When transitioning to SAP Cloud ERP from SAP ECC, third-party legacy systems, or other ERP platforms, data management becomes one of the most critical —and often underestimated — success factors. The process touches everything from data quality and governance to migration sequencing and compliance.
Fortunately, there are a range of tools available from SAP that address data readiness assessment, cleansing, management, and governance that you and your consulting partner can use to organize and streamline the data transition to SAP Cloud ERP. This Insights post provides an overview of the key data challenges, along with a look at SAP data migration tools and how to leverage them for assuring success both in the near term and over the long run.
Key Considerations for a Comprehensive Data Management/Migration Plan
Data Assessment & Cleansing
- Legacy data complexity – Older systems often contain duplicate records, outdated master data, and inconsistent formats.
- Data quality standards – SAP Cloud ERP relies on structured, clean master data for process automation (e.g., customer, vendor, material, and GL accounts).
- Archiving strategy – Not all historical data needs to be migrated; decide what’s active vs. what can be archived for compliance.
Data Mapping & Transformation
- Field mapping – Legacy data fields rarely align with SAP’s standard data structures (e.g., MARA for materials, BKPF for accounting documents).
- Code harmonization – Different systems may use different naming conventions for products, cost centers, etc.
- Unit of measure & currency consistency – Critical for accurate reporting and transactional processing.
Data Migration Strategy
- Cutover vs. phased migration – Decide between a “big bang” migration or phased approach by region, business unit, or module.
- Downtime minimization – Reduce production system downtime with delta loads and pre-staging.
- Volume management – Large datasets (millions of records) need batch optimization and parallel processing.
Governance & Compliance
- Regulatory requirements – IFRS/GAAP compliance, data retention laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
- Audit trails – Ensure data migration is traceable and verifiable.
- Security classification – Sensitive HR, financial, or customer data requires encryption in transit and at rest.
Ongoing Master Data Management (MDM)
- Post-migration, establish MDM policies to keep data clean and standardized.
- Enable workflows for master data creation, change, and approval to prevent recontamination.
A primary key to success is to get started early and allow ample time for data management in the transition process. Even with SAP’s plan to end mainstream maintenance support for ECC by 2027, Gartner estimates indicate that approximately 61% of SAP ECC clients had not licensed SAP S/4HANA as of Q4 2024.
According to Gartner, companies should "avoid shortcuts — Time is running out for organizations planning to move to SAP S/4HANA. Not every organization will complete its migration before the announced end-of-life support date for SAP ECC. The more complex your environment, the more likely it is that migration will be a multiyear journey and will require more resources — from your organization and from an implementation partner."
SAP Tools & Services for Data Management
SAP Readiness Check
- Purpose: Pre-migration analysis tool. Understand scope, identify impacted data objects.
- Contribution: Scans existing systems for data volume, custom code impact, and identifies potential issues in data objects before migration.
SAP Data Services (SAP DS)
- Purpose: ETL (extract, transform, load) tool. Profile, cleanse, standardize, and deduplicate.
- Contribution: Handles large-scale data extraction, cleansing, transformation, and loading into the SAP Cloud ERP target structure.
SAP Advanced Data Migration (ADM)
- Purpose: End-to-end migration and data governance platform. Automate mapping and transformation.
- Contribution:
- Automated mapping from legacy to SAP structures.
- Built-in data quality rules.
- Collaboration features for business users to validate data.
- Ongoing governance post go-live.
SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit
- Purpose: Embedded SAP tool for data migration. Execute load to SAP Cloud ERP.
- Contribution:
- Supports both file upload and direct connection to source systems.
- Predefined migration objects (e.g., material master, vendor master, GL balances).
- Integration with staging tables for validation before posting.
SAP Information Steward
- Purpose: Data profiling and quality monitoring.
- Contribution: Allows you to monitor ongoing data quality, identify anomalies, and enforce governance rules.
SAP Master Data Governance (SAP MDG)
- Purpose: Central governance hub for master data post-migration.
- Contribution:
- Maintains a “single source of truth” for master data.
- Workflow-based approval for new or changed records.
- Built-in data quality and duplication checks.
SAP Data Intelligence
- Purpose: Hybrid data integration and orchestration. Maintain clean master data after go-live.
- Contribution: Manages data across on-premise and cloud systems, enabling real-time synchronization during staged migrations.
Bramasol - Your End-to-End Data Management Partner
An SAP partner like Bramasol can play a pivotal role in managing data for a successful SAP Cloud ERP transition by combining technical expertise, industry knowledge, and proven migration methodologies. Bramasol delivers a proven, full-lifecycle approach to managing your data migration and helping determine when and how to use the above SAP solutions..
We combine deep SAP expertise with robust governance strategies to ensure your move from legacy systems to SAP Cloud ERP is smooth, compliant, and future-proof. Our expert team's involvement typically spans the entire lifecycle—from assessment to post-go-live governance—and can drastically reduce migration risks while improving data quality and compliance.
Strategy & Governance
We start with a tailored data strategy and governance framework, working with you to identify what data to migrate, how it will be transformed, and who will be responsible for its quality. Our team aligns your governance policies with relevant compliance requirements, such as IFRS, ASC, SOX, GDPR, and CCPA, ensuring readiness from day one.
Assessment & Readiness
Using tools like SAP Readiness Check and SAP Information Steward, we perform a deep analysis of your existing data. We identify duplicates, incomplete records, and inconsistencies, and collaborate with your business teams to define the rules for cleansing, consolidating, and enriching your data. Attention to data readiness also helps decide what to migrate vs. archive for compliance purposes.
Cleansing & Transformation
We standardize formats, harmonize codes, and enrich records to prepare your data for SAP Cloud ERP. Leveraging platforms such as SAP Advanced Data Migration or SAP Data Services, we automate mappings from legacy systems to SAP structures, ensuring speed, accuracy, and minimal manual intervention. This harmonization also aligns naming conventions, units of measure, and codes (e.g., cost centers, material groups).
Migration Execution
Our team manages the migration process across business units and IT stakeholders. We plan and execute migration waves, minimize downtime with delta load strategies, and perform rigorous reconciliation to ensure that migrated data matches your original source records.
Post-Go-Live Stewardship
After go-live, we help you maintain clean, accurate data with SAP Master Data Governance workflows. We prevent recontamination of your data, monitor quality metrics, and provide audit-ready documentation to support compliance long after the migration. This process uses Bramasol's reconciliation methods to ensure migrated data matches source records. Our approach to ongoing Master Data Management operations implements SAP MDG workflows to maintain data quality. Key considerations include:
- Audit support
- Migration logs and proof of compliance for external auditors.
- Continuous improvement plans and metrics
- Monitoring KPIs like master data error rates, transaction posting failures, and duplicate record counts.
Integrating Compliance for the Near and Long Term
Building on our decades of leadership in financial compliance and revenue recognition, the Bramasol team builds a robust approach to auditing, compliance and reporting into our SAP Cloud ERP transformation projects. This approach assures tightly integrated data processes that meet IFRS 15, ASC 606, SOX, GDPR, CCPA, and industry-specific regulatory requirements.
Summary
Your data is more than information – it’s the lifeblood of your business. With Bramasol, you gain a partner committed to ensuring that every step of your SAP Cloud ERP migration strengthens your operational foundation for years to come. Our strong focus on financial excellence, including solutions for quote-to-cash, order-to-pay, and compliance processes, helps streamline your transformation journey and support growth, profitability and business success over the long run.
Connect with Us for More Info: