Data Migration

Moving data from one system to another is by its nature risky activity and Absoft, with their extensive track record of various challenging projects, are SAP experts in any data migration scenario. Meet DATAMA, the one stop tool for data migration.

During data migration we move data; for example during a software upgrade project, an S/4HANA implementation, during M&A activity or moving infrastructure provider. Any data that may take place from a legacy system to SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC counts as data migration.

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Move data from an existing SAP system

Merge assets into an existing SAP system

Keep data safe and minimise operations' disruption

data migration

De-risking Data Migration

Every step of a data migration exercise raises concerns:  What happens if confidential information is accessed by the wrong people? If supplier requests can not be processed? If individuals after go-live have limited or no access to vital business information?
The implications are widespread – from safeguarding IP to staff morale and trust in the project, and operational efficiency.

Traditional methods of data migration are recognised to be high-risk, time-consuming and have the potential to derail a project.
Absoft take a different approach, one that not only de-risks the process but adds value by reducing the time to migrate and deliver fast, high-quality transaction-level data.

Introducing DATAMA

The one-stop tool for data migration

Absoft’s DATAMA toolchain provides easily deployable Extract, Transform and Load utilities and has been used to deliver selective data migration into a new or existing SAP implementation for an acquisition in as little as 6 weeks, right through to multi-year S/4HANA transformation programmes in multi-national organisations.

DATAMA breakdown

The system has been built alongside years of data migration expertise and can be used with any source system or SAP to SAP. Typical source and target systems are simple files, spreadsheets, SAP systems, alternative software systems such as Maximo or Infor SunSystems, or databases such as Microsoft SQL Server.

As DATAMA can be used for a range of use cases in multi-national and local businesses, a range of technical deployment options are available to support the diverse range of data protection policies and scaling requirements.

SAP Mergers and Acquisitions

Transforming company portfolios or unlocking capital cannot be done without mergers, acquisitions and divestments.
As companies journey towards a significantly altered structure, the importance of a strong ERP in maintaining business critical operations is highlighted – as is the opportunity to leverage the merger, acquisition or divestment activity to redefine your ERP landscape.

With an extensive track record, coupled with a wide variety of transition strategies and proprietary tools, Absoft are SAP experts in any Merger, Acquisition or Divestment scenario.

Project delivery

Timeframes for M&A and divestments are becoming ever-shorter as deal teams drive ever more challenging time to value deadlines. Absoft has unrivalled expertise in helping organisations on both sides of the deal to shorten Transition Service Agreement timeframes, minimise operational disruption and manage the SAP transition end-to-end.

Absoft accelerate the merger, acquisition and divestment process using:

  • our Absoft specific extract and load utilities
  • our experience of how the migrated data supports critical business processes
  • our ability to fill or augment gaps in testing or training resourcing
  • and our expert Absoft technical teams expertise in standing up SAP environments for dry runs and for ongoing operations – on-premise or in the cloud.

Creating an SAP Reference System

Often associated with a SAP related acquisition or divestment is the requirement to create a SAP environment to support run-down or ongoing audit/reference activity. Financial audits, GDPR queries, “Right-to-be-Forgotten” requests are all requirements that are ongoing for a period after the transition date. Being able to interrogate that data in the context of the original SAP system is an increasing requirement and one which can be met cost effectively utilising the stand-up/take-down pay-per-use models available from cloud providers.

Absoft accelerate the creation of run-down/reference SAP environments using:

  • our relationships with the main cloud providers
  • our tailored SAP technical manage service offering which makes sure the environment is available as needed
  • our ability to migrate all or part of your SAP environment into a Run-Down/Reference system using our Absoft specific Extract and Load utilities

Why Absoft?

Absoft is the leader in SAP Data Migration with more than three decades of experience. Some of our consultants have been with us from the very beginning and their wealth of SAP migration knowledge gives us the expertise needed for your ERP data migration project. DATAMA tool has been built by our very own specialists, making us the premium choice.

With SAP, one size simply does not fit all – and Absoft is the SAP partner you can trust to deliver results based on an unmatched combination of technical ability and in-depth business understanding. Our core purpose is to deliver lasting and enduring value to our customers, ensuring you unleash the full power and potential of your SAP investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Absoft are expert in all the typical approaches to data migration:

  • Application Data Migration, where we utilise SAP tools such as LSMW, SAP’S Data Migration cockpit, Data Services alongside our own in-house developed DATAMA toolset.
  • Technical Data migration using Absoft’s proprietary extract and load utilities. Used where data transformation is not a facet of the project these tools can significantly accelerate SAP transition projects
  • or our C-Raze method where we copy the customer system and delete (raze) data that should not be transferred to the end-customer

“Hot dinners” come to mind. We’ve done this more times than some of us would care to think about. Whether it be from Sun, Oracle, Maximo, Dynamics, Sage, Absoft have migrated data from non-SAP environments into SAP.

Our transition teams are well versed with the data models of these systems and their equivalents in SAP which we have captured in accelerators which decrease the mapping effort which is such a time consuming element of Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) migration projects.

While we usually recommend staying on SAP we do have expertise in extracting key data from SAP systems for storage in external tools such as data warehouses or other 3rd party systems.

There are two quite different scenarios which typically play out in SAP related acquisitions. In one scenario, time is of the essence and the imperative is to get the pre-existing data into SAP as soon as possible – retaining the data standards and processes of the acquired assets.

The other situation is where the acquirer’s SAP system is a repository of organisational best practices encompassing data standards and processes. In this case the imperative is to secure the adoption of those data standards/best practices by the entities being acquired.

The second scenario often involves re-training and increased testing activity – but to compensate for this there are often pre-defined data take-on programs available that can facilitate the take-on.

Absoft has extensive experience of both scenarios and offer a full breadth of services across licences, migration, training, testing augmentation and support to assist organisations to achieve a high-quality and timely implementation.

A mix of the experience levels of our technical and functional teams and proprietary software Absoft means that we typically meet, and often exceed, our customers expectations regarding delivery dates.

We have a track record of on-time/on budget deliveries even in situations where ICT has been far down the priority list for the deal team and something of an afterthought!

Increasingly, Absoft are also utilising cloud-based delivery models to stand-up sandbox and test environments to accelerate solution development and testing – utilising our mix of technical and functional expertise to deliver to customer deadlines and expectations.

Absoft has many years of experience in data migration, this expertise has gone into developing the DATAMA toolset.  Coupled with a library of pre-defined data transformation mappings makes Absoft best placed to assist in any SAP data migration situation.

As Datama Data Transformation can be used for a range of use cases in multi-national and local businesses, a range of technical deployment options are available to support the diverse range of data protection policies and scaling requirements.

It is broadly possible to run Datama Data Transformation on any typical PC with a supported version of Microsoft Windows.  Hardware requirements vary by scale of the project; Absoft will provide bespoke advice on the specific requirements for each project.

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What They Say

Absoft’s track record for delivering value for our clients is unrivalled. Our customers praise our flexibility and ability to integrate with their internal teams.

Resources

Customer Story: Succesfull Data Migration with Flexible SAP Support

Case Study: Data Migration with Petrogas

Discover the inner workings of our DATAMA tool for swift and easy data migrations

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