Pack smart, travel light: How to migrate retail SAP systems to the cloud

Walk into the back office of many large retailers and you’re likely to find an SAP system that’s been faithfully running the business for 20–25 years. It’s reliable, yes. But it’s also bulky, deeply customized and rooted in on-premises infrastructure that feels out of step with the cloud-driven world that retail now inhabits.

For CIOs and CTOs, the big question is no longer if they should move to SAP S/4HANA — it’s how to do it without breaking what already works.

That’s where the journey begins: moving from an entrenched, heavily coded system into a more agile, future-ready platform. And it’s where NTT DATA comes in to make the path smoother, smarter, and far less risky.

Why moving to SAP S/4HANA isn’t “just an upgrade”

One of the biggest misconceptions about migrating to SAP S/4HANA is thinking of it as a purely technical upgrade. It’s a trap many retailers fall into. However, it’s really a generational change in the technology platform.

Think of it like trading in a decades-old station wagon for an electric car. Both get you from point A to point B, but one is future-proofed, efficient and able to plug into new ecosystems of technology while the other will leave you stranded as parts and fuel dry up.

Migrating is about positioning your retail business to take advantage of embedded AI, better analytics, streamlined user experiences and the kind of agility that allows you to pivot quickly in a market where consumer expectations change overnight.

A pitfall to avoid: Doing everything at once

Here’s a scenario: A retail executive team green-lights a migration and simultaneously decides to re-engineer their core business processes. Six months in, chaos ensues. Was it the new processes that caused the disruption, or the technical migration itself? No one can tell, and the project spirals.

This is exactly the scenario to avoid. The smarter approach is two-phased:

1. Get the SAP S/4HANA platform in place, safely and quickly.
2. Then capitalize on it by rolling out process improvements, AI-driven tools and customer-facing innovations.

This sequencing reduces risk and creates a solid foundation that won’t leave you drowning in complexity.

Clearing out decades of baggage

When you move house after 25 years, do you box up every cupboard and drawer or do you declutter first?

Retail SAP systems are the same. Many are cluttered with obsolete code and mountains of old data. Don’t take all that baggage with you. Rationalize the code, clean up the data and archive aggressively.

This premigration clean-up means your new SAP S/4HANA environment won’t be dragged down by decades of digital junk. It will be leaner, faster and ready to evolve.

Executive buy-in: Talking the CFO’s language

From the C-suite, the first question often is: What do we actually get out of this migration?

To a CFO, a project that leaves the system “looking the same” doesn’t sound compelling. The answer is to shift the conversation from short-term deliverables to long-term potential. SAP S/4HANA offers:

• Embedded AI and analytics that enable smarter decision-making.
• Modern interfaces, where your teams use personalized dashboards highlighting urgent issues, rather than sifting through endless menus.
• Future-proofing by aligning with SAP’s ongoing investment in cloud innovation.

You’re not flipping a switch to see instant ROI. You’re putting your retail business on the highway to continuous innovation.

The NTT DATA difference: SAP plus infrastructure

Here’s where NTT DATA’s role becomes pivotal. Unlike service providers that focus only on applications or strategy, we blend deep SAP expertise with wide-ranging infrastructure know-how. Retailers who partner with us gain benefit from the lessons we’ve learned across industries and geographies, including:

• Code and data optimization: We guide you through rationalizing your code and cleansing your data before you move to SAP S/4HANA.
• Cloud and licensing expertise: With strong ties to major cloud providers and SAP itself, we help you design cost-effective architectures and negotiate smart licensing models.
• Proven migration factories: Globally, we’ve delivered hundreds of migrations. Our S/4HANA “migration factory” in India uses automation and AI tools to speed up code remediation and reduce costs.

We’ve helped our customers build an SAP S/4HANA roadmap that balances risk, sequencing and business-case alignment. The result? A clear path forward that takes into account impact and dependencies across the whole technology landscape. It’s a real-world demonstration that S/4HANA migration never happens in isolation. It has to account for all the moving parts of a modern retail ecosystem.

Success comes from harmonizing retailers’ different digital initiatives so they complement one another. This means sequencing SAP migrations alongside other transformation programs so the business doesn’t miss a beat. The SAP project becomes part of a larger strategy where cloud, data and AI all play their part.

• ALSO READ → Why NTT DATA and SAP are the dynamic duo of retail

Top 3 SAP S/4HANA considerations for retail CIOs

If you’re leading a migration journey, keep these three priorities front and center:

1. Define a five-year vision: Your business case should rest not on the migration itself but on what you’ll unlock after.
2. Get across the line quickly and safely: Treat the migration largely as a technical move, then innovate once you’re stable.
3. Optimize architecture and cost models: Think carefully about cloud strategy, licensing, and long-term operating expenses.

Retailers that delay migration may think they’re avoiding risk, but in reality they’re compounding it. Each year on legacy systems adds more baggage, more cost and more distance from the innovation curve.

The good news? The tools and methods are here. Proven roadmaps mean the hardest lessons have already been learned. And with the right partner — one that knows both the technology and the retail business — you’re setting the stage for the next era of retail.

• ALSO READ → Conducting the digital symphony: Key steps for retail success