I’m writing this blog to explain in detail the process of migrating Business Partner Customer Master via the

Migration Cockpit in S4
HANA 1709.

With the introduction of S4 HANA and its different iterations (1510, 1611 and 1709) we found out that LSMW will no longer be
supported for data migration. As a result, there is a majority of master data that can no longer be migrated via LSMW. However,
during our implementation of S4 HANA 1709 we discovered that LSMW can still be used to migrate some data from legacy system.

How do we discern between objects that can be migrated via Migration Cockpit and LSMW? It’s quite easy. All objects that are
provided within the Migration Cockpit framework for migration cannot be migrated via LSMW. For e.g. the list of objects in MC 1709
are;

Business Object Area Business Migration Cockpit Technical Object Name

Name Object Type Object Name

Activity Type CO Master data Activity type SIF_LSTAR_CREATE

Cost Center CO Master data Cost center SIF_KOSTL_MASTER

Activity Price CO Master data Activity price SIF_ACT_PRICE

Internal Order CO Transactional Internal order SIF_INTORDER

data

Profit Center FI Master data Activity price SIF_PRCTR_MASTER

Bank Master FI Master data Bank SIF_BANK_MASTER

Data

Customer FI, SD Master data Customer SIF_CUSTOMER

Customer FI, SD Master data Customer – extend SIF_CUST_EXTEND

existing record by
new organizational
levels

Supplier FI, MM- Master data Supplier SIF_VENDOR

PUR

Supplier FI, MM- Master data Supplier – extend SIF_VEND_EXTEND

PUR existing record by
new organizational
levels

Accounts FI Transactional Accounts receivable SIF_AR_OPEN_ITEM

Receivable data (Customer) open
(Customer) Open item
Item

Accounts FI Transactional Accounts payable SIF_AP_OPEN_ITEM

Payable (Vendor) data (Vendor) open item
Open Item

Fixed Asset FI-AA Master data + Fixed asset incl. SIF_FIXED_ASSET

Transactional balances
data

G/L Account FI Transactional G/L balance SIF_GL_BALANCES

Balance data

G/L Account FI Transactional G/L open/line item SIF_GL_OPEN_ITEM

Open/Line Item data

Exchange Rate FI Master data Exchange rate SIF_EXCH_RATE

Inventory MM-IM Transactional Material inventory SIF_INVENTORYBAL

Balance data balance
Business Object Area Business Migration Cockpit Technical Object Name
Name Object Type Object Name

Material Master LO-MD Master data Material SIF_MATERIAL

Material Master LO-MD Master data Material long text SIF_MAT_LONGTEXT

Material Master LO-MD Master data Material SIF_MAT_CONSUMP

consumption

Material Master CO Master data Exceptional case: SIF_MATPRICE_CHG

Material Price Chng
for global
currencies

Material Master MD Master data Material – extend SIF_MAT_EXTEND

existing record by
new organizational
levels

Material Master CA-CLF Master data Material SIF_CLF_MAT

classification

Material Master QM Master data Material inspection SIF_INSP_TYPE

type *

Material Master SLL- Master data Material – SIF_MAT_COMMCODE

LEG Commodity code

Purchasing Info MM- Master data Purchasing info SIF_PURCH_INF_V2

Record PUR record with
conditions

Purchasing Info MM- Master data Purchasing info SIF_PURCH_INFREC

Record PUR record

Purchase Order MM- Transactional Purchase order SIF_PURCH_ORDER

PUR data (only open PO)

Pricing SD, CO, Master data Pricing condition SIF_CONDITIONS

Condition MM-
PUR

Contracts MM- Transactional Purchasing contract SIF_CONTRACTS

(Purchasing) PUR data

Scheduling MM- Transactional Scheduling SIF_SCHED_AGRMNT

Agreement PUR data Agreement

Source List MM- Transactional Source list SIF_SOURCE_LIST

PUR data

Sales Order SD Transactional Sales order (only SIF_SALES_ORDER

data open SO)

Sales Contract SD Transactional Sales contract SIF_SD_CONTRACT

data

Batch QM, SD, Master data Batch (if Batch is SIF_BATCHES

PP-PI unique at material
level)

Bill of Material PP Master data Bill of material SIF_BOM

(BOM)

Work Center PP, QM Master data Work center SIF_WORK_CNTR

Routing PP Master data Routing SIF_ROUTING

Business Object Area Business Migration Cockpit Technical Object Name
Name Object Type Object Name

Equipment PM Master data Equipment SIF_EQUIPMENT

Functional PM Master data Functional location SIF_FUNC_LOC

Location

Maintenance PM Master data Equipment task list SIF_EQUI_TL

Task List

Maintenance PM Master data Functional location SIF_FLOC_TL

Task List task list

Maintenance PM Master data General task list SIF_GENMT_TL

Task List

Maintenance PM Master data Maintenance plan SIF_MAINT_PLAN_2

Plan

Characteristic CA Master data Characteristic SIF_CHARACT

Class CA Master data Class SIF_CLASS

Commercial CA-CPD Master data CPM project SIF_PROJECT

Project
Management
(CPM)

