ERP data migration: get the data right before go-live.
ERP programmes rarely fail on the software. They fail on duplicate customers, open transactions that do not balance, and a reporting estate that stops working the day the old system goes read-only. We run the data workstream so the implementation partner can run the system.
- Runs the data workstream alongside your ERP implementation partner
- SAP ECC mainstream maintenance ends 31 December 2027
- Mock loads and reconciliation before every cutover
- Legacy history kept in a warehouse so reports never break
- Platform-agnostic across the ERP platforms common in Australia
Why ERP migrations fail on data
The implementation partner configures the new system. Someone has to get twenty years of customers, suppliers, products, assets, open orders and general ledger history out of the old one, cleaned, mapped and loaded so that the first month-end balances. That someone is usually the client's own finance and IT team, part-time, in the last three months before go-live.
The symptoms are familiar: duplicate master data that nobody has time to merge, open accounts payable and receivable that do not reconcile after load, inventory counts that drift, historical reports that cannot be produced from the new system, and a go-live date that moves because the trial balance is out. None of these are software problems. All of them are data problems, and they are avoidable if the data workstream starts early and is run by people who do it for a living.
The deadlines are real. SAP's mainstream maintenance for ECC ends on 31 December 2027, with paid extended maintenance beyond that. Other vendors are moving customers from on-premises ERPs to cloud successors on published timelines, and many version upgrades are migrations in all but name.
What we do, and what your implementation partner does
An ERP change has two workstreams. Keeping them separate, with clear ownership, is what keeps the programme on its date.
Profile and cleanse
Data quality profiling of every master and transactional object. Duplicate detection and merge rules agreed with the business. Decisions on what history migrates, what is archived and what is left behind, recorded and signed off.
Map, load and reconcile
Mapping legacy structures to the new chart of accounts, item masters and customer hierarchies. Repeatable mock loads, each reconciled: trial balance, open AP and AR, inventory quantities and values, fixed asset registers. The final load is a rehearsed event, not a first attempt.
Reporting continuity
A warehouse that holds legacy history beside new-system data, so year-on-year reports, statutory reporting and management dashboards keep working through cutover and after. The old ERP can go read-only on day one instead of lingering for years.
Configure, test and train on the ERP
The implementation partner owns process design, system configuration, user acceptance testing and end-user training. We give them clean, reconciled data on their load schedule and take the data questions off their plate.
How we run the data workstream
Assess. Inventory every source system and data object, profile quality, and estimate the cleansing effort per object. The output is a data migration plan with owners, sequenced against the implementation partner's build and test schedule.
Stabilise and connect. Stand up the staging and reconciliation environment, usually on Microsoft Fabric or Databricks, and connect the legacy systems to it. Cleansing happens here, with the business signing off merge decisions, not in spreadsheets.
Migrate, one object at a time. Master data first, then open balances, then history. Each mock load is reconciled against the legacy system and the differences are explained before the next cycle. Rollback is simply not cutting over.
Enable AI. Once the data is clean and the warehouse holds both histories, automated reporting, forecasting and anomaly detection land quickly. Most organisations get better reporting from the migration than they ever had from either ERP alone.
This is the same staged method we use for every modernisation. See how staged modernisation works.
Reconciliation evidence, not assurances
Every load produces a reconciliation pack: record counts by object, control totals by ledger and period, open-item listings matched line by line, and a register of accepted differences with the reason for each. Auditors ask for exactly this at the first year-end after go-live. Finance teams sleep better with it. And it is the evidence the steering committee needs to approve the cutover date with confidence rather than hope.
The questions you're already asking
Do you implement ERP systems?
Which ERP platforms do you work with?
How much history should we migrate?
Can you start if the ERP project is already under way?
What about reports that only run on the old system?
Find out whether your ERP data is ready for go-live, and what to clean first.
The Legacy-to-AI Readiness Assessment profiles every source object, estimates cleansing effort, and gives you a sequenced data migration plan aligned to your implementation partner's schedule. Fixed scope, fixed price, no obligation to continue.
Legacy-to-AI Readiness Assessment
Fixed scope. Everything delivered is yours to keep.
- Duration
- 2 to 3 weeks
- Delivers
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- System and data risk map
- Deadline exposure: end-of-support and policy dates that touch your systems
- Sequenced modernisation plan
- 2 to 3 AI use cases for the next 90 days
- Executive readout
- Price
- Fixed, quoted up front
- Commitment
- None beyond the assessment