Franke's 90-Day SAP Commerce Cloud Migration: What Made It Work

Most SAP Commerce Cloud migrations take 4–6 months for a single market. Franke Group — a global manufacturer of kitchen systems — needed to launch a fully modernised direct-to-consumer platform across nine European countries. The timeline: 90 days.

The project delivered on time, with zero post-launch hotfixes. It earned the SAP Quality Award in the “Time to Market” category. But it didn’t succeed because the team worked faster — it succeeded because specific methodology choices eliminated the waste that slows most migrations down.

TL;DR: Franke migrated from legacy on-prem to SAP Commerce Cloud across 9 countries in 90 days — earning an SAP Quality Award. The project achieved a 20% conversion increase and 30% faster order processing. Key methodology: standards-first architecture (minimising custom code), agile sprints with weekly steering, and phased go-live. 83% of migrations exceed budgets (Bloor Group, 2023) — structured governance and scope discipline are what separate the 17% that succeed.

Why Do Most Commerce Migrations Take So Long?

83% of data migration projects exceed their budgets or schedules (Bloor Group, 2023). The usual culprits aren’t technical — they’re organisational. Scope creep during build, integration surprises discovered too late, and governance structures that can’t make decisions fast enough.

Agile projects succeed 42% of the time compared to 13% for waterfall approaches (Standish Group, 2020). But “doing agile” isn’t enough. What matters is whether agile practices actually compress the decision-making cycle or just rename waterfall phases as “sprints.”

The Franke project compressed decisions through three specific choices: weekly steering committees with real decision-making authority, a standards-first architecture that eliminated most custom development debates, and a phased go-live that reduced launch risk to near zero.

What Made the 90-Day Timeline Possible?

SAP has been a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce for 11 consecutive years (SAP News Center, 2025). The platform’s maturity was a prerequisite — but the timeline compression came from four methodology decisions.

Standards-first architecture. The team committed early to using SAP Commerce Cloud’s out-of-the-box capabilities and Composable Storefront components wherever possible. Custom development was reserved for genuine gaps, not preferences. This single decision probably saved 30–40% of development effort compared to a typical customisation-heavy approach.

Structured governance from day one. Weekly steering committee meetings with leadership, project managers, and functional experts. Clear escalation paths. Every participant knew their decision-making authority. In a 90-day project, you can’t afford decisions that wait for the next monthly review.

Agile sprints with visible progress. Two-week sprint cycles with working demos after each one. Tools like JIRA gave all stakeholders real-time visibility. Quick wins after each sprint — a compliance feature completed, a UI module integrated, a test milestone cleared — kept momentum high.

Smart staffing model. Franke’s internal teams brought deep process and customer knowledge. The implementation team brought SAP Commerce Cloud expertise and multi-country rollout experience. This combination meant decisions happened fast because both sides of the equation — business context and technical capability — were always in the room.

How Did a 9-Country Rollout Work in 3 Months?

90% of businesses that migrated e-commerce platforms reported revenue improvements (commercetools, 2024). But multi-country rollouts add layers of complexity that single-market projects don’t face: VAT rules, fiscal codes, legal requirements, language variants, local payment methods, and regional logistics providers.

Franke’s rollout covered France, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Each market had unique compliance requirements — VAT field configurations, fiscal identification numbers, and country-specific legal notices.

The approach that worked: treat country-specific configuration as data, not code. VAT rules, tax fields, and legal text went into configuration layers, not custom development branches. This meant adding a new country was a configuration exercise, not a development sprint.

Payment and logistics integrations were handled through SAP Commerce Cloud’s extension framework — connecting payment gateways, shipping providers, and rate calculators through standardised APIs rather than custom integration code.

What Happened When Things Went Wrong?

Every migration hits unexpected obstacles. What matters is whether the governance structure can absorb them without derailing the timeline.

Three challenges surfaced mid-project. First, integration complexity with external logistics and payment providers proved harder than expected. Second, compliance requirements in specific markets surfaced late — additional tax fields and identification validations that hadn’t been in the original scope. Third, user adoption within Franke’s internal teams needed more attention than planned.

The responses:

For integration complexity: a phased rollout strategy. Each system component was integrated and tested in isolation before full deployment. This contained the blast radius of integration issues.

For late compliance requirements: expanded legal consultations earlier in the sprint cycle, reviewing and adjusting configurations before go-live rather than as last-minute fixes.

