Best Practices and Phases of Data Migration From Legacy SAP to SAP

When an organization decides to implement SAP S/4HANA while implementing S/4HANA, the first step is to identify whether it will be a system conversion, new implementation, or selective data transition. Usually, when implementing S/4, it would be a new implementation. Once the implementation type is identified, we have to make sure that you have a full data migration plan in place as part of the project. 

Data migration is a major part of a successful SAP migration project. If you don’t start working on data extraction, cleaning, and conversion early and continue that work throughout the project, it can sneak up on you and become a last-minute crisis.

10 Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Data Migration

1. Define and Identify the Data Governance Strategy: Identify key business stakeholders for each data object. These individuals will own the data object(s) and be responsible for making critical data-related decisions about those objects. You need to create a process flow for creating, maintaining, and approving master data and harmonizing data across systems. You should also explore technological options to automate and enhance the data creation, maintenance, and integration. In many cases, your business’s data migration project is the catalyst for creating a data governance strategy. 

2.  Preparation: In this phase, we need to identify and discuss with the legacy system users/process users and define the rules/selection criteria for extracting the master data and ITEM data. 

3. Identify all Master Data Objects: The first step in data migration is to identify the critical master data objects, the sources of that data, and the current and future system(s) of record for these objects. Master data includes all the data that is required to do business – customers, vendors, employees, Materials, etc.  

Not only does the master data need to be identified, but it needs to be clean and accurate. We recommend using data profiling tools to analyze the quality of data and start the cleansing process. Data profiling tools will allow you to find duplication of data, missing data elements, data format consistency, wrong data, and outdated data. 

4. Determine the Item data: Next, determine what transaction data needs to be migrated. It’s critical to reduce the amount of historical data that will be moved to the new system. Migration of transactional data creates additional complexities when moving to a new system that leverages more streamlined processes. We typically recommend only migrating master data, open transactions, and G/L balances for new implementations. 

5. Create a Data Archiving Strategy: You will want to find a place and process for holding and referencing your historical data. Before you migrate data to your new system, create a data archiving strategy and, archive systems and messages, and change logs before migration. Historical data can be archived in file systems, document management systems, or in a data warehouse, while documents and attachments should be archived in a document management system. Make sure that your archiving strategy follows the audit requirements of your company and industry.  

6. Identify and Define Extraction rules: In this phase, we need to identify the tolls for extraction and extract the data by abiding by the user-defined rules/selection criteria. We can use either SQL tools like SQL – queries or any third-party extraction tools. 

7. Cleansing: In this phase we need to clean the data and transform the data into S/4 HANA requirement. We need to map the data with new values against old values, if any and may need to change the data structure or convert the data to a different encoding.

8. Loading the data with identified tools: This is where you load the data and reconciliation for different data objects into your new SAP S/4HANA system. You can use SAP tools or third-party tools to load the data.

Create a detailed plan for migration, data validation, reconciliation, load simulations, testing, and test cycles, and incorporate the converted data into integration test cycles. 

9. Validating the data with automation tools: This is where you test the data to make sure that it was migrated correctly. You need to check the data for accuracy, completeness, and consistency with any automation tools available in the market

10. Cutover: This is where you switch from your old SAP system to your new SAP S/4HANA system. This is the most important step in the data migration process, and it needs to be done carefully. 

Data Migration Phases 

Data migration is the process of transferring the legacy data – (OLD SAP SYSTEM / any Legacy system) to the SAP S/4HANA system. It's like packing up your belongings and moving to a new house.

There are six phases to data migration for an SAP S/4HANA project:

1. Planning: In this phase, we need to plan what data objects (list all the data objects – Ex: Material master, Open purchase order) need to migrate from the legacy system (Identify if any third-party systems are used other than SAP) to S/4 HANA and you need to decide how to migrate like identify the tools/software for both extraction and loading. 

2.  Preparation: In this phase, we need to discuss with the legacy system users/process users and define the rules/selection criteria for extracting the master data and ITEM data. 

3. Extraction: In this phase, we need to identify the tolls for extraction and extract the data by abiding by the user-defined rules/selection criteria. We can use either SQL tools like SQL – queries or any third-party extraction tools. 

4. Cleansing: In this phase we need to clean the data and transform the data into S/4 HANA requirement. We need to map the data with new values against old values, if any and may need to change the data structure or convert the data to a different encoding.

4. Loading: This is where you load the data into your new SAP S/4HANA system. You can use SAP tools or third-party tools to load the data.

5. Validation: This is where you test the data to make sure that it was migrated correctly. You need to check the data for accuracy, completeness, and consistency.

6. Cutover: This is where you switch from your old SAP system to your new SAP S/4HANA system. This is the most important step in the data migration process, and it needs to be done carefully.

Here are some tips for data migration:

• Plan carefully. The more planning you do, the smoother the data migration process will be.
• Use the right tools. There are a variety of SAP tools and third-party tools available to help you with data migration. Choose the tools that are right for your needs.
• Test thoroughly. It is important to test the data thoroughly before you switch to your new SAP S/4HANA system. This will help you to identify and fix any problems before they impact your business.

Data migration can be a complex process, but it is important to get it right. By following these tips, you can minimize the risk of problems and ensure a successful data migration.