Data is the Foundation for SAP Transformation

SAP NOW AI Conference, Melbourne

Artificial intelligence may dominate the headlines, but behind every successful digital transformation lies something more fundamental: data.

At the SAP NOW AI Conference in Melbourne, one theme cut across almost every session, without clean, trusted and connected data, even the best ERP migrations or AI initiatives risk falling short.

Speakers from retail, utilities and consulting firms explained how data is a strategic business asset that underpins growth and innovation.

“Data and analytics are key investments areas of SAP,” said Niclas Schlautkoetter, Global Head of Strategic Architecture Advisory SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP. 

Data-first approach underpins ERP transformation

ERP modernisation and AI adoption are high on the agenda for many organisations, but the importance of clean, usable data can’t be underestimated. Successful digital transformation requires access to accurate, trusted business data.

Legacy systems often hold decades of unstructured, duplicate or poor-quality information that can overwhelm new platforms. Migrating everything “as is” only shifts the problem, adding cost and complexity without improving insight.

Many organisations are adopting a data-first mindset to de-risk transformation and unlock value more quickly with access to insights and other business intelligence. Numerous sessions explored how a diverse range of businesses are approaching their modernisation efforts by streamlining, transforming and improving their access and data usage.

Participants heard about Mitre 10 New Zealand’s multi-year transformation journey. With fragmented ERP systems across its 86 stores and years of data managed with in-house ETL tools, the retailer prepared for a major S/4HANA migration.

The catalyst for change was modernising its business processes, which involved technology transformation and improving its data strategy. From the outset, the business recognised that simply lifting and shifting existing data would introduce risk and limit future innovation, especially better customer experiences.

“We took a data-first approach and invested in the foundational baseline capability to get good quality data out of legacy systems and enable personalisation, supply chain optimisation, retail optimisation,” said Chris Waterman, Strategic Trade Pricing Manager, Mitre10 NZ.

Powering SAP S/4HANA transformation with clean data

Several sessions presented real-world case studies and lessons on data migration and management in S/4HANA transformations.

Ego Pharmaceuticals shifted from spreadsheets to Integrated Business Planning, simplifying forecasting and preparing for S/4HANA and features such as demand-sensing capabilities.

While many organisations are eager to embrace this new platform, one of the pitfalls is moving too much historical data into the new system. Many ECC systems contain years of data and migrating it all into S/4HANA

Justin Bullock, SAP Transformation Advisor at cbs Consulting, explained that many ECC systems can have up to 15 years of data and taking all of that into S/4HANA creates unnecessary cost, performance and compliance issues.

Participants heard how a better option is to review and selectively transition the most important and useful data for the organisation. Then archive what must be retained and delete the rest.

Ron van Reitz, Senior Manager, Libertas, said in his experience many organisations don't appreciate the need for archiving and deletion in ECC.

“They may have some form of archiving, but have never deleted it. So the storage footprint has grown quite a bit. What you want to do in your S4 migration is implement an archival tool,” said van Reitz. 

Following the S4 migration, there are three considerations of data volume management, operational, transactional and archive data available to organisations to help manage their information.

By applying tiered storage strategies and robust governance, organisations can reduce system size, speed up cut-overs and simplify ongoing maintenance.

The lesson from cbs and Libertas is straightforward: S/4HANA transformations are not just technical migrations. They are opportunities to streamline and optimise data landscapes, ensuring only the right information underpins future innovation and operations.

Building a data platform for the future

The conference highlighted SAP’s broader strategy for data. SAP Business Data Cloud is the semantic layer that unifies SAP and non-SAP sources to provide a single version of the truth for analytics and AI.

“Data is the unsung hero of intelligent applications and it is the absolute foundation of AI,” said Niclas Schlautkoetter, Global Head of Strategic Architecture Advisory, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP.

Participants heard how Business Data Cloud allows organisations to connect operational and external datasets without losing governance or context, making insights consistent across business functions.

SAP also highlighted its partnerships with Microsoft, Snowflake and Google, reflecting an open ecosystem approach rather than a closed platform. These collaborations are designed to help customers blend SAP data with hyperscaler capabilities for large-scale analytics, machine learning and storage optimisation.

Energy Queensland built a lakehouse model by integrating SAP Business Data Cloud with Databricks, producing fresh insights such as electric vehicle charging patterns and usage anomalies.

Business examples showed how AI and advanced analytics are powered by clean, connected data. Business examples demonstrated SAP’s vision for an open, connected ecosystem.

Across retail, utilities and pharmaceuticals, businesses showed how they streamlined operations, improved efficiency and saved time through data transformation. 

“Data drives everything, it’s the starting point. The systems run on data, the business processes run on data,” said Scott Smedley, Head of Sales, ANZ, Syniti, part of Capgemini.