What This Guide Covers
- Why planning is the #1 success factor in SAP migrations.
- The 7 critical planning phases every CIO must address before cutover.
- How to balance Brownfield, Greenfield, and Hybrid approaches.
- Options for securing the right skills and delivery model (in-house, partner-led, staff augmentation, hybrid).
Facing the CIO’s Biggest Fear: Migration
Few words trigger as much anxiety for CIOs as “migration.” It’s not only about the technology: it’s about cost overruns, hidden dependencies, and the risk of disrupting business-critical processes. For many leaders, ERP and integration migrations are the projects they dread the most.
In our previous article, The Clock Is Ticking: Why It’s Time to Plan Your PI/PO Migration to SAP Integration Suite, we highlighted the urgency: SAP will end mainstream maintenance for PI/PO, ECC, and Business Suite 7 in 2027, with only costly extensions available until 2030. Running beyond those dates means compliance gaps, security risks, and talent shortages that few enterprises can afford.
But deadlines are just one part of the story. What really decides success is how well you prepare. And that begins with the first, and most important, phase of any migration: planning.
This guide focuses exclusively on that stage. To make it concrete, we’ll center the discussion on migrating from SAP PI/PO to Integration Suite—but most of the principles apply equally to other SAP transitions, such as ECC to S/4HANA.
In the sections ahead, we’ll explore the essential planning dimensions:
- How to assess your current landscape and define scope.
- The migration approaches you need to evaluate (Brownfield, Greenfield, Hybrid).
- How to secure the right resources – whether by going in-house, partnering with an SI (System Integrator), or blending both.
- And why decisions made here will shape cost, complexity, and business continuity long before the first line of code is moved.
By reframing migration planning as a strategic phase, not a technical pre-step, leaders can reduce uncertainty, align stakeholders, and turn one of IT’s most feared projects into a controlled, value-driven transformation.
Why planning is often underestimated
Despite being the very first step, planning is frequently treated as a formality rather than a critical phase. The numbers tell a different story. Industry research shows that only about 36% of SAP migration projects stay within budget, and less than 46% finish on schedule. Data is the most common roadblock: nearly 77% of organizations struggle with data management during SAP migrations, often because quality and governance issues were overlooked early.
At the same time, community studies reveal that project management and planning activities typically represent less than 10% of the total migration effort, a surprisingly small share given their outsized impact on success.
This imbalance explains why so many migrations derail: too much focus on execution, not enough on preparation.
For CIOs and business leaders, the lesson is clear: planning is not overhead—it’s risk management and value assurance. The more disciplined the preparation, the less likely the project will fall into the traps of overruns, downtime, or unmet expectations.
Let’s start with the different phases companies need to address when planning their next SAP migration:
Phase 1 – Define Scope and Business Case
Start with clarity. Why are you migrating? Is it simply to meet SAP’s deadlines, or to use the migration as a chance to modernize integration, adopt APIs, and enable AI-driven processes?
- Define the business case: compliance, risk reduction, agility, innovation.
- Set the boundaries: which processes, integrations, and systems will be in-scope—and which won’t.
- Secure leadership alignment: without a shared vision, projects drift into cost overruns.
Leader’s takeaway: If scope isn’t locked, you’ll end up funding endless “extras.” Decide now what won’t be migrated or redesigned — otherwise those ghosts will haunt you at cutover.
Phase 2 – Assess the Current Landscape
You can’t plan where you’re going if you don’t know where you stand.
- Inventory all interfaces: IDocs, proxies, file-based flows, APIs.
- Identify critical dependencies: finance, HR, logistics processes that can’t be disrupted.
- Evaluate custom developments: separate what adds value from what adds complexity.
- Factor in hardware obsolescence: even if SAP extends support, your servers and OS will expire first.
Leader’s takeaway: Every interface has a champion somewhere in the business. Don’t just list them — find out who depends on them. Otherwise you’ll kill a “non-critical” interface that turns out to close month-end reports.
Phase 3 – Data & Compliance Readiness
Every migration story has a common thread: data becomes the bottleneck.
- Cleanse and deduplicate early.
