With the introduction of the migration tool (MOVE2H) in 2605, customers already running on SAP7 or SAP7F planning areas could migrate to the new planning area: I_SAPIBP2. Two such customers adopted this brownfield migration as part of SAP’s Early Adopter Care (EAC) program.
Both customers have now gone live on I_SAPIBP2. This blog draws directly from their shared experiences to give you a practical, honest guide to what a brownfield HPA migration involves — what to prepare for, what to watch out for, and what the payoff looks like on the other side.
Customer Story 1: A Large Battery Distribution Company
The Business Challenge
The company had been running IBP successfully for years — demand planning, supply and response planning (RNS), inventory optimization (IO), and order-based planning (OBP) were all live. But one critical capability was missing: meaningful scenario planning.
Planners were forced to work across seven spreadsheets simultaneously to simulate different supply and demand outcomes. The process was slow, error-prone, and provided no consolidated visibility.
The Core Technical Challenge: Dual Product Hierarchies
The most significant technical complexity in this migration was a fundamental design reality: the company operates with different product numbering on the demand and supply sides.
- Demand side: Demand Planning runs on sales part numbers, planned at the location, customer, and distributor level.
- Supply side: Supply Planning, IO, and OBP run on vendor part numbers
Because the standard HPA migration tool assumes consistent product hierarchies across planning areas, it could not be used for a full automated migration. The tool was leveraged only for the Response & Supply planning area; demand planning and IO required full manual configuration from scratch within the new Harmonized Planning Area.
The team solved this by constructing the unified HPA in five steps:
- Demand Planning in I_SAPIBP2 — A parallel set of sales-part product master data tables was created to support demand forecasting within the HPA.
- Supply Planning in I_SAPIBP2 — Standard product master data tables were used for vendor-part supply, IO, and OBP planning.
- Forecast Translation — The forecast generated on the sales part is transferred to the vendor part via a structured mapping process using CI-DS task lists.
- Scenario Planning Architecture — Additional key figures allow planners to adjust the forecast, with scenario planning connected end-to-end through to supply planning on the vendor part.
- Customer Data Integration — OBP customers are integrated through Real-Time Integration (RTI); the demand-to-supply handoff operates at the product-location level, keeping the design clean.
Scenario Planning: Before vs. After
Before migrating to I_SAPIBP2, bridging three separate planning areas required CI-DS jobs and copy operators to pass data across boundaries. This was functional but fragile and gave planners no consolidated view.
After the migration, scenario planning runs through application jobs in two modes:
Self-service: On-demand by planners: A dedicated application job template lets planners execute scenario runs themselves, end-to-end, at any time.
Scheduled: Automated background jobs handle mass data updates nightly, without overwriting any interactive key figure adjustments planners have made
Critical Prerequisite: HANA to HANA Cloud Upgrade
A prerequisite that was not initially on the project radar: The underlying database requires upgrade from SAP HANA to SAP HANA Cloud which is a mandatory pre-requisite for HPA and subsequently scenario planning. This upgrade must be completed before the migrating tool can be activated and before SAP can grant the necessary authorizations.
Customer Story 2: Global HVAC manufacturer
The Business Challenge
The customer was an early adopter of SAP 7 planning area using SDI (SAP HANA Smart Data Integration) during a previous early adoption program. Their IBP landscape comprised two major planning areas: Demand Planning on time-series and Order-Based Planning (OBP) on SAP7. The project described here is their brownfield migration from SAP7 to the new Harmonized Planning Area I_SAPIBP2
The company’s strategic sequencing was deliberate: migrate and stabilize supply planning first, then implement Inventory Optimization once HPA was proven in production.
Real-Time Integration (RTI): Critical Learnings
RTI integration between S4HANA and I_SAPIBP2 was one of the most valuable areas the customer shared.
Use CIAS — Do Not Attempt Manual RTI Setup: Customer initially tried to set up RTI manually and hit multiple roadblocks. Switching to the CIAS (Cloud Integration Automation Service) setup provided by SAP resolved every blocker and significantly fast-tracked the process.
Migration Tool (Move to I_SAPIBP2): What Worked and What Required Manual Effort
What worked well out of the box:
- Attributes mapping — most attributes mapped automatically
- Standard master data — mapped cleanly with no issues
- Copy operators — migrated successfully once the planning area was activated
- Core planning area configurations — the large majority migrated effectively
- Time savings — after the tool became available, bulk migration activities were completed within 1–2 weeks (vs. weeks of manual work)
- Iterative use — the tool can be re-run on the same source/target pair, enabling fix-and-remigrate without starting over
Challenges that required manual intervention:
# | CHALLENGE | FIX |
1. | Time Profile Mismatch (Critical Prerequisite): Existing planning area lacked ‘tech week' in the time profile; the I_SAPIBP2 target had it. | Download the existing planning area as a binary file. Manually update the time profile to match the target. Rebuild the planning area configuration. Then re-run the migration tool. |
2. | Virtual and Reference Master Data: Virtual and reference master data in the 7F planning area did not migrate automatically in all cases. | Perform manual mapping and configuration adjustments for virtual and reference master data types. |
3. | Planning Level Migration — 1,300+ Errors: In SAP7F, planning levels do not require a source (end-of-source) assignment. In HPA, this source assignment is mandatory — a structural difference that drove 1,300+ errors. | Create a virtual master data type for PDS planning levels. Maintain all custom PDS attributes in virtual master data. Assign the virtual master data as the source in each affected planning level. Activate the planning levels — errors resolve once source assignments are correctly set up. |
4. | Forecast Key Figures: Multiple forecast key figures (e.g., forecast unconstrained, helper key figures) were not mapped automatically by the tool. | Migrate all key figures that the tool can map and activate the planning area. Use the ‘Compare Planning Area' function to identify any missing key figures. Manually create the missing key figures in the target planning area. Note: You can add missing key figures post-migration without impact. Treat the migration as an iterative, not a one-shot, process. |
Overall Assessment:
More Links:
Migrating to SAP IBP Harmonized Planning Area (I_S… – SAP Community
Getting Started with SAP IBP New Harmonized Planni… – SAP Community
Happy Reading! 🙂
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