Teamwork in Migrating Data to SAP S/4HANA

The migration of data from legacy ERP system to SAP S/4HANA was an eye-opening experience for me.

It is in this project that I was truly stretched and also where I realized how important a team is and more importantly a team whose members work and help each other. Don't get me wrong, I have been part of several teams in different roles but this one is different.

It is different because the impact is very significant if we don’t migrate the data correctly to SAP S/4HANA... manufacturing, selling, billing, procurement, finance operations and essential backend operations will stop and go back to manual executions.

It is also different because the team is composed of different members from my team (ICT D&A) and from the consultants.

Two to three months before go-live, the data we migrated for UAT (user acceptance test) was not "useable". This was a lesson learned to always make sure to test the data you migrate to SAP. The job does not stop when you loaded the data, you should test them using actual operation in SAP to see if a transaction will\can proceed.

Good thing, we had planned for two more load testing and the team lost no time in working with the business to prepare and clean up the data and in migrating the data. This time, we involved the business very closely. Needless to say, the team had to work overtime and on weekends to catch up. And catch up, we did... but at the expense of lost weekends.

During this time, it was where I really appreciate the team and the people you work it.

Some people may raise their hand and give up but the team persevered, helped each other and worked hard.

The result was we were able to migrate to SAP S/4HANA on schedule and as far as I know this is the first full implementation of SAP S/4HANA in the Philippines.

Now, the team members have gone our separate ways but I will always remember each member and how each sacrificed their time and even their health.

Thank you to each member of the Data Team of Project Firefly! Be proud of what you achieved!