Inspection QM Master data Inspection method SIF_INSP_METHOD

method

Master QM Master data Master inspection SIF_MSTR_CHAR

inspection characteristic
characteristic

QM catalog code QM Master data QM catalog code SIF_QM_CATALOG

group/code group/code

Inspection Plan QM Master data Inspection plan SIF_INSP_PLAN

QM selected set QM Master data QM selected set SIF_SELECTED_SET

QM selected set QM Master data QM selected set SIF_SELSET_CODE

code code

TRM – Financial FI- Transactional TRM – Foreign SIF_TR_FX_TR

Transaction FSCM- data exchange
TRM- spot/forward
TM transaction –
contract

TRM – Financial FI- Transactional TRM – Foreign SIF_TR_FX_SWAP

Transaction FSCM- data exchange swap –
TRM- contract
TM

TRM – Financial FI- Transactional TRM – Interest rate SIF_TR_IR_INSTR

Transaction FSCM- data instrument
TRM-
TM

TRM – Financial FI- Transactional TRM – Interest rate SIF_TR_IRDE_SWAP

Transaction FSCM- data swap
TRM-
TM
“Getting started with the S/4Hana Migration Cockpit (OnPremise)” (Jörg Knaus, 2017. https://blogs.sap.com/2017/02/28/getting-
started-with-the-s4hana-migration-cockpit-onpremise/)

From this list we can infer that consultants/users working on Sales and Distribution can migrate Business Partner Customer Master
via Migration Cockpit, but for Condition Master migration standard LSMW recording can be used. Along with Condition Master I
have also migrated Batch Search Strategy via LSMW on 1709 on-premise.

To get started with Business Partner migration, the trick is in the template. Migration Cockpit provides structured migration
templates; such is also the case for Customer Master and Customer Master Extension.

The Customer Master template contains a number of sheets, each sheet has mandatory fields marked with (*) which must be filled.
One of the mandatory fields is the Customer Number field.

In most cases I’ve seen and actually used internal number assignment for customer master in ECC 6.0 all EhP versions. However,
after the introduction of Business Partner and Migration Cockpit there was a bit of confusion with regards to Internal or External
Number assignment. On one hand Business Partner Configuration (will explain in detail in another blog) Internal Number
assignment is allowed, whereas the migration cockpit template requires a customer number as a mandatory field.

(There is a reason for this customer number to be mandatory on the template; it serves as the unique identifier to link data in all
sheets to the general data in the first sheet. This is further explained below with screenshots).

During our project, the client’s requirement was for Internal Number Range for various Customer Account Groups. We had
configured the Business Partner accordingly, but the real challenge was getting those numbers on the template or to have the
migration cockpit generate the internal numbers, we also needed a unique identifier to link the data between sheets. This was
achieved by assigning a number series to the customers in the same range as the Internal Number. For e.g. if the internal number
range was based on 10 digits 1999999999, then we assigned 0000000001 to the first customer.
We had also tried assigning the actual internal number range (based on assumption) and the data was migrated with the same
numbers, however the above was found to be an easier and risk free method.

If custom account groups (Z account groups) are being used instead of the standard. Then, the same can be mentioned in BP
Grouping and Customer Account Group fields and the data will be mapped accordingly.

For migration you do not need to fill all sheets with data, as you can see in the screenshots I have coloured a few sheets red, these
are the sheets that I did not need any data from. We are going to maintain minimal data for the creation of this customer master.
This is all the data maintained for General Role. Moving on to the sales area data;
Note the customer number is same as provided in the general data. Fill in the whole of sales area data in this sheet and move to the
Sales Partner Sheet.

All customers are created with four (default) partner functions (additional partner functions can be added as required) in this sheet
the partner roles are maintained as below;

The customer numbers are repeated four times to assign each partner role to that customer. Similarly, the Customer ID is repeated
again in the next column and with it the Partner Description is provided.

After this we move to the Company Code Data.

Our template is now set with minimal data to create a Customer Master that can be used to process Sales Documents.

Migration Cockpit:

Create a migration cockpit project for Business Partner Migration.

We are using the on-premise edition of S4 HANA 1709.

Within each project, you can activate one or multiple migration objects.

Once the migration object is created, you can start by downloading the master data template and upload the files for import

I faced problems with the template at this stage, as I had downloaded a template from a different migration object and provided that
template to the client to maintain Master Data. When I tried to upload that same template on another/new migration object, I
received an error regarding the active version for that particular migration object. To overcome this, you have to download the
template from the active migration object and maintain the same data in the active sheets (we copy pasted everything from the
maintained templates to the active templates).
Now upload the active template to the migration object.

Select and activate the file, then start validation by clicking “Start Transfer”.

Post validation, any errors, warnings, or information messages are displayed in the notification section.

I had purposefully left some incorrect data on a few of my sheets, in this case you have to remove this data from the template and
go back to step one. First deactivate the file, delete it, then re-upload the file, activate and re-validate.

Confirm mapping values from the file to the values on SAP.

The template contains an external number for the customer; however, we need internal number assignment so the mapping is
maintained as below;

Click on save and the internal numbers will be generated in sequence.

Click next to simulate import of the file.

Any errors, warnings, information messages will be displayed in the notification section.
Click next to Execute Import.

Once completed click on Finish to complete migration of Business Partner Customer Master.

This concludes the migration of Business Partner – Customer via the Migration Cockpit.

Please let me know in your comments if this was useful. Also, do share your ideas/suggestions to make this process better and
easier, or if I have missed anything please do let me know.

Thank You.