Many S/4HANA transformations begin with a perfectly understandable decision: legacy systems are left untouched for now, and existing interfaces are carried over.
This protects budget and timeline in the short term. At the same time, it means that new requirements on the data model are not consistently traced back to the origin of the data.
In projects where every interface was fundamentally questioned and mapped within the relevant processes, it quickly became clear who the actual stakeholders at the end of a process really are. Only through this exercise did it become visible which data is actually needed, where it originates, and whether it is available there in the required quality.
Three questions that need to be answered at this stage:
Can the interface meaningfully enrich data within the new data model – or does the source system need to provide the data already prepared?
For transactional data, the volume grows significantly with every additional attribute. What level of granularity is actually required?
What transfer technology is appropriate? The answer depends not only on technical capabilities, but also on which middleware is in use and where structural and content-based transformations should be handled.
The right time for this assessment: when processes and the data model are locked. Teams that revisit interface decisions only during the realization phase pay for it with effort that was never part of the original plan.
How do you handle interface strategy in your projects – lock it in early, or decide step by step?
#SAP #S4HANA #SAPFI #Transformation #ProcessDesign
