Taking Over and Migrating a 20-Year-Old Logistics ERP
The original CTO had left. Application support was no longer available. The business still depended on the system every day. Shinetech took over support and helped move operations to a cloud ERP without interrupting the business.
Legacy ERP TakeoverPhased Cloud MigrationData & EDI Integration
AI-generated concept interface with illustrative data. Actual client system not shown.
Client
Mid-size logistics business 100+ years in operation
Starting point
AS/400-based ERP Nearly 20 years old
Migration
Approximately 12 months Live in July 2021
Business disruption
0 days During the migration
The situation
Still essential to the business. Increasingly difficult to support.
The client’s core ERP ran in a legacy AS/400 environment. Support for the application layer was no longer available, internal system knowledge was limited, and the original CTO had left after preparing handover documentation.
Nearly two decades of business logic were embedded in data structures, reports and operational workflows. Customer-facing web tracking, finance and logistics reporting, and EDI connections with customers and suppliers depended on this environment.
The immediate requirement was to take over day-to-day support and preserve continuity. Migration to a modern cloud ERP had to happen while the existing operation continued.
Recognise this situation?
Key Questions
Can another team take over our old ERP?
This engagement began with limited internal knowledge and partial documentation. The team reconstructed business logic from the data layer and worked with the people running the business.
Can we migrate without stopping daily operations?
The two ERPs ran in parallel until the new environment was validated. Migration work, tracking enhancements and reporting support proceeded together.
What happens to historical data and connected systems?
An intermediate database bridged the ERPs. Historical data remained accessible, while reporting, tracking and EDI connections were mapped and validated.
Migration scope
Replace the ERP backend. Preserve the outputs the business relies on.
This was a takeover followed by migration from a legacy ERP to a new cloud ERP. The work included data mapping, EDI migration, integration validation and cutover preparation.
The customer-facing web tracking and reporting platforms continued to operate and receive enhancements. Their data sources changed, but existing customer reports and tracking outputs were preserved. Historical records remained accessible through the intermediate database after the legacy licence was no longer renewed.
The phased approach allowed each stage to be validated before the next proceeded. The roadmap was built around the client’s existing business rules, reporting obligations and connected systems.
How the work unfolded
Understand first. Take over. Migrate in phases.
01 · Discovery
Map the business before changing the system
March 2020 · 2 months · 3 people, part-time
The team mapped the legacy system from its data layer without making code changes. Sessions with the CEO, sales directors and operations leads supplied business context that documentation alone could not provide.
Small reporting enhancements helped the team build familiarity. Daily overlap with the client was approximately three hours.
02 · Takeover
Build a bridge between the ERPs
May 2020 · 2 months · 3 people, full-time
An intermediate aggregation database connected the legacy and new ERP environments. The team defined migration scope and data mappings and configured 500–600 report templates across finance, logistics and customer data.
Approximately half of this phase was devoted to data mapping and validation.
03 · Migration
Validate alongside live operations
Approximately 12 months · 4 people, full-time · Live July 2021
Both ERPs ran in parallel until the new system was confirmed stable against real production data. Data mapping, EDI migration and integration validation supported production cutover preparation.
Customer-facing tracking and reporting continued to run, with enhancements delivered during the migration. Each phase was signed off before the next, and production changes required validation.
04 · Support
Continue maintaining the connected systems
Post-go-live · 2 people, full-time
After go-live, a stable embedded team continued .NET web tracking and reporting maintenance, feature iteration and EDI support for customer and supplier connections.
Later enhancement work included AI-assisted tools to reduce repetitive data-entry workload.
Risk controls
Data, reports and integrations were part of the migration.
Reconstruct business rules before moving data
Mapping from the data layer and working with operational staff helped recover rules embedded in reports and workflows.
Keep historical data accessible
The intermediate database bridged both ERPs and retained access to historical records when the legacy licence was no longer renewed.
Validate more than the new ERP
More than 500 report templates and related feeds needed mapping, validation and updates as their backend data source changed. Internal and external tracking outputs had to remain accurate.
Keep EDI migration running alongside the core project
Active customer and supplier connections could not be interrupted. EDI remained a parallel workstream throughout the migration.
The result
A cloud ERP transition with business continuity preserved
0 days of business disruption
The approximately 12-month migration went live in July 2021 without interrupting business operations.
500+ reporting templates maintained
Existing reports and customer tracking outputs were preserved while backend data sources moved to the cloud ERP.
Support continued after go-live
The team transitioned from migration delivery to ongoing tracking, reporting, EDI support and feature development.
For a similar decision
Start with what your business cannot afford to lose.
If your ERP still runs the business but the people who understood it have left, this case illustrates a starting point: understand the existing data and business rules, establish support, then plan the transition around live operations.
For a migration discussion, identify the workflows that must stay available, historical records that must remain accessible, and every report, tracking service and EDI connection that depends on the ERP. In this project, those dependencies shaped the phased roadmap and validation work.
