How companies benefit from data analytics support during SAP S/4HANA implementation—and what’s really at stake.
With support for SAP ECC ending in late 2027, many companies have no choice but to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. What begins as a technological modernization project can quickly develop into a major transformation initiative—with significant implications for finance and management reporting.
At the latest during test migrations and functional acceptance testing, a crucial question arises in many S/4HANA projects: Are the numbers actually correct?
After all, CFOs and business functions rely on consistent reports and familiar KPIs, while auditors demand complete and traceable documentation. However, this is precisely what often becomes a challenge during and after an SAP S/4HANA implementation.
The Digital Core System
The new SAP generation is built on HANA and processes large data volumes in real time. The migration brings profound changes to the chart of accounts, master data and structure.
Your Partner for SAP HANA
Bissantz supports your S/4HANA migration as a data-analytics partner, ensuring your figures are correct during and after the transition. We take a pragmatic approach, without adding extra burden to your project.
The often-overlooked side of SAP S/4HANA implementation
The migration to S/4HANA starts out as a technology project. A new chart of accounts, the business partner concept, ACDOCA as the universal journal—plus the choice between greenfield and brownfield, on premises and cloud: These topics alone keep SAP consultants busy.
What often gets overlooked is the other side of the equation: the numbers, the reports, and the company’s ability to steer the business effectively. After all, technical migration alone does not ensure continuity from a business and reporting perspective.
While error logs and mapping lists do provide information, they do not answer the crucial question of what specific effects discrepancies have on key metrics, reports, and business processes. At the same time, new data structures make it difficult to compare with prior-year figures, and established reports from the legacy system often cannot be carried over to SAP S/4HANA without modification.
These challenges are not exceptions; they are typical of S/4HANA migrations. This makes it all the more important to incorporate the business perspective on data, KPIs, and reports into the migration project from the very beginning.
Why data quality is critical to project success
The migration to S/4HANA fundamentally changes data structures. Anyone who lacks a robust data foundation during this transition phase loses the ability to steer the company confidently. Reports that are inadequately prepared may yield inconsistent results after the migration or may no longer function as expected. Key figures, year-over-year comparisons, and time series may lose their informational value if definitions, data sources, or mappings have been changed. Decisions are then made on an uncertain basis—or postponed because no one knows whether the numbers are accurate.
What follows is tedious corrective work: manual adjustments, ad hoc analyses, and internal resources tied up for months in cleanup tasks instead of driving the company forward.
These challenges can be avoided if both the business and data analytics perspectives are incorporated into the S/4HANA project from the very beginning. This ensures that technical and business continuity is maintained throughout the entire transformation process.
How Bissantz supports S/4HANA projects with data analytics
While SAP implementation partners drive the technical transformation, Bissantz helps companies ensure the quality, consistency, and traceability of their data throughout the entire migration process. This helps ensure that finance and management reporting remain reliable both during and after the transformation.
Our service portfolio includes, for example:
- Mock-load analyses to evaluate errors in a structured manner and prioritize them based on business needs.
- Balance reconciliation dashboards that provide transparency across all aggregation levels.
- Master data mapping to identify missing, ambiguous, or inconsistent mappings early on and ensure high data quality.
- Historical data management and reporting continuity to preserve year-over-year comparisons and existing reports.
- Cutover tracking, which ensures a clear overview during the transition.
- Hypercare for data quality to identify, analyze, and resolve discrepancies quickly after go-live.
- Test case validation to verify and validate business process chains.
- Interim planning to ensure continuity in planning and business performance management throughout the transformation.
For many years, Bissantz has supported SAP projects where data, finance, and business performance management come together. We bring this experience to S/4HANA transformations. In doing so, we support various migration scenarios, such as a greenfield implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition or a migration from a third-party system to SAP S/4HANA on premises. We are familiar with a wide range of transformation starting points and create a robust foundation for analysis, planning, and reporting—before, during, and after the transformation.
Without adding complexity to the project
A valid question: The project is already complex enough—why do we need another partner?
The answer lies in the role Bissantz plays. We do not add another implementation workstream. Instead, we bridge specific gaps between migration and business validation—pragmatically, quickly, and without creating new dependencies.
After all, at the end of the transition to S/4HANA, it’s not just about whether the system is technically up and running. What matters is whether your finance and reporting processes can continue seamlessly after go-live. Whether your reports are accurate. Whether you can reliably steer your business.
Companies that address these questions early are better prepared. Bissantz helps turn a successful technical migration into a successful business transformation.
Are you planning an S/4HANA migration or already in the middle of one? Get in touch! In an initial conversation, we’ll identify the key risks to your data, reporting, and KPIs and show you how we can address them.
