Myth: "I Need a Complete, Generic Roadmap Before I Can Even Start My SAP Migration"

When we come to a client and say "you can go to the cloud," why should they just believe us? At the end, we don't know each other yet. That's exactly why I don't start with a generic roadmap — I start with the client's own data. Here's why that makes all the difference.

Data-Backed Prioritization, and the Trust That Comes With It

At the end, a client cannot just trust us because we say they can go to the cloud. We have to build a relationship with them first. That's where the West Trax scan comes in: it analyzes a client's actual transactional data to objectively identify the highest-value starting points for the migration, instead of guessing. Analytically, the tool tells us why a company can move to the cloud, and where to start.

So instead of showing a client what public cloud can do in general, we show them something specific: these are your most-used transactions, this is what you actually need most. That creates a trust-building bridge between us and the client, and gives them confidence in our strategy from day one. It's a win-win. The client trusts us more because they see we genuinely understand what they do every day, and we understand their system better right from the start too.

What This Means for Prioritization

A generic roadmap basically tells you what most companies do. It doesn't answer the real question a client has: where do we actually stand, and where should we start? That answer isn't in a checklist — it's in the real usage data of your own system. Once you know which processes actually matter day to day, you can seriously prioritize where a migration will have the biggest impact, and where you can safely wait.

An Example: Early Alignment Made It Faster Than Expected

I remember a project from some years ago where the client, at the start, didn't know anything about the cloud. By leading thorough fit-to-standard workshops from the very beginning, we helped that team understand the system quickly and comfortably. They had originally expected the project to take a lot of time and effort. Because we got everyone aligned early and made sure people felt comfortable with the system from day one, the timeline ended up drastically shorter than anyone expected.

Bottom Line

A generic roadmap might look complete on paper, but it doesn't tell a company much about what actually matters for their situation. A data-backed look at your own system usage shows exactly where a migration should start, and early alignment with the people using the system is what turns that starting point into real speed.

Want to know exactly where your SAP migration should start? With an analysis of your own system usage — together with our partner West Trax — we show you which processes matter most to you, and where the move will have the biggest impact.