Migration project: FI/CO/SD/MM/PS/RE (4.6c R/3 - ERP6 with unicode)

Question

Hi,
Before getting to my question I have for you let me explain you some background:
As project manager, I am involved in a pre-study of a project for migrating an existing non-hrm solution (FI/CO/SD/MM/PS/RE/Workflow) from a local 4.6c R/3 landscape towards a global ERP6 (UC) instance. The existing non-hrm solution is integrated with HR mainly for Payroll postings. The 4.6c feeds a BW3.1, the ERP6 feeds a BI7.0.
The project consists of 5 major deliverables:
1) technical migration of applicative/reporting layer (Programs, DDIC, BW reports ...)
2) adaptation interfacing (integration points HR-Non-HRM will be handled through standard ALE
3) process integration (non-hrm will get integrated with existing global processes such as Global Organizational management, Global Personal administration)
4) reporting integration (non-hrm reportings will get integrated with existing global reportings)
5) data migration (all non-hrm data pass from 4.6c to ERP6)
As you can read this project is about a carve-out of existing processes and the migration/integration of them into a global platform. Main driver for this project is the globalization of non-hrm processes.
Now my question is a rather technical one, concerning point 5 "Data migration": the project approach would be to use a standard ALE initial/LSMW load for migrating the FI/CO/MM/SD/PS data from 4.6c to ERP6. Now, after discussion with SAP Basis team, it was issued that such a direct data migration is impossible due to the fact that there is a difference
- in SAP version (4.6c vs ERP6)
- in database character set (NUC in 4.6c vs UC in ERP6)
(I personally doubt that this is an issue since ALE is able to cope with different SAP versions)
So the SAP Basis team propose to do such a project in 3 steps (in stead of one):
1) split non-hrm and bring in to a new 4.6c instance
2) upgrade that new 4.6c with non-hrm to ERP6 (local instance)
3) migrate non-hrm from ERP6 (local instance) to the other ERP6 (global instance)
Can someone share some experience and/or confirm the best data migration approach for such a project?
Thanks
Bert Caryn
Edited by: Bert Caryn on Jan 18, 2008 3:00 PM
Edited by: Bert Caryn on Jan 18, 2008 3:01 PM

Answer 1

This is a really BIG project
> Query
>
> 1)     What is the possibility of merging this two system
> of SAP to one single system of SAP as 4.7 or Ecc6.0?
> 2)     If merging is possible
> a) What are all the points we should take care since
> both are in different platform?
I suggest the following:
Read Note 481938 - System Landscape Optimization Services
and
http://service.sap.com/slo
There is a group @ SAP named "System Landscape Optimization", who does those kind of things:
          o Delete, merge, split or rename company codes, controlling areas etc.
          o Harmonize customizing and master data like chart of accounts or vendors
          o Reorganize System Landscape (merge systems, move business areas)
Since you environment is pretty complex, I suggest opening an OSS call on XX-SER-CS, describe just what you wrote here and you will get contacted.
I would NOT do such a merge on my own without involvement of SAP and the corresponding people who know the underlying data model.
Markus