Preparing for Data Migration as Part of the Prepare Phase

Once the project kick-off is completed the customer's immediate focus should now be on preparing for data migration. To help your customer this data migration presentation should be used during the migration workshop.

The objectives of the migration workshop are to:

• Confirm understanding of the data migration concept and key activities

• Confirm understanding of data migration tool and templates

• Confirm the customer's resource assignment and responsibilities for data migration activities

• Verify and finalize the project's data migration scope and method

• Verify the project's cutover approach

Firstly introduce the principles of data migration.

Data Migration is the process of transferring data between different systems.

Without successfully transferring data from legacy applications to SAP Business ByDesign you expose the project and your business to unnecessary risks such as:

• Decreased end user productivity due to bad data and incorrect information
• Mishandling of open transactions impacting cash flow and operations
• Delays in financial close activities due to incorrect financial balances and statements

Data migration starts in the Prepare phase. However it impacts the success of the solution walk-throughs; if the data is incomplete or incorrect a successful walk-through may not be possible.

Of course a smooth cutover is wholly dependent on the successful loading of data. Foundation, master data, and transactional data must be complete and accurate.

A good migration plan is critical to its success. This is a collaboration between the customer and you as a partner. Ensure you both agree and create a precise project plan for all tasks regarding migration.

The customer should take care to cleanse the legacy data that will be migrated to the SAP cloud solution to avoid technical errors during migration and usability problems.

Extraction of source data from the legacy system can be automated or done manually. It is the responsibility of the customer, often with help from the partner who may possess the specialist skills needed.

It is the Partner Consultant's job to explain to the client how to complete the templates and the format of data required.

It is the customer who creates the source files by entering the cleansed and extracted legacy data in the migration templates predefined by SAP. The templates provide a framework to structure source data closely to the SAP cloud solution structure.

Perform test imports of the source data. A successful test migration ensures a safe final cutover migration.

Verify the source data by using it in the test scenarios.

Perform the final import of source data to the production system using the migration tool.

In this example is the process to create new accounts manually from the Account Management work center.

The Data Migration tool is embedded in the Activity List of the Business Configuration work center.

The migration tool allows for the following:

• Centrally track the template-based migration objects and their associated tasks
• Upload and validate the filled templates. For example, you can verify whether the template has been filled correctly.
• Map your legacy values to SAP Business ByDesign values. For example, legacy payment term value to SAP Business ByDesign payment term value.
• Simulate data loads and perform error handling
• Perform actual import of data into your SAP Business ByDesign solution

In this example we have uploaded the suppliers template. The system then runs a verification and provides us with a list of values that need converting to the SAP Business ByDesign format.

The system then simulates migration to provide feedback on any data errors. Then you can commit the data to the system.

There is no rollback in SAP Business ByDesign. Once data is committed it cannot be undone.

Download the data migration scope and planning document from the activity list in the implementation project.

Use the Data Migration Scope and Planning accelerator to create a schedule for each migration object in scope.

Using the data migration scope and planning document, the data load should be executed in the correct sequence. This is important so that no data is missed.

• Make sure data cleansing has been completed
• Make sure all mandatory fine-tuning activities have been completed as far as possible before you start migration. Otherwise you might face errors during migration because the system configuration does not match the data.
• Use the test system to do some early migration tests and to familiarize yourself with the manual migration UI or the migration tool:
  1. Download the migration templates from the test system.
  2. Fill in a few test records
  3. Load the filled template into the test system.
• The migration templates reflect the entire range of data you can migrate for a certain object. However, you will only need a limited number of fields to migrate your legacy data. Instead of analyzing each and every field of the templates, you should analyze the concrete values of your legacy data:
  • Analyze your legacy data.
  • Use the Field List (last sheet of the migration templates) to see where your legacy data fits into the template structure.
  • Check whether there are any mandatory fields that have not been filled yet.
• Use legacy data from financial reporting (for example, year-end closing or quarterly statement) to simplify the population of the migration templates for financial accounting data.

The cutover brings all project activities together into the final phase to transition to a productive system.

Many cutover activities are critical as they are the following:

• Time-critical
• Partly non-reversible
• Effecting external parties

All the cutover activities need to be tightly coordinated and managed. The Cloud Launch Navigator is the main tool for this.

The Data Migration activities are scheduled, assigned an owner, and executed in the sequence as outlined in the Data Migration Scope and Planning accelerator.

When moving from a legacy system to the new SAP Business ByDesign system, there are two approaches that can be adapted to execute the cutover.

The following comparison outlines advantages of the clean cutover and the disadvantages of parallel processing with a legacy system.