LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench), from its name, is a tool in SAP ERP that allows us to do the migration data from Non-SAP system to SAP system. It’s usually used in the Go-live preparation phase of SAP implementation project to create multiple records of SAP master data or transaction data (such as material master, vendor master , customer master, purchasing document, etc), without entering them one by one.
With LSMW, SAP can read an input file, for example a .txt file, which contains multiple records with some columns, and then convert them into SAP data. Of course, we had to define the format of the input file and the conversion rule first before we run the LSMW tool. The contents of the input file can be the master or transaction data form legacy system that needs to be migrated to SAP system.
LSMW can be used not only for data migration, but it also can be used in the production phase of SAP implementation for various needs, such as to create or update master data or transaction data which are not efficient if we do it one by one. Although SAP has provided “mass change” functionalities such as
MM17,
MEMASSRQ,
MEMASSPO tcodes, with LSMW, we have more flexibility in terms of fields that can be changed.
