In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, enterprises rely on robust and scalable software solutions to manage their operations efficiently…
And, while SAP does empower organizations to streamline business processes, enhance productivity, and gain valuable insights, they often struggle to migrate their SAP systems or transfer large volumes of data to keep up with organizational growth and change over time.
This is where SAP Migration comes in to help.
This article will take a deeper dive into the key capabilities of SAP Cloud Migration, how to choose the best database migration option for your unique needs, and where our team of expert SAP consultants can come in to help.
Read on to learn more!
What is Data Migration in SAP?
SAP Migration refers to the process of transferring data between different computer storage types, flat files and formats, and other SAP solutions, like SAP ECC, Data Center, or Business Suite, to ensure data remains accurate and secure, no matter how many times it’s moved or where it goes before its final destination.
Optimized data migration processes are critical components of an efficient SAP ERP system as they help companies streamline operations across a complex cloud infrastructure and reduce IT costs related to the management, movement, and storage of data across various platforms.
SAP Data Migration is a key consideration for any system implementation, upgrade, consolidation, or optimization initiative, making it easier for SAP customers to move data to the target system with ease and manage SAP workloads more efficiently across departments.
Key Steps in the SAP HANA Migration Process
While moving data from an existing legacy system to a new SAP system typically follows a simple ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process, but it is also important to consider data validation processes to optimize the movement of data across systems.
Let’s take a closer look at each step of the end-to-end data migration process in SAP…
1) Data Extraction
The first step of the data migration process involves extracting necessary and relevant data from your existing system by leveraging advanced data migration tools and resources.
In this step, users will pull relevant data from each source based on specific criteria, including “relevancy rules” like business value filters, dates, or other unique fields.
2) Data Transformation
The transformation phase is the most important step of the data migration process, analyzing and transforming extracted data to meet format and structure requirements in the target system and align field values to the new SAP application or system.
This step includes the mapping of source fields to target fields using transformation rules like…
- Copy: This involves a “one-to-one” mapping process to connect one source field to one target field in the new system.
- Logical: This maps source fields to target fields by using condition-based rules.
- Default: This assigns a default value to a field in the source or target system.
- Xref: This uses cross-reference tables to convert the source value to the right target value.
3) Preload Validation
Once your data has been transformed, you must conduct “preload validation” to ensure the data being loaded into the target system meets system requirements, is configured correctly, and passes necessary checks before it can actually be loaded into the new system.
Preload validations to ensure proper data configuration and alignment include…
- Format: This validation is performed to ensure data formats, like pattern checks, length checks, and date fields are configured correctly.
- Mandatory: This validation validates whether the system and business mandatory fields are populated or not.
- Configuration: This validation checks necessary configurations to ensure they are built and maintained properly to load, configure, and manage data across teams.
4) Data Loads
This step requires users to load the necessary and relevant data into their target system by leveraging different load methodologies, including ETL tools, LSMW, BODS, and IDOCs.
Companies are enabled to choose load methodologies based on their unique business and data management needs, ensuring the load is carried out properly and efficiently.
5) Postload Data Validation
Once the data has been loaded into the new system, users will conduct “postload validation” to ensure the data is properly loaded into the system and can be checked and validated in t-codes and tables.
Postload validation will generate three different reports that are dependent upon the status of the loaded data — Pass, Fail, and Change — to help users determine the success of their data migration and identify areas of necessary change to properly load and migrate their data.
Things to Consider When Moving to S/4HANA
While moving from a legacy system to a newer, more functional system like SAP S/4HANA can be an exciting time for your organization, it’s important to keep a few things in mind as you move your existing data to your target system to ensure a successful migration.
Here are a few key considerations when conducting an SAP migration to SAP S/4HANA…
Technical Assessment
Assess your current technical infrastructure and specific requirements needed for S/4HANA. Evaluate hardware, operating systems, and databases to ensure that existing software meets necessary prerequisites for a smooth migration.
System Optimization
Streamline and optimize existing system landscapes by identifying problem areas and decommissioning unnecessary systems or components. This helps reduce complexities and improves the efficiency of necessary maintenance efforts during the migration process.
Business Process Evaluation
Evaluate current business processes to identify opportunities for improvement and build a structured plan for process optimization.
Determine the impact of a new S/4HANA solution on existing processes and define the future state of operations with the new capabilities offered by the platform add-on.
Data Migration Strategy
Develop a comprehensive data migration strategy to ensure a seamless transition of critical data from the legacy system to the new S/4HANA solution.
Teams must assess the quality of their existing data, cleanse and transform each data source, and establish a robust data governance framework to get the most value out of their SAP system and new SAP S/4HANA investment.
Integration Considerations
Evaluate integration requirements with other SAP applications, external systems, third-party software solutions, and interfaces to identify potential integrations that would add value and improve efficiency across the board.
Determine the impact of the migration on existing integrations and plan for necessary adjustments or re-implementations to ensure seamless data exchange between your legacy system and your new system in SAP S/4HANA.
Organizational Change Management
Prepare your organization and project teams for the migration by defining change management strategies, conducting training programs, and communicating the benefits and impacts of S/4HANA to key stakeholders across the enterprise.
Engage key users and departments to ensure smooth adoption and alignment with business goals, leading to more efficient, simplified digital transformation efforts and better use of the SAP HANA database in managing employee and company data throughout the migration.
How Can We Help?
Your technology. Your priorities. Our expertise. That’s just how we roll at Surety Systems.
With our team of senior-level, US-based SAP consultants, you can not only optimize core data migration processes across your entire SAP environment, but you can also gain better visibility into your SAP system to ensure business requirements are met and compliance is maintained, no matter what.
Whether you need help implementing new SAP applications across teams, navigating data migrations to connect traditional databases to modernized SAP solutions, or anything else related to data migration or change management, Surety Systems has you covered.
Partnering with the Best
Interested in learning where our team of SAP experts can fit in your organization?
Ready to get started on an SAP implementation, integration, migration, or optimization project, but don’t know who to turn to for help along the way?
Contact us today for more information about our SAP consulting services!
