59% Live and Rising - The Latest Update on S/4HANA Migration!

As a Senior Data Migration Director at DataLink Dynamics, I read the “SAP S/4HANA Migrations: Challenges and Data Management” section of the 2026 Trends & Challenges report with one clear takeaway:

Migration momentum is real - but complexity is the defining battleground.

The data speaks loudly. 59% of organizations are fully or partially live on SAP® S/4HANA, a 13-point increase from 2024. With the 2027 deadline approaching, the market has shifted from “if” to “how fast.” This is no longer a technical upgrade cycle; it is an enterprise-wide reset.

But what stands out to me is not just the acceleration - It is where friction persists.

The top migration barrier is managing business process change (49%), followed by handling customizations in SAP ECC (44%), and organizational resistance (37%). These are not infrastructure issues. They are structural and cultural. In nearly every S/4HANA program we advise on, the real challenge isn’t system conversion - it’s rethinking decades of embedded process logic and bespoke ECC customizations.

And at the center of all of it lies Data Migration!

The report notes 34% struggle with complex data transformation, and 29% cite poor data quality as a major issue. In my experience, these numbers are conservative. Data is the silent risk in every migration. Organizations underestimate how much harmonization, cleansing, enrichment, and governance is required before data can be trusted in a HANA-driven environment.

S/4HANA’s simplified data model demands discipline. Legacy fields disappear. Tables consolidate. Business rules tighten. Without a structured data quality and transformation framework, migrations stall - not because of code, but because of inconsistency.

Another dimension often overlooked is user interface fragmentation. 54% of companies operate in mixed UI environments, balancing SAP GUI, Fiori, and GUI for HTML. While full Fiori adoption doubled from 9% to 18%, most enterprises still straddle two worlds. That duality complicates testing, training, and automation alignment. Clean data becomes even more critical when user experiences shift.

The accelerated adoption of S/4HANA is encouraging. It signals strategic urgency. But speed without data integrity is risk amplified.

From where I stand, successful migrations share three traits:

• Early data assessment,

• Automation embedded into data processes, and

• A disciplined clean-core strategy.

Companies that treat Data Migration as a technical workstream will struggle. Those that position it as the backbone of transformation - governing process redesign, UI transition, and compliance - will not only meet the deadline but unlock measurable value.

S/4HANA migration is accelerating. The real differentiator now is how strategically organizations manage their data foundation.