- Anticipate regulatory requirements: GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, industry-specific compliance.
- Ensure governance and auditability in the new landscape.
Leader’s takeaway: Data is never “just technical.” Dirty data will blow up user confidence on day one. Budget real time for cleanup, or you’ll spend the first six months explaining why purchase orders don’t match.
Phase 4 – Choose the Right Migration Approach
Not all migrations follow the same path. Leaders must choose an approach aligned with strategy, budget, and risk appetite:
- Brownfield (lift-and-shift): faster, less disruptive, but carries forward legacy complexity and technical debt.
- Greenfield (rebuild): more expensive, but allows redesign of processes and adoption of clean-core principles from day one.
- Hybrid (selective): the most common path—migrate some integrations as-is, rebuild others, retire the outdated ones.
Leader’s takeaway: Brownfield looks cheaper, Greenfield looks cleaner — both are traps if you don’t match them to your real business appetite for change. The wrong approach can cost more in rework than the migration itself.
Phase 5 – Resource Planning & Skills
This is where many projects hit reality. Skills shortages and steep learning curves are among the top reasons SAP migrations stall or blow past budget. You can’t just assume your in-house team, no matter how good, has the right mix of PI/PO veterans, Integration Suite specialists, and project governance skills to pull it off.
Options to consider:
- In-house delivery: feasible only with strong legacy + Integration Suite expertise, which few organizations have.
- Partner-led: certified SAP partner drives execution—ideal for complex, global landscapes where downtime is expensive.
- Staff augmentation: bring in external specialists (architects, developers, project managers) to reinforce internal teams.
- Dedicated managed team: partner provides a full migration squad accountable for delivery.
- Hybrid / co-managed: internal team keeps strategic control while partners handle execution and accelerators.
Leader’s takeaway: Skills decide speed. Be honest about what you have—and what you need to borrow.
Phase 6 – Cutover and Runbook Preparation
Cutover is where planning becomes execution. Without a runbook, chaos is guaranteed.
- Define tasks by the hour: who does what, when, and in what sequence.
- Choose tools wisely: Excel is still common, but Smartsheet or MS Project add structure.
- Finalize weeks in advance: especially for major releases, not the week before go-live.
Leader’s takeaway: Runbooks are tedious but non-negotiable. They are your safety net.
Phase 7 – Risk Management & Governance
Every migration carries risk, but unmanaged risk is fatal.
- Identify top risks early: downtime, cost overruns, compliance failures.
- Define fallback plans for failed cutover steps.
- Establish governance: KPIs, escalation paths, checkpoints with leadership.
Leader’s takeaway: Governance turns migration chaos into controlled execution.
Conclusion: Planning as the Differentiator
The deadline for SAP PI/PO and ECC migrations is fixed. The real variable is how well you plan.
Organizations that invest in structured planning—defining scope, choosing the right approach, securing resources, preparing data, and enforcing governance—will turn migrations from dreaded risks into opportunities for modernization.
For CIOs, the lesson is clear: planning isn’t preparation for the “real” project. Planning is the project. And it’s where success or failure is decided long before cutover weekend.
Need help with your SAP migration strategy? We’ve got you covered.
Q&A: SAP Migration Planning
Q: Why can’t we just “lift and shift” everything into Integration Suite?
A: You can — but you’ll carry forward years of technical debt and shadow integrations. What looks like a shortcut often costs more in rework.
Q: What’s the #1 reason SAP migrations fail?
A: Poor planning around data and resources. 77% of organizations face data quality issues during migration, and skills shortages slow execution dramatically.
Q: Should we run migration in-house or with a partner?
A: It depends on complexity. In-house works if you already have PI/PO and Integration Suite expertise (rare). For global or compliance-heavy landscapes, partner or hybrid delivery is safer.
Q: How early should we lock the cutover plan?
A: Weeks in advance. A cutover runbook is your insurance policy. Without one, chaos is almost guaranteed.
Q: What’s the biggest takeaway for CIOs?
A: Planning is not a “phase before the project.” Planning is the project. Get it right, and execution becomes manageable. Skip it, and you’ll be firefighting for months after go-live.