SAP FC Backfilling: Securing Legacy Operations to Prepare for the Future of Consolidation

Freeing Internal Teams to Prepare for Tomorrow’s Solution

When a group begins evaluating the replacement of its consolidation platform, its most experienced internal resources are naturally called upon.

These teams possess deep knowledge of consolidation rules, closing processes, reporting requirements, controls, interfaces, and the historical decisions that have shaped the current environment. They are also best positioned to contribute to solution design, challenge functional choices, secure data migration activities, and ensure consistency between current and future operating models.

Yet these same resources are often already heavily involved in day-to-day operations.

They are managing incidents, supporting financial close activities, responding to business requests, analysing variances, securing data flows, and ensuring the application remains fully operational.

The risk is clear: key teams become trapped between two competing priorities. On one hand, they must keep the current platform running. On the other, they must prepare for the future.

Backfilling addresses this challenge directly.

It enables organisations to progressively transfer some or all legacy operational support activities to a trusted partner capable of ensuring service continuity, allowing internal teams to dedicate their time and expertise to transformation programmes.

A First Transition: From the Client Team to VISEO

The first step is to establish a controlled and structured transition between the client team and VISEO.

This is not simply a matter of transferring support tickets. It involves securing application knowledge, close processes, business rules, and critical points of attention that are not always fully documented.

The objective is to gain a thorough understanding of the existing environment, map critical processes, identify sensitive activities, formalise procedures, and secure key reporting and closing periods.

In a SAP FC environment, this stage is particularly important. Many implementations are mature, highly customised, and sometimes supported by only a handful of subject matter experts.

The purpose of this initial transition is therefore to guarantee operational continuity without losing control of the environment.

A Second Transition: From Scarce Expertise to a Sustainable Operating Model

Backfilling should never create a new dependency on a single individual.

This is a critical consideration.

As legacy technologies age, skilled resources become increasingly difficult to find. Finance IT professionals and consultants naturally seek opportunities on modern platforms. At the same time, organisations must continue supporting critical historical applications for many years.

The right answer is therefore not simply to find “the right SAP FC expert”.

The right answer is to transform individual dependency into a structured and sustainable operating model.

This requires a team capable of capturing, documenting, sharing, and preserving knowledge while ensuring service continuity. The expert’s role becomes twofold: managing complex issues while also transferring expertise, formalising processes, and developing the capabilities of other team members.

This approach progressively reduces the risks associated with scarce expertise while securing long-term support for the client.

Keeping Consultants Engaged in Legacy Environments

Another challenge concerns attractiveness and engagement.

How can organisations keep consultants motivated when working on applications considered legacy, while the market continues to focus on emerging technologies?

The answer lies in recognising that these activities go far beyond traditional application maintenance.

In reality, SAP FC support is far from static. Even where major enhancement projects have ended, Build and Run activities remain closely interconnected through rule adjustments, control improvements, data flow optimisation, process automation, data preparation, close process stabilisation, recurring incident analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Understanding SAP FC is not simply about mastering a software platform. It means understanding consolidation fundamentals, financial close cycles, control frameworks, data quality challenges, application dependencies, and the expectations of finance leaders.

These capabilities do not disappear when the technology changes.

They simply reappear within new platforms in different forms.

Working in a legacy environment is therefore not a step backwards. It is often an excellent foundation for building expertise on the next generation of EPM solutions.

Preparing Teams for the AMS Landscape of Tomorrow

VISEO’s strategy must therefore be twofold.

On one side, organisations need a reliable, structured, and governed backfilling capability to secure SAP FC and SAP BFC applications that remain in production.

On the other, teams must gradually develop expertise in next-generation consolidation and financial performance management solutions.

This capability-building journey can be implemented progressively through vendor training programmes, transformation project shadowing, pairing legacy experts with next-generation consultants, participation in design workshops, contribution to migration workstreams, consistency checks, testing activities, documentation, and preparation of the future operating model.

The objective is to create a seamless continuity of expertise between legacy and modern environments.

A Backfilling Offering Designed to Secure the Transition

VISEO’s backfilling offering is designed to support organisations through a critical period of change: maintaining business-critical finance applications, preserving scarce expertise, freeing internal teams to prepare the next generation of solutions, and progressively building the future AMS model.

The offering is based on several key principles:

• A structured transition between client teams and VISEO
• Protection of critical business processes, particularly financial close cycles
• Preservation and capitalisation of application and business knowledge
• Reduction of dependency on scarce resources
• Delivery through a collective operating model rather than a single expert
• Alignment between legacy support activities and transformation programmes
• Progressive upskilling of teams on modern EPM platforms
• Preparation of the future support model from the earliest project phases

This approach addresses a highly practical challenge: how can organisations continue to operate SAP FC or SAP BFC securely while internal teams focus on transformation programmes and specialised expertise becomes increasingly scarce?

Securing the Old World to Build the New One

The gradual end of major SAP FC evolution programmes does not mean the topic becomes less important.

On the contrary, existing applications will remain critical for many years, particularly for organisations that must secure financial close activities while preparing their replacement roadmap.

Backfilling therefore becomes a strategic lever.

It helps secure legacy operations, preserve critical knowledge, reduce dependency on scarce expertise, and free internal teams to prepare future solutions.

It also provides an opportunity to train consultants in the business fundamentals that remain essential across modern EPM environments.

Transformation is not about abandoning existing systems overnight.

It is about managing a controlled transition between current applications and tomorrow’s platforms.

In this journey, legacy support is not a challenge of the past.

When managed effectively, it becomes one of the strongest foundations for a successful transformation.