Structuring the Core: How Decolores Carved Its Path from ECC to SAP S/4HANA

Supply chain traceability is the foundation of business for heavy manufacturing industries. Decolores Mármores e Granitos SA, a major Brazilian exporter of ornamental stones, learned this firsthand after running SAP ECC for eight years. While SAP ECC kept the company’s operations running seamlessly, it increasingly lacked the analytical agility and integration flexibility required for modern, data-driven manufacturing.

In February 2025, Decolores went live with SAP S/4HANA. The migration, executed in partnership with Ocean Tech Group, provides a technical and operational blueprint for enterprise IT leaders navigating the evolving landscape of SAP ERP migrations.

The Architecture of a Hybrid Brownfield Conversion

Faced with performance limitations and complex integrations, Decolores opted for a hybrid Brownfield approach, according to a blog on SAP Brazil. This strategy allowed the company to preserve vital historical data and existing business configurations while undertaking deep structural revisions to align with SAP’s best practices.

Over six months, a team of 60 professionals logged 12,000 hours testing more than 1,500 scenarios. However, the project extended well beyond a simple database swap. Decolores took this opportunity to overhaul its entire integration layer, replacing legacy SAP Process Integration/Process Orchestration (PI/PO) with the cloud-native SAP Integration Suite (CPI).

Legacy middleware often throttles the performance of a new digital core. However, shifting to CPI enabled Decolores to unlock the HANA database’s true in-memory processing power without creating integration bottlenecks.

Translating Tech into Tangible Business Outcomes

The architectural shift brought immediate operational dividends. The in-memory performance transformed raw industrial data into strategic Business Intelligence. This significantly reduced the time required to generate analytical reports. Key post-migration business outcomes include:

• Accelerated accounting close cycles, freeing finance teams for strategic work.
• Enhanced industrial traceability, specifically within complex production and costing workflows.
• A cultural shift in user experience driven by expanded SAP Fiori adoption.
• Proactive compliance via SAP Document and Reporting Compliance (DRC) outbound, preparing the company for impending Brazilian tax reforms.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

For enterprise architects mapping their SAP ECC exits, the Decolores migration proves that an SAP S/4HANA upgrade acts as an SAP Reset—an operational transformation with three critical mandates:

• Modernize integrations concurrently. Treating an SAP S/4HANA migration as an isolated database upgrade is a critical misstep. By migrating legacy middleware like SAP PI/PO to the cloud-native SAP Integration Suite simultaneously, architects prevent outdated connections from throttling the new system. This dual-track modernization ensures that the HANA database’s in-memory processing speed flows seamlessly across both commercial and industrial ecosystems.
• Secure user buy-in early. Technical transformation cannot succeed without operational stability and cultural alignment from the business side. For intricate workflows like manufacturing traceability and production costing, early end-user involvement is non-negotiable. Structuring rigorous testing workshops and validating scenarios directly with the business tames SAP S/4HANA migration complexity and guarantees a sustainable Go-Live.
• Build an AI foundation. Advanced automation and embedded artificial intelligence require a flawless, standardized data environment to function effectively. By leveraging a hybrid Brownfield approach to enforce structural revisions, organizations can cleanse their data models and align with SAP best practices during the transition. This strategic reset turns a mandatory technical upgrade into a proactive launchpad for future intelligent enterprise capabilities.