Tackling Data Migration Speed, Cost, and Quality with Syniti

⇨ Many companies struggle to address process inefficiencies, poor data quality, and information silos in their data management strategies.

⇨ Leading organizations use the move to SAP S/4HANA to work with partners like Syniti to not only move their data but improve their data quality.

⇨ Successful organizations prioritize centralization and simplification in their data management strategies.

SAP customers often do not realize the extent of their data challenges until they begin to evaluate their move from legacy systems like ECC to SAP S/4HANA. Many companies struggle to address process inefficiencies, poor data quality, and information silos. Enterprise data management leader Syniti is helping organizations overcome these challenges with its SAP Advanced Data Migration and Management solution.

The 2023 SAPinsider SAP Data Management Strategies Research Report found that many organizations are dissatisfied with their data management strategies. More than half of all respondents said their data management strategies met their requirements either partially, slightly, or not at all. These companies struggled with too many data sources, poor data quality, and managing their master data.

Enterprises that are not far along in their transformation journey to SAP S/4HANA must quickly determine solutions to manage and migrate their data to avoid running up against the 2027 end of maintenance deadline.

Bolstering Data Quality

It is important for companies to realize that the migration to SAP S/4HANA is much more than just relocating data. Leading organizations use the opportunity to work with partners like Syniti to not only move their data but improve their data quality. This allows companies to enjoy the benefits of SAP S/4HANA much earlier in the process.

“We help people do two things: We help them rightsize the data that they bring, taking only the data they need. And then we optimize the data to optimize the business. We don’t just do a technical lift and shift,” said Leonard Maganza, Chief Customer Officer at Syniti.

Data quality can degrade over time. Within its Selective Data Transition solution, Syniti offers data optimization by harmonizing, reconstructing, and mapping data, offering a centralized and trusted data landscape from the outset.

Syniti also offers automated custom code remediation. This is imperative for organizations with significant amounts of custom code within SAP ECC, allowing them to discover and refactor the custom code to function within SAP S/4HANA, saving time and frustration.

The Cost of Migration

Among those organizations that have not planned for a move to SAP S/4HANA, 27% said cost was a significant factor in their decision not to move on from their legacy systems. While the cost of migration can be daunting, particularly for smaller organizations, there is also a cost inherent to waiting to migrate.

“We had one of our largest customers say, ‘We never actually talked about price. I’m buying down risk because risk is a dollar amount that I don’t know and I’m using Syniti to put in the next generation of SAP S/4HANA. I know that I can get a fixed timeline at a fixed price, and I’m not going to be surprised,’” said Maganza.

When considering a migration partner, organizations should make decisions based on value, rather than just cost. An independent 2022 study from found that Syniti was able to deliver an average 314% return on investment over three years to companies that utilized SAP Advanced Data Migration and Management. The study also found that Syniti’s solution reduced unplanned downtime by 98%, while making major data migration projects 46% faster.

Syniti can speed up the process of data migration by combining all processes, data, and information in SAP Advanced Data Migration to enhance efficiency. It is also able to ensure data accuracy the first time through its data cataloging and harmonization processes, allowing customers to jump right back into essential functions day one after the move to SAP S/4HANA.

People Plus Tech

Syniti offers essential software for data management, but it is also vital for organizations to remember the human elements of their data management strategy. While many other data management solution providers offer developers to help deploy their technology, Syniti has a stable of consultants that understand the specific needs and challenges of any domain or industry where they are deployed.

“Every other competing product attracts developers who may do the job perfectly, but perfectly wrong, because they are following a spec written by someone who doesn’t know the technology. The reason our professional service is differentiated is because it is done by consultants. People who are in the data business don’t have consultants, they have developers. That’s the nature of the tool, it doesn’t have a business user-friendly front end, and that’s how we marry those two up,” said Maganza.

These consultants ensure that the data being migrated has business relevancy, so organizations are not spending time and money moving over data that they will not need in the future.

Applying Automation

Syniti has incorporated artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation into its solutions suite to ensure data is migrated accurately and efficiently.

“We have automation to do matching and harmonization at the human intuition level using AI and ML. We do the migration, we do the quality control, we do the master data management, then we added harmonization across all of those,” said Maganza.

As part of its Syniti Knowledge Platform, Syniti leverages advanced machine learning and process automation in its migration initiatives. This process can make an essential difference for organizations that need to ensure data quality while also facing tight migration deadlines.

Case study: Organon

Health care company Organon recently spun off its operations from Merck. As part of this divestiture process, there is a transitional services agreement. This gives the new organization a limited amount of time to get its own operations up and running.

Organon had to get its own system up and running quickly. It faced huge financial penalties if the process was not executed by the end of the agreement. To ensure its data was migrated to its own system on time, Organon turned to Syniti. The two leveraged advanced analytics and AI capabilities to ensure success.

“With advanced analytics and generative AI at the forefront of every conversation, data and the quality of that data has become even more important to businesses. Thankfully, investing in quality data is nothing new for Organon as we’ve been on a journey to stand up our own applications with our own data post-divesture from Merck. This is a monumental effort for us, and failure is not an option given the highly regulated industry we operate in. Thankfully, we’ve worked with Syniti and leveraged the Syniti Knowledge Platform to manage the data, while reducing project overruns and helping to ensure success,” said Davey Sehwani, Vice President, Business Technology corporate functions at Organon.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Many SAP customers are now prioritizing their data management as the end of maintenance deadline gets closer. As per the SAPinsider Data Management Strategies Research Report, organizations must balance short-term cost reductions with long-term investments in data management solutions.

Though these companies feel pressure to reduce costs, it is vital that they do not skimp on data management investments. Continue to invest in data management solutions from partners like Syniti, leveraging automation to help manage and scale data management initiatives.

Another key takeaway from the report is that successful organizations prioritize centralization and simplification in their data management strategies. This facilitates data quality and bolsters master data management initiatives, providing SAP users with cleansed and harmonized data as they move to SAP S/4HANA.