Data Migration from Legacy ERP to SAP HANA for a European Logistics Company

When a leading European logistics company decided to move from their legacy ERP system to SAP S/4HANA, they faced a major challenge – migrating years of financial data between two incompatible systems. With ACBaltica's expertise, the company successfully completed a seamless migration, gaining clean, structured data and a reliable foundation for future growth.

Customer

The client is one of Europe's largest asset-based logistics companies. To modernize their operations and ensure a solid foundation for future growth, they decided to transition from their legacy ERP to SAP S/4HANA – a strategic move toward a unified digital core.

One of the first steps in this journey was to migrate data for two service companies within the group. To ensure accuracy and continuity, the client partnered with ACBaltica for the expert coordination of the financial data migration process.

Challenge

Migrating data between the legacy ERP system and SAP S/4HANA is far from straightforward.

The two systems differ not only in database technology but also in data structure and accounting logic. They have different data objects, and therefore, the data is attributed differently. For example, in the legacy system, key SAP data concepts such as Cost Centers do not exist, so certain cost allocations and dependencies had to be newly defined. These differences led to some additional challenges:

• Data validation issues. Business users needed to understand that data in SAP would look different from the legacy system due to new structures and accounting logic. Direct comparison wasn't always possible – the focus had to shift toward reconciliation rather than one-to-one matching.

• Parallel accounting setup. In the legacy system, only local accounting existed. SAP S/4HANA, however, required full parallel accounting with three ledgers – local, IFRS (MCFO), and management ledger. For example, one fixed asset (e.g., a truck) could have different depreciation rules in each ledger: 5 years in IFRS and 1 year in management.

Additionally, the legacy system provided no extractors or data export tools. To address this, the team had to manually explore the legacy database, analyze dependencies, and develop custom extractors.

In short, the team had to migrate financial data from a system that had no migration tools, no matching data model, and a completely different accounting framework.

Solution

First, the team took care of creating data extractors (together with developers specialized in the legacy ERP system) – to be able to place that data in the SAP Data Migration Cockpit.

The migration process itself was planned and executed in three iterations to ensure accuracy and transparency:

• Initial migration and analysis. Data was extracted from the legacy system and uploaded into the SAP test system. The migration team – including the client's business users – analyzed the results, identified data structure issues, and adjusted the extraction logic.

• User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Based on lessons learned, data was re-uploaded into a second SAP environment for UAT. Further refinements were made to ensure business alignment and compliance with SAP standards.

• Final migration to production. A carefully planned go-live weekend was scheduled around a public holiday. The systems were closed on Thursday evening, and the migration began overnight. Over three days, all data objects were transferred one by one and validated by the business users. By Monday morning, users began working in SAP S/4HANA.

ACBaltica was primarily responsible for financial data migration, working together with the client's internal IT team, legacy ERP developers, and four other data migration coordinators.

Team

The migration team included:

• Data Migration PM

• 4 data migration coordinators, with ACBaltica leading financial data streams

• Legacy ERP database experts (for development of data extractors)

• SAP S/4HANA consultants and migration specialists

• Business users responsible for data validation

Timeline

January 2024 – November 2024

Results and benefits

• Accurate and complete financial data successfully migrated to SAP HANA.

• Parallel accounting fully established in SAP, covering local, IFRS, and management ledgers.

• Smooth go-live with minimal downtime – all data transferred over a single long weekend.

• Better data visibility and consistency in the new ERP environment.

Why choose ACBaltica for data migration projects?

The customer has chosen ACBaltica for our deep knowledge of SAP portfolio, hands-on experience with data migration, and industry expertise in logistics and service companies. Our team managed to ensure a smooth migration process – even between two fundamentally different systems.