NissinEnabling Near-Zero Downtime Core System Migration

Facing end of support for SAP ECC 6.0, Nissin Corporation, a global logistics company, required a way to modernize its core systems without interrupting critical operations. By combining the BLUEFIELD approach with ‘Near Zero’ Downtime’ techniques, the company achieved a seamless transition to SAP S/4HANA, minimizing downtime while enhancing its global decision-making capabilities.

Challenges

Nissin needed to modernize its core SAP system before it reached ‘end of support’, without disrupting mission-critical operations across its global business which had to adhere to a strict downtime constraint of less than 48 hours.

Solutions

The company adopted a BLUEFIELD approach combined with ‘Near Zero Downtime’ techniques to enable a seamless migration to SAP S/4HANA, completing critical data migration within just 26 hours—well within the allowed downtime window.

Outcomes

A more streamlined system by reducing add-on functionality by approximately one-third.
Advancing faster, more accurate decision-making

“Fujitsu was the only partner to propose a BLUEFIELD‑based approach that met our strict 48‑hour downtime constraint while minimizing disruption.”

Hideyuki Ishida, General Manager, Information Systems Department, Nissin Corporation

48 hours

Limited downtime window

Industry:Transportation and logistics
Location:Japan
Customer's website

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About the customer

The Nissin Group operates a global network spanning more than 150 locations across 22 countries and regions, providing integrated international logistics and freight forwarding services that combine sea, air, rail, and road transportation. The company delivers specialized logistics services across five key industries—mobility, chemicals, food, industrial machinery, and pharmaceuticals. As the core company of the group, Nissin is headquartered in Japan and operates as a supply chain logistics provider, supporting global and cross-border business operations.

Challenges in global business operations

Amid growing challenges such as supply chain disruptions, energy cost volatility, and labor shortages, strengthening supply chain resilience through digital transformation has become increasingly important*1.
As an early adopter of logistics digital transformation, Nissin is advancing initiatives along two key axes: enhancing visibility and speed in operations through digitalization of customer-facing functions and strengthening governance across its global platform. SAP serves as the backbone for centralized, real-time data management across the group.
“By flexibly supporting logistics operations with proprietary tools while integrating management data within SAP, we have built a ‘best-fit’ system architecture that enables us to respond quickly to sudden changes, including geopolitical risks,” said Hideyuki Ishida.
With SAP ECC 6.0 approaching end of support in 2027, Nissin began early planning for migration, aiming to minimize any impact on its business processes. Given the wide deployment of its systems across global operations and multiple time zones, where downtime cannot easily be coordinated, prolonged system outages could have critical consequences, particularly for payment processing. This led to establishing a strict 48-hour downtime window as a key migration requirement. At the same time, the transition to S/4HANA presented potential challenges about changes to user interfaces and business processes. With many users across domestic and international locations, an approach that could preserve existing familiarity while minimizing training requirements was essential.

A downtime minimization approach: BLUEFIELD with Near Zero Downtime

To develop a full-scale SAP migration plan, Nissin initiated an assessment in April 2023. Reflecting on the selection of Fujitsu as the project partner, Hideyuki Ishida noted: “To meet our ‘cannot-stop’ requirement in a global logistics context, we needed an approach that could satisfy the strict 48-hour downtime constraint while minimizing disruption. Fujitsu was the only partner to propose a BLUEFIELD-based approach that could deliver on these requirements.”
The BLUEFIELD approach adopted by Nissin enabled a selective migration to SAP S/4HANA by separating system and data, allowing only the necessary data to be transferred. This helped to minimize disruption and reduce migration risk. The approach was supported by CrystalBridge, a data transformation platform used to streamline the migration process.
Fujitsu’s proposal further reinforced this approach by combining BLUEFIELD with Near Zero Downtime techniques, helping to ensure the downtime requirements could be met reliably. Based on an overall assessment, Nissin selected Fujitsu as its partner for migrating SAP to AWS.

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26‑hour migration within a 48‑hour global downtime window

Fujitsu worked closely with the incumbent maintenance provider to deliver a seamless, end-to-end transition, combining the move to SAP S/4HANA with the required Unicode conversion*2 in a single, integrated program. Meanwhile, for the data separated from the system, SAP usage was analyzed during the assessment phase to identify unused add-ons, reducing add-on functionality by approximately one third. By migrating historical data in advance under a reduced system load, Fujitsu limited the final migration to incremental data only, successfully completing data migration within 26 hours, during a 48-hour weekend window, with minimal impact on group companies worldwide and completing the overall transition.
Hayato Tokunaga said that with the introduction of new functionalities in S/4HANA, some existing add-ons that had previously worked without issue did not function as expected. Identifying and fixing these issues required extensive coordination ahead of go-live. Fujitsu coordinated migration timing and change procedures across related systems and responded quickly to issues as they arose. As a result, the system was successfully brought into production.

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Advancing faster, more accurate decision-making

Reflecting on the post go-live phase, Hayato Tokunaga said that Fujitsu provided dedicated support during a focused stabilization period to address issues that could not be identified during testing, ensuring that problems were resolved promptly. The impact of the system renewal on its global user base was also minimized. By minimizing changes to the user experience, operations continued without major disruption. The transition to S/4HANA also improved access to reports and data. With its global business platform modernized, Nissin is now leveraging this foundation to support its next phase of growth – with faster, more informed decision-making through integrated financial and operational data.
Looking ahead, Nissin plans to continue expanding its global operations. “We are also looking to further leverage Fujitsu’s global network and expertise to support our continued global expansion,” said Hideyuki Ishida. Together, Nissin and Fujitsu will continue to address business and societal challenges while advancing their global management capabilities.

*1 Cabinet Secretariat of Japan, “Comprehensive Logistics Policy Outline (FY2021–FY2025; FY2026–FY2030)”; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), White Paper on International Economy and Trade 2025
*2 Unicode is an international standard for encoding characters from different languages. Converting to Unicode helps prevent character corruption and enables multilingual support.