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Espoo, Finland - 27.11.2024. Migrating to S/4HANA is a big step—and getting your data in top shape is key to making it a success. When data is clean, consistent, and complete, S/4HANA performs at its best, helping you get the most from your investment.
In the journey to S/4HANA, the Pre-Migration phase is critical. This phase focuses on data harmonization and cleansing, ensuring that the data migrated into the new system is clean, consistent, and relevant. Poor data quality at this stage can lead to operational inefficiencies, slow system performance, and decision-making errors.
In this part of the series, we’ll explore how to approach high-data quality effectively.
1. Data Harmonization Across Systems
Harmonizing data across platforms ensures consistency and compatibility, especially when integrating SAP with external non-SAP systems and data sources like CRMs, PIMs, or Excel spreadsheets. This step creates a unified data structure, making it easier to analyze, report, and use data effectively for process optimization across various business functions.
Key Steps in Data Harmonization:
Standardize Customer Data Fields: Align customer information such as names, addresses, and identifiers across platforms.
Align Data Formats: Ensure date formats, currencies, and product codes are consistent.
Exclude Unused Data Fields: Identify fields that no longer serve the business and remove them from the migration scope.
2. Data Cleansing: Preparing Relevant, High-Quality Data
Data cleansing involves removing outdated, duplicate, and irrelevant entries from the dataset. This process ensures that only actionable, valuable data is migrated into S/4HANA, reducing clutter and enhancing system efficiency.
Steps to Cleanse Data:
Remove Duplicates: Eliminate redundant entries that could lead to reporting errors or inefficiencies.
Delete Outdated Transactions: For example, remove old, open purchase orders and sales orders that no longer provide value.
Validate Data Accuracy: Correct inaccuracies in key fields to prevent downstream issues.
Harmonizing Data: A Finnish Customer's S/4HANA Success Story
The journey of one of our Finnish customers to S/4HANA highlights the importance of structured data preparation during the pre-migration phase. They focused on harmonizing customer data between SAP and Salesforce using Data360 Analyze, which aligned customer records across platforms and created a unified structure for improved decision-making.
Additionally, they identified and excluded unused fields from the migration scope, simplifying the dataset and reducing unnecessary clutter in the new system. By cleaning up old, open Purchase and Sales Orders, they ensured only relevant and actionable data was migrated, saving storage space and boosting system efficiency.
Their strategic use of Data360 Analyze streamlined these tasks, empowering business users to manage data preparation efficiently while minimizing errors. This structured approach sets a solid foundation for a successful S/4HANA migration, underscoring the value of investing in data quality early in the process.
Benefits of Data360 Analyze for Pre-Migration Tasks
Data360 Analyze offers several advantages over traditional tools. Its modern design empowers business users to take control of data preparation tasks without heavy reliance on IT teams.
Key Advantages:
Simplifies Data Harmonization: Enables easy integration of data across multiple platforms, improving consistency and reducing errors.
Speeds Up Data Cleansing: Automates duplicate detection and removal of outdated entries, saving time and resources.
Empowers Business Users: Intuitive interface allows non-technical users to manage data preparation tasks efficiently.
Conclusion
The Pre-Migration phase lays the groundwork for a successful S/4HANA migration. By prioritizing data harmonization and cleansing, and leveraging tools like Data360 Analyze, businesses can ensure their new system operates efficiently from day one.
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