Purpose and Status
This article sets out the plan to migrate Japan from Akeneo PIM v6 to Akeneo SaaS, including the phase timeline, owners, and responsibilities.
⚠️ Status: We are currently planning to start migration on 24 August 2026
Timeline diagram
The Akeneo migration is planned to run from mid-July through 24 September 2026, covering preparation, phased migration activities, SFCC validation and go-live, followed by hypercare and v6 decommissioning.
Timeline at a glance
Preparation
16 July – 23 August 2026 · 39 days
Owner: Carol, MSC eCommerce Commercial Team, Japan eCommerce Team
Outcome: conduct UAT, teams trained, Phase 1 start date confirmed
🚦 Gate G1 — 21 August · Owner: Carol
Go/no-go decision to begin the migration.
Phase 1 — Data Clone
24 – 30 August 2026 · 7 days
Owner: Akeneo project team
Outcome: v6 production data cloned into SaaS production
Phase 2 — Config & Asset Migration
31 August – 6 September 2026 · 7 days
Owner: Carol
Outcome: Import profiles, rules, ~300,000 assets and attributes rebuilt in SaaS
🚦 Gate G2 — 4 September · Owner: Carol
Go/no-go decision to start Phase 3
Phase 3 — Delta Re-entry and data validation
7 – 11 September 2026 · 5 days
Owner: Carol, MSC eCommerce Commercial Team, Japan eCommerce Team
Outcome: Carol will re-apply the v6 changes made since 24 August in SaaS, based on the log provided by the team. The MSC eCommerce Commercial Team will then validate the updated data.
🚦 Gate G3 — 11 September, 12:00–13:00 JST · Owner: Carol+MSC eCommerce Commercial Team + Japan eCommerce
Go/no-go decision for the SFCC sync.
Phase 4 — SFCC Sync & Go-Live
11 September (around 6:30pm JST) – 13 September 2026 · 3 days
Owner: OSF
Outcome: Data synced from SaaS to SFCC Staging. Following final validation and approval by each market, the data will be replicated to Production.
⚠️ Note: 12–13 September is a weekend — support cover to be confirmed
Phase 5 — Hypercare
14 – 24 September 2026 · 11 days
Owner: Akeneo Project Team
Outcome: v6 decommissioning planned
Preparation work
16 July – 23 August 2026 · Owner: Carol
Before any data is cloned, the team completes UAT, familiarises with the SaaS platform, and confirms the migration start date with Akeneo.
What happens in this phase
30 Jul – 7 Aug · Briefing and Q&A sessions; MSC eCommerce Commercial Team explores the SaaS interface
3 – 7 Aug · UAT conducted by MSC eCommerce Commercial Team. The UAT period has been extended from 7 August to 14 August because users were not able to complete the validation by the original deadline. Testing covers Akeneo functionality, AS400 data accuracy, sync to SFCC Dev, complete the task of SKN deduplication
3 – 14 Aug · UAT issue resolution, MSC eCommerce Commercial Team to review the procedure of delta data entry
By 21 Aug · Akeneo project team confirms the Phase 1 start date
Who does what
Carol · runs the briefings, triages UAT issues, validates AS400 data prepared by JP IT team
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team · Conduct UAT and complete task, review the procedure of delta data entry for having the log.
OSF · confirms the SFCC Staging backup procedure and the Phase 4 runbook
Akeneo project team · confirms the migration start date with Carol
🚦 Gate G1 — 21 August · Owner: Carol
Go/no-go to begin the migration. Requires: UAT signed off · no blocker defects · start date confirmed · checklist issued.
Migration: Data Flow and the role & responsibility
To avoid disrupting business operations, data will be cloned from the V6 production environment to the SaaS production environment. During this process, V6 production will continue syncing with SFCC staging and production as usual.
Phase 1: Akeneo Project Team start cloning data from v6 production to SaaS production
24 August – 30 August 2026
Owner: Akeneo Project Team
Data Flow
Who does what
Akeneo Project Team
Performed data cloning from the Akeneo v6 production environment to the Akeneo SaaS production environment.
Managed the internal process to remove customizations and resolve versioning issues, ensuring that the SaaS production data can be updated properly via Excel.
Carol
Carol will maintain a log of all new SKU–SKN combinations created in v6 production from Day 1. This log will be used for re-import during Phase 2. For example, if SKU #12345678 is created with SKN #12233 in v6 production, the same mapping will be preserved and applied in SaaS production to ensure SKU consistency and prevent unintended changes.
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team
Maintain a log of records updated from this date onward. For example, if the product name for SKU #1234567 is changed by a user on 24 August, the same update will need to be reapplied later in Phase 3. Therefore, please record the relevant SKU number and details of the change.
Phase 2: Carol accesses the SaaS production environment to configure the import profile
31 August – 6 September 2026
Owner: Carol
Data Flow
Who does what
Akeneo Project Team
Inform Carol the SaaS production is ready to access
Carol
Set up all import profiles, such as AS400 product import, UPC import, etc.
Set up all rules.
Performed data transformation by renaming and converting all images from product attributes into asset families, covering approximately 300,000 images.
Created attributes and populated the required data. For example, date/time fields (eg. 予定公開日 / Scheduled Publish Time) were custom attributes in v6 and will be removed during the cloning process to SaaS; Carol needs to recreate these attributes in SaaS and populate them with the same data.
Conduct data validation.
Maintain a log of all new SKU–SKN combinations in v6 production and import back to SaaS production on a daily basis.
