With the 2027 end-of-maintenance deadline for SAP ECC looming closer, businesses are feeling the urgency to prioritize migration to SAP S/4HANA. According to the 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Customer Research, nearly half of the respondents view transitioning to SAP S/4HANA as a top priority for the upcoming year, with many already underway or preparing for migration. Several important decisions need to be made in the process, one of which is whether to archive some of the data in the process.
Zia’s approach includes the deployment of our SAP Archiving Appliance, as well as a document migration utility that streamlines the migration of documents that provides you with immediate value. Our rapid implementation model allows your organization to gain value in the first 90 days and customers can recognize a return on their investment within six months. Finally, your organization can experience data reduction of 40% or more. The SAP Appliance encompasses all of the necessary software and configuration to provide content management for SAP attachments and archival of SAP transactional data. It also offers robust enhancements to Print Lists, allowing your organization to leverage data in new ways that support your business functions. The best part is that you can use our calculator to generate your own custom pricing and ROI or contact us to provide you with a non-billable assessment to generate your custom ROI and pricing.
There are several other benefits to working with Zia to streamline your archiving strategy:
Reduced Down Time: Archiving plays a crucial role in migration projects, especially when transitioning from legacy SAP ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA. One of the limitations of brownfield migration is the potential for extended downtime due to the conversion process. Using Zia’s Archiving Appliance allows you to archive historical data to mitigate this downtime by reducing the volume of data that needs to be migrated.
Increased Cost Savings: Archiving data in SAP yields significant cost savings by reducing the need for expensive hardware upgrades and database storage. By moving historical and less critical data to Zia’s Archiving Appliance, you can optimize your resource utilization and minimize infrastructure expenses. Additionally, improved system performance resulting from data archiving can lead to operational efficiencies, further reducing operational costs associated with system maintenance and support.
Improved Performance: Archiving SAP data plays a crucial role in improving system performance and efficiency. By selectively removing historical and redundant data from the active database, you can significantly reduce the volume of data that needs to be processed and stored within their SAP systems. This reduction in data volume leads to faster data retrieval times, improved system response times, and enhanced overall system performance. With less data to sift through, transactions and queries can be processed more quickly, resulting in increased productivity for end-users and reduced strain on system resources. Additionally, archiving helps optimize database storage, freeing up valuable disk space and reducing the need for costly hardware upgrades. By implementing effective data archiving strategies, organizations can streamline their SAP environments, promote smoother operations, and ensure that their systems remain responsive and scalable as their data volumes continue to grow over time.
Streamlined Migration Process: Archiving data that is no longer actively used for day-to-day operations but may still be required for regulatory compliance or historical reference, allows you to streamline their migration process. This approach enables you to focus on migrating essential and current data to SAP S/4HANA, minimizing disruption to business operations during the transition.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Archiving data in accordance with regulatory requirements and internal policies helps you maintain compliance with industry regulations and data protection laws. By securely retaining historical data in an organized archive, you can demonstrate compliance during audits and regulatory inspections. Archiving also facilitates data retention management, ensuring that you retain data for the required retention periods while efficiently disposing of data that is no longer needed, thereby reducing compliance risks.
Understood deployment model and trial systems: This is important for data management and archiving. Understanding the deployment model—whether it’s on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid—can inform decisions regarding data storage and archiving solutions. Similarly, utilizing trial systems for testing and familiarization purposes can include evaluating data archiving processes and tools to ensure a smooth transition to SAP S/4HANA.
If you are embarking on your archiving journey, check out our website, fill out our pricing and ROI calculator, and get a real estimate and advice from our trusted SAP Value Experts. We’ve always found that the more information you have, the better decisions you can make for your company. We also have some additional resources that could help you:
- Webinar: Zia’s SAP Archiving Solution
- Webinar: Streamlining Your SAP Migration: Leverage Mobius and Zia Cloud for Time and Cost-Efficient Archiving
As always, feel free to contact us to chat more about your SAP archiving needs and how we can support you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy White, Director, Managed and Cloud Services
Jeremy has over 25 years of experience working with multinational clients to drive value by aligning complex process, data, and content management problems with the appropriate technology solutions. Over the past decade, Jeremy has focused on enabling critical business processes and solutions in cloud environments, as well as developing managed services programs to meet customer needs. These critical services provide customers with solutions to rapidly realize productivity gains and improve agility, reduce staffing requirements, and improve return on investments. Jeremy is regarded as a trusted advisor.