You are going to fund this migration. Fund the version that is ready for AI.
Moving off SAP ECC or an older Dynamics product is rarely optional and never cheap. AIM plans and delivers ERP migrations on SAP S/4HANA and Dynamics 365 that retire the customizations you no longer need, clean the data you are carrying forward, and leave the platform ready for the AI and analytics work that comes next.
A like-for-like migration moves the problem to a newer platform.
The cheapest-looking migration copies every customization, every interface and every year of history into the new system. It is also the one that delivers least: the same workarounds, on a newer platform, at a higher run cost, with the next upgrade as hard as the last one.
The support date sets the deadline. It should not set the scope. The migration is the one moment when the organization has budget, executive attention and a reason to ask which customizations still earn their keep, which processes can move to standard, which data is worth carrying, and what the platform needs to support AI. Programs that ask those questions early tend to finish closer to plan, because the scope was decided rather than inherited.
There is more than one way to move, and the right one depends on what you have.
Re-implement
Design the new platform from standard processes and migrate only the data you need. Most change for the business, most value, and usually the right answer when the current system has drifted far from how the business now runs.
Convert
Move the existing system, configuration and history onto the new platform, then improve it in phases. Least disruption at go-live, and a sound choice when the current design is largely still right.
Selective
Carry forward some organizational units, processes or history and redesign the rest. Useful in groups where some businesses are well served by the current design and others are not.
We will tell you which one we think fits, and why, before you commit to any of them.
From the migration decision to the first upgrade after it.
Implement
Migration assessment, approach selection, business case, then delivery: design, customization rationalization, data migration and reconciliation, integration rebuild, testing and cutover.
Optimize
Customization and interface inventory with a keep, replace or retire decision for each, and data quality work started before the migration rather than during it.
Extend
Historical data that does not need to live in the new ERP moved into Microsoft Fabric, where it stays reportable and available to AI without inflating the migration.
Support
Hypercare after cutover, then managed support under a service agreement, with the first upgrade planned as part of the migration rather than discovered later.
Where AI changes the migration.
On Dynamics 365 migrations, AIM's AI-accelerated delivery method applies to the drafting work that dominates the program: requirements, design documents, configuration records, test cases and training material. On both platforms, AI helps inventory and classify the customizations and interfaces in the current system so the keep, replace or retire decisions are made on evidence.
Two migration paths.
SAP ECC to S/4HANA
Assessment, approach selection and delivery of the move to SAP S/4HANA, with SAP data brought into Microsoft Fabric so reporting and AI do not wait for the migration to finish.
Older Dynamics products to Dynamics 365
Re-implementation on Dynamics 365 with data migration, licensed through AIM as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider where that suits the client.
Signs the migration decision is overdue.
- Your ERP's support date is inside your planning horizon and there is no approved plan
- Nobody can say which customizations are still used
- The last upgrade was deferred, and the one before that
- Your business has changed shape since the ERP was designed: acquisitions, new entities, new service lines
- You want to use AI in finance and operations and your ERP data is not ready for it
A low-risk first step.
An Executive Value Working Session with the CFO or CIO and the platform owner, focused on the migration decision: approach, sequence and what the business case has to cover. On Dynamics, the Dynamics 365 Discovery Workshop follows. On SAP, a scoped S/4HANA readiness assessment.