Victrola’s Move from ECC to SAP Cloud ERP: A Clean Core Transformation

Victrola, the legacy audio brand established in 1906, recently executed a complete transformation from SAP ECC to SAP Cloud ERP in just eight months. During a session at the SAPinsider 2026 Las Vegas conference, Lydia Kaminsky, SAP Support Manager at Victrola, noted that to move away from a decade of legacy customizations, the company adopted a greenfield, clean-core architecture to modernize its global supply chain and procurement operations.

Fostering a Winning Mentality

Still, executing an enterprise-scale transformation with only 70 employees and a three-person IT department required exceptional agility and executive sponsorship. The team overcame lean resource constraints by wearing multiple hats and refusing to delay critical decisions. “We at Victrola love audio, and we hate losing,” stated Kaminsky. This competitive drive and a flat organizational structure allowed leadership to clear roadblocks instantly, proving that decisive governance is often more critical than sheer team size when executing cloud migrations.

Validating the Clean Core Strategy

Abandoning a decade of SAP ECC customizations can paralyze an organization. However, Victrola chose a greenfield, fit-to-standard approach. “The SAP Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA) provided the leadership team with the necessary confidence to pursue this model,” Kaminsky explained.

By mapping out-of-the-box best practices alongside system gaps, the DDA enabled accurate budgeting for necessary consulting resources. This strategic alignment translated directly into simplified warehouse operations. Therefore, instead of lifting and shifting old configurations, Victrola implemented new, standard picking and replenishment strategies that eliminated outdated legacy workflows.

Managing the User Adoption Divide

Migrating away from legacy systems inevitably creates operational friction. During the implementation, Kaminsky said that she observed a nearly even split in user adoption across the organization. “Half of the business eagerly embraced the modern SAP Fiori interface, while others resisted, struggling to part with their memorized SAP ECC T-codes and familiar daily routines,” she said.

To navigate this change management challenge, Victrola leaned heavily on its PMO and executive sponsors to actively champion a cloud mindset, repeatedly reinforcing the need to rethink daily operations rather than forcing new software to mimic old habits.

Empowering Business Leads Over Consultants

According to Kaminsky, relying entirely on third-party integrators for system design is a common pitfall in digital transformations and creates a knowledge vacuum post-launch. Victrola deliberately disrupted this dynamic by forcing internal business leads to take absolute ownership of the final solution.

As Kaminsky explained, “You are the business user, and you are going to own the solution. The consultant is only here for the next eight months, and once they’re gone, it’s yours, so you have to own it.” This accountability pushed internal teams to actively reimagine reporting and pricing conditions rather than passively inherit a preconfigured setup.

Overcoming Data and Integration Hurdles

Still, moving to the cloud exposed significant gaps in the data architecture. This included the need to migrate extensive product catalogs out of Smartsheet and manage severe third-party EDI integration failures during go-live. Victrola’s lean team prevented business disruption by manually pushing failing wholesale orders through the system during the critical first weeks of January.

Additionally, the team avoided custom coding to bridge remaining integration limitations without compromising their clean core. Instead, it deployed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots and used SAP Integration Suite to automate background processes and securely cover API blind spots.

Scaling for Omnichannel Distribution

During her presentation, Kaminsky noted that Victrola manages a highly complex supply chain that serves local mom-and-pop record stores, a direct-to-consumer website, and retail giants like Walmart and Target. Each distribution channel dictates distinct logistical demands and omni-channel fulfillment strategies.

“The new SAP Cloud ERP infrastructure provides the scalable agility required to handle this diversity,” she said. This modernized platform ensures the company can accommodate aggressive seasonal volume spikes—especially critical during the final quarter holiday rush—while supporting future brand acquisitions.

Tangible Floor-Level Advantages

On the warehouse floor, the transition to Cloud ERP delivered immediate operational value for the logistics and procurement teams. Mark Lennie, Senior Project Lead at Syskoplan Reply, approached the warehouse restructuring with a commitment to process improvement rather than technical replication.

“They wanted a completely fresh perspective. So we came in with a blank sheet. We walked the warehouse for two weeks, talked to users, worked out the processes, and basically said, ‘This is what I think you should do,’” Lennie stated. Today, operators utilize a seamless third-party RF solution and leverage custom Fiori apps to manage on-demand label printing independently, entirely bypassing the need for IT intervention.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Organizations must leverage the Digital Discovery Assessment (DDA) for a smooth transition. Using the DDA early in the planning phase, as Victrola does, helps organizations validate fit-to-standard processes, expose functional gaps, and accurately scope consulting needs before committing to a greenfield deployment.

IT teams must enforce business ownership for successful change management. To achieve this, IT leaders must mandate that internal business leads, rather than external systems integrators, own the final system configuration to prevent knowledge loss and ensure post-go-live sustainability.

RPA protects the Clean Core. When standard APIs fall short, SAPinsiders should avoid hard-coding customizations into the ERP. Instead, they should use standard integration suites and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to securely bridge connectivity gaps.