What ASUG's Latest Survey Reveals About Real-World Migrations

Risk factors identified in the survey cluster around a familiar theme: people and process, not technology. Forty-three percent of respondents cited change management — training and user adoption — as a project risk, and 57% recommended starting change management work early, itself up 7 points from the prior year's survey. The single most commonly cited risk overall was having too many customizations complicating the migration journey, which echoes findings from other research covered elsewhere in this series about the cost of over- customized legacy environments.

Demand for outside help is also rising in step with the deadline. More ASUG members reported hiring system integrators to support their migrations, describing SI engagement as the largest single cost category associated with the project — a trend consistent with the broader talent- market tightening discussed elsewhere in this research, and one more reason early engagement with an experienced delivery partner tends to pay for itself.

Firms working in this space read surveys like ASUG's closely for exactly this reason. Orpington Technologies Inc., the Canadian SAP advisory and delivery firm, structures its own migration methodology around the risk factors this kind of member research consistently surfaces — early change management, disciplined customization review, and realistic value-realization timelines rather than optimistic ones.

Vendor talking points describe the destination. Survey data like ASUG's describes the actual road, potholes included — and it is a far more useful map to plan a migration by.

Value realization time – organizations live 3+ years