The road to S/4HANA: How CIOs are managing SAP ECC’s end of support

CIOs will need to consider how many years of data need to be retained, taking into account statutory requirements for different countries, length of time data needs to be held, and what data is no longer required. “If you don’t spend time doing that, you’re just taking all the poor habits of the legacy systems and you’re not going to get the benefit of the new system,” Bilali says.

Clean data helps systems run more efficiently and improves performance. With the prospect of harnessing AI tools in S/4HANA, organizations have an added imperative to integrate clean data, but it’s often fragmented across multiple systems.

Organizational data most likely includes a mix of structured data such as financial records as well as unstructured, non-SAP data that all needs to be harmonized to make the most of new tools.

“All that data should come together to really build a whole boosted AI platform. So, that’s a key decision for the CIOs,” says Rimini Street’s Mariotto.

Managing integration between core ERP and business applications is another major consideration. These connections require extensive coordination with third-party providers, aligning schedules, testing protocols to ensure they’re aligned across different systems and organizational cultures.

“You have to get that all coordinated and scheduled, and you have to get a commitment on the other end, that when you’re ready to test, that they’re also ready and available to test,” Bilali says.

It’s why Bilali emphasizes spending plenty of time in the planning phase because it can make all the difference to successfully landing the transition to S/4HANA. “It’s like you’re changing the wheels of the plane when you’re at 30,000 feet because the business has to keep running,” he says.