Rubbish in, Rubbish out: What Does Your ECC Data Look Like?
Last week, I was invited to an in-person meeting with the Precisely team to learn about their SAP master data automation capabilities and to hear how they can help accelerate the data migration process when transitioning from ECC to S/4HANA.
Considering the amount of rubbish data that can accumulate over decades, learning how it accumulates, and how Precisely can assist in sorting this out through automation was eye-opening. Ultimately, it reduces a massive data clean-up effort to a single automated process.
SAP ECC Master Data
Most existing ECC systems have been in operation for years. During this time, data entry processes change, and suppliers, customers, employees, and business processes come and go. A range of ECC master data issues arise, any number of which may be lurking within your system. These issues unnecessarily bloat your database, slow down your transactions, and make accurate reporting quite difficult.
- Redundant or duplicated data
- Inconsistent data
- Obsolete or inactive data
- Poor quality data
- Unused or orphaned data
- Poorly maintained configuration data
Transitioning ECC Data to S/4HANA
With most organisations currently running on SAP ECC and planning a transition to S/4HANA within the next few years, a thorough cleanup of master data is essential, especially if the use of AI is on the agenda.
Rubbish in will only result in rubbish out.
There are several considerations.
- Duplicate and obsolete data must be removed
- Inconsistencies in data must be normalised
- Where possible, missing data must be added
- Inaccurate data must be corrected
The goal should be to have a clean and complete data set ready for transition.
Achieving all this manually is quite an effort.
There are other challenges, too.
The S/4HANA data model is different. There is the Business Partner Concept, material master field extensions, new mandatory attributes, and the simplification of some ECC tables.
These necessitate a potentially significant data transformation effort to map ECC data to S/4HANA.
Where Automation Steps In
Achieving a cleaned-up ECC master data set, mapped and ready for loading, is no easy feat. This is where third-party automation tools, such as Precisely come in handy.
Automating key steps in the process accelerates the data migration process.:
- Data profiling and assessment
- Data mapping and rule creation
- Data cleansing
- Migration execution and testing
- Post migration validation
Third-party automation tools provide:
- Prebuilt templates based on SAP S/4HANA data model (e.g. Business Partner conversion mappings)
- Automated identification and removal of duplicates, standardised naming conventions, and fixing of incomplete fields
- Triggering of workflows for data steward approvals (for records that require business auditability)
The key outcomes include:
- A clean ECC dataset ready for transition
- Mapped fields for accurate data mapping
- Weeks of manual time eliminated
- Minimised cutover risks, ensures clean go-live
- S/4HANA dataset ready for AI value-added.
Final Thoughts
Transitioning ECC master data into S/4HANA is not just a technical task; it’s a data transformation initiative. The cleaner and more harmonised your data, the smoother your migration, and the more value you'll derive from S/4HANA.
If you put rubbish in, you will get rubbish out – so it’s worth the effort. However, doing this manually is time-intensive and error-prone. It may not even be feasible.
Relying on automation isn’t just about saving time; it ensures a clean and reliably mapped data set that your business can rely on.
About Leg Up Software
Leg Up Software is an expert in SAP IT operational and infrastructure software automation solutions.
We know the SAP operations and infrastructure automation solutions landscape and have already done the legwork to identify the best available solutions.
We have excellent relationships with a wide range of SAP add-on third party vendors and can negotiate an evaluation process that best suits your circumstances and budget.
Why not schedule a time to start the conversation by adding it to our calendar?