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team
Continue Maintain a log of records updated from this date onward. For example, if the product name for SKU #1234567 is changed by a user on 31 August, the same update will need to be reapplied later in Phase 3. Therefore, please record the relevant SKU number and details of the change.
Phase 3: Carol updates the content based on the changes in v6 production since day 1 of Phase 1, the team validates the data
7 – 11 September 2026
Owner: Carol, The MSC eCommerce Commercial Team and other users
Carol updates the delta data.
The team then validates the data.
Data Flow
Who does what
Carol
Maintain a log of all new SKU–SKN combinations in v6 production and import back to SaaS production on a daily basis.
Share the SKU–SKN list with the team for any new SKU/PIM IDs created in v6 after 24 August 2026
Click here to access the list
Perform data and functional validation to confirm that Akeneo SaaS is operating correctly.
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team
Data validation and see if something unexpected happen
Phase 4: Data is synchronized from Akeneo SaaS production environment to SFCC
11 – 13 September 2026
Owner: OSF - to make sure the job runs properly
Data Flow
Who does what
Carol
Confirm with the markets and OSF to prepare the sync from Akeneo SaaS to SFCC Staging.
Monitor the job during processing.
OSF
Back up the existing SFCC Staging data before the job starts.
Monitor the job during processing and address any bugs or issues.
Replicate the data from SFCC Staging to Production after validation is completed by Carol and the eCommerce team.
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team
Once the job is completed, verify the data in SFCC Staging to ensure it matches the data in Akeneo SaaS Production. Please stand by over the weekend to validate the data on Staging once the job completes.
⚠️ The following jobs will be paused while the Akeneo SaaS full import job is running. Since this is the first run and involves a large volume of data, it may take 30+ hours to complete. To minimize impact on the business, we've decided to schedule the run from Friday afternoon.
2-AS400-Import-Retail-Prices
1-AS400-Import-TPR-Prices AM
1-AS400-Import-TPR-Prices PM
Replication-Full (after working hours)
Replication-Full (before mid-night)
SFLM-Import-Point-Setting-Files
Phase 5: Hypercare
14 – 24 September 2026
Owner: Akeneo Project Team
Following go-live, the team enters a two-week hypercare period to stabilise the new environment. Carol triages issues daily with the market, OSF and Akeneo; OSF monitors the scheduled jobs to confirm they run cleanly; and the MSC eCommerce Commercial Team and other users reports any data or workflow problems through the agreed channel while resuming normal business as usual.
In addition, users can export data from v6 as needed.
Data Flow
⚠️ Please complete all exports by Tuesday, 23 September at the latest.
Please note that a financial penalty will apply if we need to extend the grace period with Akeneo.
What you need to do
Review whether you need any historical data, reports or product exports from v6 that are not already available in Akeneo SaaS.
Download them before 23 September 2026.
Who does what
Carol · daily issue triage with the market, OSF and Akeneo; update the Zendesk documentation to reflect the final SaaS process; confirm the v6 export deadline with all users.
OSF · monitor the scheduled jobs for the full two-week period.
MSC eCommerce Commercial Team · report issues through the agreed channel; complete any required v6 exports before 23 September.
Akeneo project team · decommission the v6 production environment
Appendix A · Foundation work completed before 16 July 2026
The work below was completed before the formal preparation window opened. It established a validated baseline — confirming that the SaaS environment, rules, data feeds and SFCC integration were working — before the migration timeline began.
Carol from MSC IT Team
Led the exploration of Akeneo SaaS from the end of 2025.
Completed the gap analysis between Akeneo SaaS and Akeneo v6.
Redesigned the workflow for Japan and ROA around SaaS limitations, such as importing images into asset families.
Develop external tools to support the barcode deduplication process, as customisation is not available in SaaS.
Developed external tools for the Comestri file on SFTP, as API connectivity is not available in SaaS.
Developed additional tools to replicate functionality such as merging regional SKUs.
Added helper attributes to populate the data that was previously handled by customization in v6.
Recreated all rules in a SaaS-compatible format while preserving the same business logic as v6.
Reviewed the import profile format requirements and coordinated with the Tech team to prepare and schedule the required files.
Documented all changes in Zendesk and highlighted the improvements compared with v6.
Technical brief on the SFCC integration approach with OSF, covering the changes required to migrate image imports from product attributes to asset families.
Tested functionality in SaaS and raised questions to Akeneo.
Tested functionality in SFCC Dev to confirm data synchronisation worked correctly, and coordinated bug fixes with OSF developers.
Issued preparation tasks to the markets, such as identifying products with missing PIE IDs for Japan, SKN deduplication for deassortment items in ROA.
Akeneo Project Team
Worked with Carol to conduct the gap analysis between Akeneo v6 and Akeneo SaaS.
Provided support when Carol raised questions or required clarification.
Confirmed the project team's role in cloning data during the migration.
Joe from JP IT Team
Responsible for supporting the technical preparation and coordination required for the Akeneo SaaS migration, particularly from the Japan IT and AS400 data feed perspective. He works closely with Carol and the Akeneo Project Team through regular meetings to align on migration requirements.
MSC IT Team
Created and scheduled the AS400 files based on the Akeneo SaaS requirements provided by Carol.
JP IT Team
Created and scheduled the AS400 files based on the Akeneo SaaS requirements provided by Carol.
Answered questions on data discrepancies between v6 and SaaS, and supported the related risk assessments.
Coordinated with the Japan eCommerce team and Carol to resolve the missing PIE ID issue.
OSF
Developed the SaaS integration, focused primarily on image asset family download and mapping.
Resolved other issues that caused Akeneo jobs to fail or produced data issues.