The power of hybrid migration: SAP S/4HANA with Bluefield and Selective Data Transfer

While the rest of the Netherlands popped champagne on January 1 to ring in the new year, my alarm clock went off to get ready for one of the most exciting weeks in my SAP career. We transformed one of the largest high-tech companies in the Netherlands from an R/3 instance to a state-of-the-art S/4HANA environment: a new IT era had begun. Three elements made this project special and ultimately successful. In this blog, we share the secret recipe for this gigantic operation.

About the project

Over the past two years, along with a team of more than 150 dedicated SAP consultants, architects, business owners, and project managers, I transformed a 20-year-old SAP R/3 instance into a state-of-the-art S/4HANA environment. The new database was placed in the cloud and ultimately became 80% smaller. During the S/4HANA transformation project, I was responsible for data migration within the order-to-cash stream.

During the big-bang go-live, the ERP system, in which more than 3,500 users are active daily, was frozen for a period of five days. Meanwhile, 12,000 tables (spread across approximately 1,000 business objects) were migrated and validated. This allowed all business users to immediately resume all processes during the go-live.

The 3 Success elements

• Bluefield Implementation

A Bluefield implementation combines elements of both Greenfield and Brownfield approaches. It offers a hybrid solution that maximizes benefits and minimizes risks. It creates a new SAP landscape alongside existing systems, allowing for gradual migration and adoption of new technologies.

Some benefits of this approach include:

• Innovation without disruption

• Risk minimization

• Flexibility in migration

• Long-term cost savings

2. Selective Data Transfer

In a Bluefield implementation, selective data transfer is a strategic approach. This involves carefully migrating only essential data from the old SAP environment to the new SAP S/4HANA system. We assessed the current data landscape for relevance, quality, and integrity to determine which data sets were crucial for ongoing operations. Irrelevant data was left behind.

3. The shell-Copy Strategy

In the S/4 implementation project, our client combined selective data transfer with a shell-copy strategy. This means that a copy of the new S/4 system was used with a basic structure but without actual transaction or master data. This allowed them to conduct various trial migrations. Thus, the verification process could be further optimized each time. The shell-copy strategy was a significant investment in time and resources but paid off in trust, flexibility, and speed. We were able to reduce the "real" validation scope. With the shell-copy strategy, we could complete the entire validation in less than 14 hours.

Are you ready to pop the champagne?

Is your company ready to take the leap into the new era? We would love to tell you more about the methods that will guarantee you can pop the champagne during the go-live. Contact Gianni Sanders, gianni.sanders@mccoy-partners.com, for more information.