SAP S/4HANA Migration Without Disrupting o9 Planning
A redesigned SAP-to-Snowflake-to-o9 integration architecture that carried the client through an ERP migration from Navision to SAP S/4HANA while protecting continuity of live Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and Merchandise Financial Planning.
The Challenge
As part of an enterprise-wide digital transformation, the client was moving its legacy ERP platform from Microsoft Navision to SAP S/4HANA. Its o9 planning solution depended on Snowflake pipelines sourced from Navision, so the migration meant redesigning that integration architecture without disrupting ongoing Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and Merchandise Financial Planning. The new SAP data introduced changes to customer and item attributes, location and sales-domain codes, and purchase-order data, with downstream effects on o9 configurations, reports, Named Sets, procedures, plugins, and filters. Location-code and master-data changes could also affect how the different planning processes exchange data with each other, so preserving the integrity of existing planning processes required careful data reconciliation and regression testing.
Our Approach
- 01
Stand up a parallel validation architecture
Established a pre-production environment to develop and validate the new SAP S/4HANA integration side-by-side with the live Navision-based solution, minimizing risk to ongoing planning operations.
- 02
Redesign the integration layer
Rebuilt the data flow through a redesigned SSIS and Snowflake pipeline, governed across RAW, IN, STG, and OUT layers so new SAP attributes stayed consistent and traceable through to o9.
- 03
Remap master data and update o9 configuration
Introduced new customer-group attributes and a Limited Edition item indicator, remapped location codes to the SAP structure, and updated the corresponding o9 dimensions, measures, reports, filters, procedures, Active Rules, Named Sets, and plugins.
- 04
Validate, test, and cut over
Built a validation framework to catch missing or invalid data, hierarchy inconsistencies, and duplicates without blocking valid records, then ran end-to-end regression and UAT across planning and inventory scenarios before a controlled production cutover with a rollback plan.
The Results
Planning continuity through an ERP migration
Carried Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and Merchandise Financial Planning through the Navision-to-SAP S/4HANA transition without disruption.
A scalable integration architecture
Established a SAP S/4HANA to Snowflake to o9 pipeline built to support new master-data attributes and evolving business requirements.
Minimal business disruption
Validated the new integration side-by-side with the live system before cutover, rather than migrating live and troubleshooting after.
Stronger downstream execution
Enhanced outbound Purchase Requisition and Stock Transfer Requisition processes, improving the connection between planning and execution.