SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit

What is the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit?

SAP has redeveloped the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit (Legacy Transfer Migration Cockpit or LTMC for short) for the migration of data to SAP S/4HANA. It was presented at the end of 2016 with release 1610.

The LTMC follows the migration tool LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench), which is no longer supported with SAP S/4HANA. Under SAP S/4HANA, the LSMW can only be used with restrictions and is not recommended by SAP.

SAP delivers the migration cockpit as an integrated part of SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud - without the need for an additional license or additional costs. The use of additional tools can be useful.

Who is the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit intended for?

The Migration Cockpit is suitable for projects with light to medium complexity.

With the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit, data can be migrated from one or more source systems to SAP S/4HANA. It is irrelevant whether the data comes from an SAP or non-SAP system.

The transfer of data is based on template files (templates). These can be Excel XML files or staging tables. However, direct transfer is now also possible (from Release 1909).

While other tools (such as SAP Data Services) are available for migration to an on-premise system, the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit for migration to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud is currently the only migration tool available from SAP.

For whom is the Migration Cockpit not suitable?

The Migration Cockpit is less suitable for more complex data migration projects. This is the case, for example, if data from several legacy systems from different third-party providers is to be migrated to an SAP S/4HANA system.

SAP Data Services would be a suitable tool here, precisely because in such cases it is usually also a question of improving data quality.

What role do migration objects play?

To identify and transfer the relevant data, the Migration Cockpit uses so-called migration objects. These are models predefined by SAP with which data can be transferred.

These models contain information about the source and target structures (the required tables, etc.) and the relationships between these structures. A migration object also contains mapping information.

For example, a migration object can be an activity type, a cost center, a G/L account, a customer or a bill of material.

How exactly does the process run under SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit?

• If you want to use the Migration Cockpit, access it via transaction LTMC.
• The data migrator must then create a migration object or open an existing migration object relevant to the project.
• The user then assigns, for example, one or more Microsoft Excel XML files to the corresponding migration object: To do this, he downloads a migration template (the Excel XML file), enters the data and uploads the file.
• After assigning the file for the migration object, the migrator can transfer the data to SAP S/4HANA.
• This process is then repeated for each migration object relevant to the SAP S/4HANA migration.

Advantages of the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit

• Easy to use and apply, no developer skills required
• The Migration Cockpit leads step by step through the data migration process.
• A new creation or adaptation of migration objects - deeper knowledge required - is possible with the Migration Object Modeler (only for on-premise).
• Templates (Excel XML files) can be sent to specialist departments to be filled with the relevant data
• The templates can also be filled with tools like SAP Data Services.
• Before migrating the data to the SAP S/4HANA cloud, the migration can be simulated (test run).
• The templates are automatically checked when they are uploaded with the Migration Cockpit. Thus, errors can be quickly identified and corrected.

GAMBIT as Partner for Your Data Migration

GAMBIT is an experienced specialist for data migrations - also with the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit and SAP Data Services. As part of the SAP Customer Engagement Program GAMBIT is also directly involved in the further development of the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit.