SAP HANA Migration Requires Archiving —
We Take Over Your Legacy System
With AvenDATA: Secure, Understand and Use Your Data
The transition to SAP S/4HANA makes the shutdown of your existing SAP system unavoidable. Whether R/3, ECC 6.0 or industry solutions such as IS-U or Bank Analyzer, we archive your legacy system securely, with full audit compliance and strong performance. Not with SAP ILM, but with full data availability.
The Challenge of SAP HANA Migration
With the transition to SAP S/4HANA, many companies face an additional task: decommissioning existing SAP systems such as R/3 or ECC 6.0. For legal reasons, however, those systems cannot simply be switched off. Compliance with statutory retention periods requires proper archiving that is both audit-compliant and permanently accessible, because tax and commercial records must remain available for inspection.
Typical challenges in managing SAP legacy systems:
- High operating costs: even decommissioned systems still generate licence, infrastructure and maintenance expenses
- Outdated technology: old hardware and outdated SAP versions create security risks and require costly support
- Internal resource demands: ongoing operation and data provision from legacy systems tie up valuable IT capacity
- Lack of future readiness: legacy SAP systems are neither scalable nor cloud-enabled, holding back IT strategy
- Legal risks: data must remain accessible, traceable and audit-compliant at all times
The AvenDATA solution: with our web-based archiving solution, you can fully shut down your SAP legacy system after migrating to SAP S/4HANA — without data loss and without compliance risks. The process is audit-compliant, high-performing and immediately ready for use. Your historical SAP data remains fully accessible, with no ongoing SAP operations required.
Proven Archiving Solution
with More Than 20 Years of Project Experience
For more than 20 years, AvenDATA has continuously advanced SAP system archiving and refined it through practical experience in thousands of system decommissioning projects.
Building on this proven approach, we have reliably and transparently addressed professional, audit and legal enquiries throughout that time.
The software behind it, ViewBox, has established itself as a dependable research platform that works seamlessly in daily audit work and in company-wide use alike.
Today it is in use at a majority of Germany’s DAX-listed groups — clear evidence of its stability, flexibility and practical value at the highest level.
From Europe to Asia and across North America, ViewBox is trusted by organisations worldwide.
Your SAP Reports Continue After the SAP HANA Migration, as Interactive Reports
in ViewBox
Even after your SAP system has been decommissioned, your reports remain fully usable. We not only transfer all relevant data but also ensure that you can continue to use and trace it permanently in our ViewBox software solution.
Our services at a glance:
- Reproduction of relevant SAP standard reports and business analyses
- Implementation of custom reports, including customer-specific Z-reports
- Archiving of all related documents, such as invoices, orders or booking records, to guarantee report traceability
Even before the project begins, we work with you to define which reports and evaluations will be required in future — whether to meet tax obligations, for business analysis or to comply with legal requirements. In doing so, we draw on extensive project experience from SAP system decommissioning across a wide range of industries.
In ViewBox, these reports remain available for research, analysis and evaluation for years afterwards, completely independent of the original SAP system and without the need for additional SAP licences.
Whether for tax audits, internal enquiries or legal clarifications, ViewBox gives you full visibility through clearly structured, filterable reports — always accessible and fully audit-compliant.
Fast Project Execution and Strong Economic Benefits (Measurable ROI)
Even for Large SAP Systems
Decommissioning an SAP system typically takes between one and six months, depending on system complexity and data volume. With our clearly structured, standardised approach, we can archive even large-scale systems efficiently and securely.
We have successfully migrated SAP systems with more than 30 terabytes of data into our archiving solution, including reports, Z-reports and complete documentation.
Thanks to our established project methodology, clients benefit from significant savings in a short time — particularly on licence costs for SAP, ECM systems, databases and operating systems, as well as on maintenance, infrastructure and internal resources.
In the vast majority of our projects, the return on investment (ROI) is achieved in less than one year, driven by measurable savings on licences, infrastructure and internal resources.
SAP
System Analysis
The first step in decommissioning any SAP system is a detailed analysis of your existing environment. This analysis forms the basis for an accurate assessment of project duration and costs as part of archiving your SAP legacy system.
We examine both technical and business aspects, including:
- Access options for the SAP system
- Type, structure and size of the database
- Scope and relevance of existing SAP reports
- Individual specifics such as Z-reports or interfaces
The results are summarised in a binding fixed-price proposal, giving you maximum planning and decision-making certainty.
SAP
Project Archiving
Once the system analysis is complete, the project itself begins — structured, efficient and with clearly defined milestones.
In a joint kick-off meeting, we clarify all organisational and technical requirements with your team. From that point on, we take over the majority of tasks for you, including:
- Setting up system access
- Exporting and transferring the relevant data
- Reproducing key reports and Z-reports
- Documenting every step to ensure audit compliance
Our experienced project managers guide you through the entire process and ensure smooth execution with minimal resource requirements on your side.
At the end of the project, we carry out structured testing and acceptance phases together with you, confirming that all data has been archived completely, accurately and traceably.
SAP
Result Archiving
Once the project is complete, all relevant tables, documents and reports from your SAP system are transferred to our purpose-built software solution, ViewBox.
ViewBox is a web-based research system that gives you and authorised parties fast, secure and traceable access to archived information, years after SAP decommissioning.
A particular advantage: we reconstruct all key standard and custom reports (e.g. Z-reports), so that technical, tax and legal evaluations can still be carried out without difficulty and without an SAP licence.
After successful implementation and acceptance of ViewBox, the original SAP system can be decommissioned completely.
At the end of the project, you receive comprehensive project and procedural documentation that clearly records every step, in particular:
- The method of data transfer
- The structure of the archived content
- The testing and acceptance phases carried out
In addition, we document every step of the archiving process in an audit-compliant manner in our Jira ticketing system, from the data export through to final acceptance and, if applicable, the later deletion of the source system. This ensures that third parties and auditors can always trace exactly how the archiving was carried out.
Consideration of ADK Archive Files
and DART Extracts
Alongside the complete decommissioning and archiving of your SAP system, we also account for the following:
- ADK archive files: data already archived as ADK files is integrated into our solution and remains accessible
- DART extracts: our solution supports the processing of DART extracts, ensuring that tax-relevant analyses remain possible after the SAP system has been decommissioned
Software and Research System ViewBox —
Making Archived SAP Data Intelligently Usable
With ViewBox, AvenDATA provides a powerful reading and research platform designed specifically for accessing data from decommissioned legacy systems.
Through an intuitive web interface, ViewBox enables fast searching, structured analysis and targeted provision of archived information, without needing access to the original SAP or source system.
ViewBox ensures that your data:
- Remains understandable and usable years after decommissioning
- Is always accessible in an audit-compliant way
- Is structured and readily available for internal and external audit processes
A key feature is automated deletion. Based on defined retention periods, legacy data can be removed in a rule-based, traceable way once legal or internal requirements have expired.
The software and its underlying cloud infrastructure hold multiple certifications and undergo regular, comprehensive security and functionality testing.
Ready for the
Next Step?
In a one-hour expert session, we review your SAP legacy system together — for example, an R/3 or ECC 6.0 environment that will be decommissioned as part of your migration to SAP S/4HANA. We will show you live how to decommission the legacy system efficiently and keep its data usable for the long term.
In this session you will receive:
- A precise alignment on data structure, data transfer and the report landscape of your current SAP system
- A live demo of our ViewBox archiving solution
- An explanation of how we replicate standard and Z-reports, for example FI, CO, MM and SD
- A reliable estimate of effort, timeline and price for the archiving project
Transparency from the start.
Our project proposals are based on clearly defined fixed prices, guaranteed with no renegotiations. Quality, reliability and fair value for money are our focus.
Book your free expert session and demo now.
Quick Answers to Your Questions
Personal and without obligation — your questions about archiving after SAP HANA migration
Personal and without obligation — your questions about archiving after SAP HANA migration
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