For user adoption: intensive training workshops, walkthroughs, and feedback sessions built into the sprint cadence. Internal teams learned the new workflows alongside the development team, not after launch.

None of these challenges pushed the timeline. The governance structure — weekly steering, clear escalation, fast decisions — absorbed them.

What Were the Business Results?

47% of IT leaders cite technical debt as a major driver of overspending (IDC, 2024). Franke’s migration eliminated the technical debt of their legacy on-prem system while delivering measurable business improvements.

20% increase in online conversion rates. The improved shopping experience — faster page loads, responsive design, streamlined checkout — directly translated to higher conversions.

30% reduction in order processing time. More efficient workflows and backend automation replaced manual processes from the legacy system.

Lower total cost of ownership. The move from on-prem infrastructure to SAP Commerce Cloud’s managed platform reduced operational overhead — no more patching, hosting, or infrastructure management.

Zero post-launch hotfixes. The phased go-live approach caught issues in controlled stages rather than in production. Hyper-care support was in place but barely needed.

SAP Quality Award — Time to Market. The project earned SAP’s recognition for delivery speed without compromising quality.

What Can Other Organisations Learn from This?

Over 3,200 companies currently use SAP Commerce Cloud (6sense, 2025). Not every migration needs to happen in 90 days — most mid-size projects run 4–6 months. But the methodology patterns from this project apply regardless of timeline.

Invest in governance upfront. A 90-day project can’t afford decision-making bottlenecks. Neither can a 6-month project — bottlenecks just feel less urgent until they accumulate. Weekly steering with decision authority is worth it at any scale.

Default to standard, customise only when forced. Every custom feature you build is a feature you maintain. SAP Commerce Cloud’s platform capabilities handle 80%+ of typical B2C and B2B requirements. Use them.

Start integration early. The Franke project integrated payment, logistics, and ERP connections in parallel with storefront development. Waiting until the platform is “ready” before starting integration is how 4-month projects become 8-month projects.

Plan for user adoption from sprint 1. Internal teams that learn the system alongside development are productive from day one. Teams that receive training after launch spend weeks catching up.

For an overview of what Spadoom delivers with SAP Commerce Cloud — including pricing, composable storefront architecture, and B2B use cases — see our SAP Commerce Cloud solution page.

Planning an SAP Commerce Cloud migration? We start with a discovery workshop that defines your architecture, maps your integrations, and produces a realistic timeline — whether that’s 90 days or 6 months. Talk to us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can any SAP Commerce Cloud migration be done in 90 days?

Not every migration, but more than most people think. The 90-day timeline worked for Franke because the team committed to standards-first architecture, had strong governance, and accepted that custom development would be minimal. If your project requires extensive custom business logic, complex B2B workflows, or a complete data transformation, plan for 4–6 months. The methodology principles — governance, standards-first, parallel integration — still compress whatever timeline you’re working with.

What made Franke’s project different from a typical migration?

Three things: decision speed, scope discipline, and architecture philosophy. Most migrations slow down because decisions wait for monthly reviews, scope expands mid-build (“while we’re at it…”), and teams default to custom development over platform capabilities. Franke’s weekly steering committee, strict MVP scope, and standards-first approach eliminated these common time sinks.

How much does a 90-day SAP Commerce Cloud migration cost?

A migration of this scope — 9 countries, Composable Storefront, multi-system integration — typically runs CHF 300K–500K when using a standards-first approach. Custom-heavy implementations of comparable scope can cost CHF 600K–1M+ and take 6–9 months. The standards-first approach saves both time and budget by reducing custom development and future maintenance overhead.

What’s a standards-first architecture?

It means using SAP Commerce Cloud’s built-in capabilities and Composable Storefront components as the default, and writing custom code only when the platform genuinely can’t handle a requirement. In practice, this covers 80%+ of typical e-commerce functionality. Custom development is reserved for unique business logic — things like proprietary pricing rules or industry-specific compliance features that no platform handles out of the box.

Why did this project win an SAP Quality Award?

SAP Quality Awards recognise projects that demonstrate excellence in methodology, outcomes, and innovation. The Franke project won in the “Time to Market” category for delivering a 9-country rollout in 90 days with zero post-launch hotfixes, measurable business improvements (20% conversion increase, 30% faster order processing), and a governance model that other organisations can replicate.