Dive into the intricacies of SAP data migration with our detailed guide. Uncover the step-by-step process, best practices, and crucial insights to ensure a flawless data transition.

SAP Data Migration Process Explained: Definition, Use Cases, and the Most Common Pitfalls

Whether you're an SAP enthusiast or a curious newcomer, join us as we navigate through the realms of seamless data transition, unveiling insights that can redefine the trajectory of your digital transformation journey.

What is Data Migration?

Data migration refers to selecting, preparing, extracting, and transforming data and permanently transferring it between data storage systems, data formats, or computer systems. When data moves from one place to another or from one application to another, it often involves new technologies or business changes.

Business goals usually drive the need to move and convert data and can affect many types of data migration. There are several typical types of data migration.

• Storage migration: transferring data from existing storage to more modern storage. Many organizations today are migrating their storage to accelerate performance and implement cost-effective scalability. 
• Database migration: it is often necessary to move to a new database to meet changing business needs. Database technologies are vast, and depending on your business and application needs, you can migrate from a typical on-prem database to a NoSQL database, an SQL database in the cloud, or possibly even a DaaS (database-as-a-service) solution.
• Application migration: Organizations often change their application vendors and upgrade to get the functionality needed to meet their business needs. This inevitably leads to numerous data transformations as changes in the data model, schemas, and APIs are inevitable.

A general trend that we're seeing in these various data migrations is that everything is moving to the cloud — whether it's storage capacity, databases, or applications. The cloud offers many advantages for the modern technology landscape as more and more data is created and stored in the cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

Top Cases When Businesses Need Data Migration

1. In many cases, businesses find the need to migrate their data to SAP S/4 HANA, primarily driven by the enticing promise of faster performance made possible by its in-memory database. 

   How it worked: A multinational corporation handled complex financial transactions across regions, relying on a legacy SAP ERP system that struggled to deliver real-time insights due to its traditional disk-based database. With SAP S/4 HANA's in-memory database, data processing speed drastically improved. Previously time-consuming reports are now generated faster, empowering the company to respond quickly to market changes and enhancing its competitiveness.

2. SAP data migration ensures a smooth shift while maintaining data integrity when transitioning from on-premise to cloud-based SAP systems.

   How it worked: The company faced scalability and accessibility limitations with on-premises servers storing customer data and sales records. They migrated to a cloud-based platform, partnering with a service provider to overcome this. This shift boosted remote accessibility and scalability through automatic backups. With reduced maintenance costs, the company focused on core activities, capitalizing on the cloud's agility.

3. Transferring data from a non-SAP system to an SAP system demands meticulous migration to ensure seamless functionality. 

   How it worked: A multinational trading company grappled with fragmented data management using a non-SAP system for procurement, inventory, and shipping. This led to disjointed processes, data inaccuracies, and inefficiencies in their supply chain operations.

   They transferred their data to an SAP system to achieve seamless operations. This migration consolidated their operations, ensuring real-time visibility into inventory levels and streamlined procurement. This integration enabled the company to make informed decisions swiftly, minimize delays, and enhance collaboration across their supply chain partners.

4. Upgrading from a legacy SAP format to the latest SAP S/4HANA version necessitates a strategic SAP data migration approach. 

   How it worked: A prominent IT solutions provider used a legacy version of SAP ERP that struggled to keep pace with their evolving business needs. As their customer base expanded and digital transformation became imperative, the limitations of their outdated SAP system became evident in delayed reporting, fragmented data analytics, and slower decision-making. 

   The upgrade to the latest SAP S/4HANA version revolutionized its operations, offering real-time insights, predictive analytics, and simplified user interfaces, solidifying its position as an industry leader.

Data Migration Options

Data Migration Challenges

Data migration is imperative for all companies using SAP ERP. At the beginning of 2020, SAP announced in an official statement that it would end support for SAP Business Suite 7 at the end of 2027. Customers needing additional support with a longer conversion phase to SAP S/4HANA will be able to extend maintenance support to 2030. As soon as the change is inevitable, the timely development of an individual strategy is the logical outcome — and may entail the related challenges during the project.

Neglected change management

SAP change management involves preemptively identifying process issues to ensure a smooth transition. Unfortunately, this is often disregarded due to resource constraints. In-house change management, aligned with company challenges enhances user acceptance, optimizes processes, and facilitates a smooth system shift.

Redesign decision pitfalls

Migrations offer a chance for SAP redesign and new data models, but hasty decisions can lead to problems. A well-structured process landscape allows successful Brownfield conversions. Complex solutions favor a Greenfield approach, redefining processes with a strategic outlook.

Failed deadlines

SAP migrations require meticulous planning, often spanning 6 to 18 months. Companies tend to underestimate the effort and rush the process, causing errors and unforeseen expenses. Engaging experienced service providers mitigates these issues and ensures realistic timeframes.

Misaligned preliminary projects

Effective SAP S/4HANA transition necessitates thorough test conversions aligned with company needs. Inadequate planning or disjointed preliminary projects often overlook system landscapes. A holistic migration includes tailored solutions, ensuring alignment with the company's unique requirements.

How Data Management Platforms Facilitate the Migration Process

DataLark utilizes the best tools when undertaking data migration to ensure the process is seamless, has a high degree of success, and avoids delays. These are our guiding principles:

• We assemble the migration team with the right experts to manage the project.
• Extensive pre-planning involving all stakeholders is key to ensuring that the data after the migration will meet the users' needs.
• Data migration should be an opportunity to clean the data before transfer and improve its quality standard to avoid inheriting poor quality data with old problems.
• Ensure that the amount of data to be transferred is correctly dimensioned as far as possible. Data sanitization can help ensure that only high-quality data is migrated.
• Back up the customer’s data before migrating to avoid data loss.
• Constantly test the migration, from planning and design through execution and maintenance, to ensure the success of the migration project.
• Keep the old system on until successful migration is confirmed.

Conclusion

Embarking on an SAP data migration journey unveils transformative possibilities. Critical to success is selecting an implementation model aligned with business needs, ensuring smooth migration. This approach yields business value in performance, security, and ROI terms.

Companies considering data migration between patent software tools should consider working with a vendor or consultant specializing in data migration, and the DataLark team will happily support your project.