SAP unveils software and services aimed at facilitating the crucial process of migrating legacy data into ERP systems.
In a development that signals a shift away from relying on third-party software partners for data migration tools, SAP AG today unveiled a Data Migration service offering that uses software tools from the company’s Business Objects subsidiary.
The new offering, SAP Data Migration, is a combination of tools and services that manufacturers and others can use to migrate data from legacy applications into their SAP enterprise systems. The offering includes Business Objects software for data transformation and quality as well as services and best practices from SAP’s services organization.
“The big advantage of this is that it gives customers one vendor to work with,” said Franz Aman, vice president for business intelligence platform product marketing at Business Objects, in an interview with Managing Automation. “This gives customers more comfort that they can hold someone accountable and get what they need.”
Previously, SAP steered customers toward extract/transform/load and data quality management tools from partners. Until fairly recently, SAP resold such software tools from partner Informatica Corp. That OEM relationship has been canceled, Aman said.
The combination of software and best practices-informed services is designed to help SAP customers get control of data transformation and migration projects. Experts including IT analyst firm Bloor Research have estimated that 80% of data migration projects run over budget. Often, Aman said, that’s because organizations underestimate the scope of data migration projects and rely on hand-coded transformation scripts.
SAP expects the new Data Migration service offering to be used in two types of scenarios: organizations migrating from a legacy system or systems to SAP; and organizations that continue to run legacy systems alongside SAP and need to migrate data between the two on an ongoing basis.
In all, SAP said, the Data Migration service offering will cover the following data migration tasks: data analysis, extraction, transformation, cleansing, validation, uploading, and reconciling.