From SNP Transformation World 2025 – Don Mahoney
Meet the Experts
Key Takeaways
⇨ A successful transformation must balance the desire for a clean core with the realities of cost, risk, and organizational change management to achieve a positive ROI.
⇨ Early and meticulous planning is paramount, involving precise selectivity of data and processes, and performing activities like data archiving, and clearly distinguishing between needs and wants.
⇨ During project execution, communication, coordination, and collaboration among all parties as one team is critical, alongside an early and continuous focus on cleansing data and keeping it clean to ensure its quality for future applications like AI.
Robert Holland from ERP Today sat down with Don Mahoney, Chief Customer Officer at SNP, to talk about the challenges that customers face in finding the right approach to transformation, the preparations they can make regardless of a final transformation decision, and what makes successful transformation projects different.
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For customers that are transitioning to SAP S/4HANA, a deployment option that is becoming more likely is that of a Bluefield approach which is also called a selective data transition. As Mahoney indicates, this approach sits between the extremes offered by brownfield (system conversion) and greenfield (new deployment) approaches. Key steps with any transition to SAP S/4HANA begin with early planning and understanding what information and requirements are going to be critical to be moved into the new system and then sticking to that as much as possible.
Preparing for the move should involve activities that are valuable regardless of the path taken. This includes actions like data archiving or decommissioning. It is also important to distinguish between needs and wants and focusing on what is competitively differentiating but sustainable. Once the project is underway, successful execution involves communication, coordination, and collaboration between teams. Mahoney stresses that communication is one of the most important parts of any move as a gap in communication can lead to inaccurate communication. And individuals from all parties need to collaborate as a single team.
Mahoney also emphasizes that data quality is paramount. Work on data should begin as early as possible in the process with the goal of creating high quality cleansed and harmonized data. But this is why topics like archiving become important because organizations must understand if they want to be training their AI models on data and business processes on 10, 15, or even 20 years ago. This makes a it important to cultivate a culture that’s focused on data hygiene to ensure ongoing success.
Watch this episode to hear more from Mahoney on how customers are building successful transition projects to SAP S/4HANA and what steps can be taken regardless of the project being undertaken.
