For organisations running large, highly integrated SAP ECC and S/4HANA environments, downtime is never just a technical concern. Every hour that an SAP Finance, Sales or Logistics system is offline can impact revenue, customer experience, supply chain commitments and internal processes. As organisations modernise, merge, divest, or transition to SAP S/4HANA, the question becomes unavoidable: how do you deliver the required transformation without excessive business disruption?
For organisations running large, highly integrated SAP ECC and S/4HANA environments, downtime is never just a technical concern. Every hour that an SAP Finance, Sales or Logistics system is offline can impact revenue, customer experience, supply chain commitments and internal processes. As organisations modernise, merge, divest, or transition to SAP S/4HANA, the question becomes unavoidable: how do you deliver the required transformation without excessive business disruption?
At EPI-USE Labs, we’ve spent more than 20 years running some of the most complex SAP data transformation, migration and modernisation projects in the world. Whether it’s a selective transition, M&A consolidation, carve-out, SLO/DMLT project, or an upgrade combined with structural changes, optimising the downtime window is always critical.
This is where our optimised downtime (ODT) approach comes in.
How SAP approaches near-zero downtime today
SAP provides strong near-zero downtime (NZDT) capabilities, primarily designed for brownfield upgrades using shadow systems. This approach has existed for roughly two decades, and is effective for specific upgrade scenarios.
However, many of the transformations we run at EPI-USE Labs involve more than an upgrade. They involve structural changes, logical separations, balance sheet transitions, cross-landscape migrations, data centre moves, Unicode conversions, plant reallocations, or multi-terabyte data transitions. In these scenarios, traditional NZDT alone isn’t sufficient – or economical.
We take a different path.
How optimised downtime (ODT) works in practice
Our ODT methodology is built on the principles of automation, logical separation and preconfigured ETL packages within our PRISM solution. This lets us shift the bulk of the technical data movement before any business outage, and reserve only the truly business-critical data for the downtime window.
Over decades of working in some of the largest SAP environments globally, our teams have learned how to manage the challenges that come with moving enormous, complex datasets. Our ODT approach separates data into layers: technical data moves first, outside the outage window, while only business-relevant data is processed during downtime.
We then apply further optimisation, including advanced packaging of data sets and controlled parallelisation to accelerate processing. Additional capabilities, such as taking non-Unicode systems directly to Unicode or upgrading older releases to compatible enhancement packs as part of the move, reduce the need for separate pre-project cycles.
By the time you reach cutover, every hour in the go-live timeline is understood and rehearsed. You gain predictability in the window, confidence in the execution, and the ability to maintain business operations as smoothly as possible.
Why we designed ODT this way
Zero-downtime (ZDT) solutions are technically possible, but they rely on complex, database-trigger-based approaches that can become disproportionately expensive compared to the business value of reducing the last hour or two of outage.
Our focus is different: achieve the optimal balance between business continuity, efficiency, automation and cost. For many clients, the real gains come from breaking out data operations into pre-downtime, downtime and post-downtime phases to shorten the critical path and remove unnecessary blockers.
Built for the most demanding SAP environments
Across more than two decades, our software and services have been used in SAP environments from 1TB to 85TB+, across every major industry. PRISM and our professional services teams specialise in solving the hardest data challenges – from mergers to separations to full landscape redesigns – while keeping downtime tightly controlled.
For any organisation planning an SAP transition, upgrade, consolidation or carve-out, ODT offers a pragmatic and cost-effective way to modernise with confidence, clarity and minimal disruption.
Planning a major SAP change?
If you’re planning an SAP upgrade, transition, M&A consolidation or a more complex structural change, our team can help you map the most efficient path forward. Speak to us about developing a data strategy and downtime approach that supports your transformation without disrupting the business.
Let us know if you’d like to start a conversation.