The 4 must do items for a successful BW/4HANA migration
SAP BW/4HANA is SAP’s next generation data warehouse solution. Follow SeaPark’s “4 Must Do Items” to help you transition from your existing SAP Business Warehouse to the next-generation data warehouse solution: BW/4HANA.
1. Stakeholder Buy In
It is vital when carrying out any project that you have the support of the project stakeholders. This support and buy-in from these entities will greatly improve the overall chances of project success. Several techniques can be used to encourage the buy-in of your stakeholders.
Reward your stakeholders – This does not mean free cups of coffee but rather tangible data-driven results. If you can alter the numbers that your stakeholder care about for the better, they are more likely to see the benefits of your project and support the process.
Don’t Forget About the Risks – Stakeholders will not buy into a half-cooked idea. Therefore, it is important that you consider, plan for and attempt to appropriately mitigate the risks to your project. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail” but a failing project also bears a significant cost and disruption to normal operations.
One Step at a Time – The likelihood of all your stakeholders buying in from the moment you pitch your idea is slim as everyone might not see the same benefits you do. Take it one step at a time and gradually work towards your goal converting your stakeholders along the way.
This potentially means splitting the BW/4HANA migration into multiple work packages which are deployed over a period of time (potentially 2 to 3 years).
Here at SeaPark our highest priority is to satisfy the customer and project stakeholders through early and continuous delivery of valuable software via Agile methodologies.
“SeaPark is trusted and highly competent in all things BW/4HANA. With their partnership, we have been able to provide cost efficient, and high-quality BW/4HANA migrations for our customers” - Peter Riisberg, General Manager, Innologic.
2. Rapid Discover tool (DECOM4)
To achieve a smooth and successful migration of your BI system it is recommended that you clean up your system beforehand by decommissioning the objects that are no longer in use.
Here at SeaPark Consultancy we have developed a Rapid Discovery Tool (DECOM4) to speed up the time consuming and challenging activities that are required for this process. DECOM4 reviews your entire BW system using a number of system generated reports along with BW statistics. From here DECOM4 automatically highlights the BW objects that are either not loaded, have no data or have no end user executions.
On average, 40% of our clients BW system is not being used and can be decommissioned. From a BW to BW/4HANA migration perspective this is a substantial saving.
Our DECOM4 tool has no license cost and is a free service offered to all SeaPark clients.
3. Automate the testing (VAL4)
Most automated testing tools require a time-consuming setup. This is not the case with SeaPark’s VAL4 Automated Testing tool which reduces BW/4HANA migration testing resource effort by up to 70%.
Early identification of BW/4HANA migration issues is key and our VAL4 tool quickly identifies conversion issues. The only setup required is the list of objects impacted which is generated by the conversion toolbox for each conversion task.
Once this is provided, VAL4 can then take the pre-snapshot of all impacted objects and provide guidance on what data targets and tables are required for the data validation. Once the conversion of a BW dataflow is completed the post and validation steps can be automated and any variances will be highlighted.
Our VAL4 tool has no license cost and is a free service offered to all SeaPark clients.
4. Skilled BW/4HANA migration consultants
The migration from BW to BW/4HANA is a complex task (whatever migration option is chosen) and certainly can’t be done as a “big bang” strategy.
The skillset, concepts and processes required to execute a BW to BW/4HANA migration is new to a BW consultant.
All SeaPark consultants have been trained in the BW/4HANA migration techniques with the support of SAP development and SAP Labs.
Also, to facilitate smooth transitions and optimal planning for BW/4HANA migrations for our customers, all SeaPark consultants are PROFESSIONAL SCRUM MASTER™ I certified through scrum.org.
As you can see from the following, agile project management fits perfectly within a BW/4HANA migration.
The practical approach to a BW/4HANA migration would be
Split the migration tasks into iterative development cycles
Have a dedicated BW/4HANA migration team
Have a high-level and detailed plan of each of the migration elements.
Item can be prioritized based on feedback from the business.
Daily we're helping clients implement an optimal BW/4HANA solution by identifying inefficient business intelligence reporting using DECOM4 SeaPark’s BW Rapid Discovery tool, streamlining BW/4HANA migration and automating the testing process of the BW/4HANA migration using our VAL4 automated testing tool.
If you or your colleagues have further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us at services@seaparkconsultancy.com
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