Deliver your S/4HANA migration on time and on budget
December 2027 is closer than it looks, and the traditional migration methods you're using will get you there late and over budget.
December 2027
SAP ends mainstream maintenance for ECC. From that date, new functionality, legal updates, and standard support stop.
Failure modes don't stop at cutover. Most migrations overrun their budget by some amount, but a meaningful share end up in the fat tail. SAP migrations land there when the deferred 'evolution and reintegration' backlog comes due after go-live.
The structural reasons migrations run over time and budget, and how to fix them.
Multi-approach reality
Most large organisations need to use at least two approaches simultaneously, of Greenfield, Brownfield, Selective Data Transition and RISE. Programmes scoped, budgeted and tooled for a single approach break when the need for others surface mid-flight, because the planned methods, accelerators and consulting playbooks don't transfer between them.
Four Approach, one plan
The Plan
Single-Mode
Greenfield
Covered by the plan
Brownfield
Surfaces mid-flight
SDT
Surfaces mid-flight
RISE
Surfaces mid-flight
The plan ends at cutover
Migrations are scoped, budgeted and resourced as if cutover is the finish line. After go-live, a backlog of deferred customisations, integration rework and business evolution lands on the organisation with no plan or budget to absorb it.
Stage. 1
Discovery
Unknown hide
Stage. 2
Blueprint bends
Stage. 3
Design & Build
Stage. 4
Stage. 5
Testing & QA
Stage. 6
Cutover
Stage. 7
Hypercare
Stage. 8
The backlog the business deferred during the migration comes due. Integrations get re-platformed. Years of 'we'll do it after go-live' all land at once. This is the stage that doesn't appear on the steering deck. Most of the real money lives here.
Consultancy by the hour
Each phase of the migration is delivered by a different consulting team, billing by the hour. The feedback loop back to a central technical coordinator is weak due to this structure, and weakened further by a lack of incentive. Legacy consulting teams aren't motivated to close problems early, because it will shorten the engagement and reduce revenue. The programme needs a single technical owner with skin in the game.
Four teams, four meters, no owner
Single Technical owner - Missing
Discovery
£/hr
Design
£/hr
Build
£/hr
Cutover
£/hr
One platform with parallel stages and full programme visibility.
Together, Palantir Foundry and AIP hold the migration's full context. That means workstreams can act independently and concurrently, with shared understanding.
Palantir call this the Octopus model: a central AIP Hivemind coordinating six specialised arms in parallel. Below shows what your migration could look like, mapped out station by station, from source to destination.
FROM →
Your SAP Estate
Human-in-the-loop, by design
The compression effect
Published figures from Palantir's enterprise data migration white paper.
Weeks
Hours
2 Weeks
Most SAP partners gets paid whether you go live or not. We don't.
Several major consultancies have acquired Palantir capability. None have systematically deployed it. When the business model is built on hours, there's no incentive to speed processes up. We believe in shared success, so we co-invest our time with you. You pay us most of our fees when we create value.
01
Value based model
We believe in shared success, so we co-invest our time with you. You pay us most of our fees when we create value.
02
AI-native, AI pace
Valliance is built from day one to operate at the speed Foundry and AIP enable. No legacy delivery model to unwind.
03
SAP expertise across all four approaches
Greenfield, Brownfield, Selective Data Transition, RISE. We know which works where.
04
Real Palantir experience
Teams who have actually deployed Foundry and AIP in production, all shaped to match increasing client demand.
