We feel you. In complex organisations with a long transactional history and several sites or legal entities, it’s hard to face the data: huge volumes, varying levels of quality, the sheer amount of data models...getting to grips with this manually can feel like a punishment a Greek god would have thought up.

But if you need to make strategic decisions about your data going forward – such as which migration approach to choose, or which data to retire or move to the cloud – you need to first know what you have. And what it looks like and how it’s being used across the business.

Automating Data Discovery

We call this stocktake “Data Discovery” and have built a specialised software called Pioneer [link] to automate the process as much as possible. Not only because we can’t be bothered to do it manually – but because during a strategic transformation initiative, you can’t afford to waste time or lose sight of the important things. Using Pioneer, we can:

• Accelerate high volume activities and thoroughly drill into your SAP data landscape – delivering a complete picture of your data estate
• Strip away the restrictions of manual processes
• Uncover patterns and insights in your complex data structures

Valuable insight to inform your transformation project

The insight from Data Discovery is hugely important, because it shows us the challenges your data might pose and the obstacles to success that we need to overcome. This is crucial for our project roadmap and approach. Things like …

• What critical data assets do you have across systems and organisations?
• Which data can be retired or archived (and how)?
• How much of your system needs to be carved out in a divestment?
• What opportunities do you have to simplify your estate?
• Can you mitigate the risk and reduce the cost of an S/4HANA move with a selective migration?

But maybe even more importantly, automating this essential step of the programme gives our teams more time to spend on the really valuable stuff: confirming, discussing and deciding on the way forward; dividing up tasks; and speeding up timelines and improving results.

That’s why we’re so adamant about starting Data Discovery as early on in your project as possible. It’s an essential part of your programme, and not something you can avoid. Doing it earlier adds no extra cost, but saves your team time, headaches, and huge amounts of frustration further down the line.

We’ve seen data transparency deliver results over and over again, and we’d love to tell you more about it. In fact, we’ve written a mini-guide about our data discovery approach and software which you can read here.

‍