardize patterns once and reuse them broadly — reducing duplication and operational drag.
That translates into:
- Faster build and migration velocity: Assemble common patterns from existing components instead of rebuilding repeatedly.
- More consistent governance: Shared components with dependency visibility, so teams know what changes will impact.
- Less maintenance: Fewer duplicated configs and scripts to chase when credentials, endpoints, or schemas change.
- Cleaner operations: A more standardized landscape is easier to monitor and troubleshoot than a sprawl of near-duplicate flows.
If SAP Integration Suite is in the mix, look closely at where the work sits: how much is visual/low-code vs. how much turns into custom Groovy scripting, and extra coordination across other SAP services. Boomi’s low-code approach makes it easier to standardize patterns, reuse components, and deliver integrations with less custom code. And Boomi’s built-in platform AI agents can help speed up build work and troubleshooting so teams stay efficient — especially at enterprise scale, where the real cost isn’t the first build, it’s the years of changes that follow.
Reducing SAP Complexity With Boomi for SAP
One of the hardest parts of SAP integration isn’t the integration flow itself — it’s getting the right SAP data and objects exposed in a usable way. Many teams end up needing to write custom ABAP just to access SAP data — which slows delivery, increases maintenance cost, and adds operational risk.
Boomi for SAP is built to reduce that friction. It makes SAP data access and integration setup more straightforward by:
- Minimize Specialized SAP development to Integrate with SAP: Access many SAP objects through the Boomi for SAP UI — so you’re not relying on specialized SAP development work (e.g., ABAP, OData) just to integrate with SAP.
- Broader SAP object coverage (beyond basic JCo patterns): Fewer gaps and workarounds when you need data that isn’t easily reachable through typical JCo-based approaches.
- Enable agentic workflows: Make SAP data and actions easier to orchestrate into automated, agent-driven processes with governance.
- Lower compliance risk: SAP-certified and aligned with SAP runtime and clean core requirements.
Extending Modernization Across the SAP Ecosystem
Most SAP customers run heterogeneous technology environments: CRM, ITSM, HCM, data platforms, best-of-breed apps, and partner systems. Modernization goes smoother when SAP connectivity to that broader ecosystem is straightforward — without extra connector friction or constant workarounds.
This is also where platform differences show up. Boomi is built for heterogeneous integration with broad, directly supported connectivity. In contrast, SAP Integration Suite often extends non-SAP connectivity through “open connector” models, which can add another layer of roadmap and operational dependency.
Roughly 96% of SAP customers have other applications they need to connect to, which makes only 4% of SAP customers truly “SAP-only”.
Reducing Tool Sprawl With a Unified Platform
Modernization gets slower when capabilities are split across multiple products, portals, and teams. Boomi brings key building blocks together in one place — including:
- Integration (iPaaS)
- API management
- Golden records (or data governance)
- Data pipelines
- AI agent management and governance
- Additional capabilities such as EDI/B2B, metadata management, and workflow automation
As teams adopt agentic processes, the platform model matters more. If integration, APIs, data, and agent tooling live across separate SAP services and consoles, it often creates handoffs, context switching, and extra effort to run and govern end-to-end processes. A unified platform cuts that overhead. With more in one place, teams can move faster with clearer ownership and consistent governance.
Simplifying Hybrid Integration With a Lightweight Runtime
If some integrations need to run in a private environment, treat the runtime as a long-term operating choice — not just a minor deployment detail. Prioritize an approach that’s quick to stand up and doesn’t require your team to run a lot of extra platform infrastructure just to execute integrations.
Boomi’s hybrid runtime is lightweight and self-contained, so teams can run hybrid integrations on standard infrastructure with fewer moving parts — reducing setup time and ongoing operational overhead.
If you’re evaluating options like SAP’s Edge Integration Cell (EIC), include the operational footprint in the decision: what you need to stand up, what you need to run, and who on your team will own it.
A “Better Together” Integration Strategy
A common reflex is to “move everything from PI/PO into SAP Integration Suite.” Sometimes that’s the right fit. But it’s worth stepping back and asking whether a single-vendor path will make your environment simpler — or just move complexity to a new place.
Here’s the practical reality:
- SAP Integration Suite tends to work best for SAP-to-SAP scenarios, especially where prebuilt content can accelerate delivery and keep costs predictable (often the lowest-cost path for SAP-to-SAP).
- Boomi’s strength in agnostic integration shines across the rest of the enterprise – SAP-to-non-SAP and broader any-to-any needs — while reducing reliance on scarce SAP developer resources.
That’s the “Better Together” idea: apply each platform to its strengths to optimize total cost and reduce long-term complexity.
A simple way to think about it:
- SAP-to-SAP: SAP Integration Suite (lean on pre-built content where it fits)
- SAP-to-non-SAP: Boomi for SAP
- Any-to-any: Boomi Enterprise Platform
How to Map Your PI/PO Modernization Strategy
Start by mapping your landscape at a high level. Group integrations into buckets:
- SAP-to-SAP
- SAP-to-non-SAP
- Non-SAP to non-SAP
- Hybrid or on-premises constrained
This usually makes the decision clearer: where SAP-native patterns make sense, where enterprise-wide connectivity matters most, and where operational complexity is coming from.
Key Takeaways for PI/PO Modernization
PI/PO standard maintenance ending in December 2027 is the forcing function. The opportunity is to come out of this with an integration foundation that’s simpler to run and faster to change.
Boomi is built for that kind of modernization: less code to maintain, less complexity to manage, and a platform that connects SAP to everything around it — without turning every change into a project.
Talk to an expert about your PI/PO modernization plan. Explore Boomi for SAP and Compare Boomi and SAP Integration Suite.