A Guide to Managing Mammoth Migrations (Part 2)
The key to seamless rollouts: collaborative business enablement
This is part 2, of our mini-series on “How to Manage Mammoth Migrations”!. If you haven’t checked out part 1, please see below!👇
A Guide To Managing Mammoth Migrations (Part 1)
Over the past six months since joining Moonfare, I’ve been deeply immersed in the complexities of private markets, business and product transformation and customer migrations.
In Part 1, we delved into the technical strategies for migrating from legacy systems to scalable, modern architectures, with the Strangler Fig Pattern as a centrepiece of our approach.
But as anyone who’s managed a migration can attest, technical success is only half the battle. The real test lies in how effectively your business operates during and after the migration—and whether your teams and customers feel confident in the transition.
In Part 2 below, we focus on the business enablement side of migrations: how to align stakeholders, prepare internal teams, and ensure customers experience the value of your transformation from the get go.
The Often Under-looked Use Of Enablement
Business enablement is often an overlooked aspect of large-scale migrations. While technical execution tends to dominate planning and resource allocation, insufficient focus on enabling the business can lead to misaligned stakeholders, unprepared teams, and frustrated customers.
Without a comprehensive strategy for communication, training, and support, even the most technically sound migration can falter, resulting in operational inefficiencies, customer churn, and erosion of trust.
Case Study: Haribo and their failure to migrate to SAP Hana
A notable example of a failed migration due to insufficient business enablement is the case of Haribo, the German confectionery company.
In 2018, Haribo undertook a migration to SAP's S/4HANA system to modernise its operations. However, the company faced significant challenges during the transition, including disruptions in their supply chain, which led to an inability to fulfill orders and a subsequent 25% drop in revenue.
The exact causes of the failure have been loosely documented, but consensus [source1 states that the main reasons were:
Poorly Understood Legacy Processes: Haribo lacked a comprehensive understanding of their legacy workflows, leading to critical gaps in process documentation. This oversight made it difficult for teams to adapt to the new system.
Undocumented Dependencies: Key dependencies between systems and processes were not accounted for, causing unexpected disruptions in supply chain operations.
Lack of Pre-Standardisation: The absence of standardised processes across teams and regions created misalignment, complicating the transition to SAP's S/4HANA system.
These factors highlight the critical importance of thorough planning and business enablement in migration projects. Without addressing these foundational elements, even the most well-intentioned migrations risk falling short of their objectives.
The migration, which was initially seen as a step forward, became a cautionary tale of how neglecting business enablement can undermine technical success.
Five Steps To Successful Enablement
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