In today’s business environment more and more organizations are becoming global and digital. As such, it’s easy for things to change quickly. Businesses may find that their current ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is being made obsolete, Thereby forcing organizations to adopt new systems and move away from a legacy solution that may have been in place for decades. It’s important to find a new ERP data system that meets the business’ needs and delivers at pace. However, it’s even more important to make sure you move to the new system with a careful process.
Having to move to a new ERP platform is not something taken lightly by most businesses. It requires a clear plan with manageable tasks and defined roles and responsibilities across the organization. One of the most important tasks when moving to a new ERP system is data migration. With that in mind, ids take a closer look at what it means to achieve successful data migration for your new ERP system.
Many organizations power ahead with migrating to a new system under the assumption that their data is good as it is. This means that data migration is typically an afterthought until they discover problems late in the process. Unfortunately, this is when it is much more timely and costly to fix. With that in mind, it’s so important that businesses take a data-first approach when moving to a new system.
Data migration is a critical process in making sure that only accurate, complete, and relevant data is transferring to the new ERP system. This can be instrumental in making sure the project is on time. It also gives you a chance to remove any inaccurate or duplicate data from legacy systems. This type of data can undermine the success of your migration process and ultimately means your new ERP system could release with errors.
It’s key to ensure you have the right plan of action to mitigate any data migration challenges. You should also make sure your strategy is aligning with your business needs and goals. Consider some of these best practices to help you start on the right track. Many are choosing CRM software at TEC.
There are two main methodologies when it comes to migration. The first of which is incremental while the other follows a Big Bang approach. It’s typically advised to opt for an incremental method, as this allows you to work systematically. It also means you will only turn off the legacy system when everything on the new system is working as you expect.
It’s important to build a strategy using your business goals. What are you hoping to gain from moving to a new ERP system? How will your data migration strategy help to achieve that? Consider segmenting data based on importance and relevance. Take the time to understand the information you have in front of you. This might help you to identify the necessary analysis and reports so that you can better decide what to discard, archive, or carry forward.
Testing is a critical part of moving to a new system. It can help to identify any issues or bugs as early as possible. By testing your system at every stage of the migration process, you can avoid the accumulation of redundant data issues in the later stages when it’s more expensive to fix.
It could also be incredibly useful to create and stick to data standards. Migrating data can often involve moving data from multiple sources or systems to the new one. Be it that your want to move your client data or use top email migration services, you need to make sure you're using the right partner. And, all data is likely to be stored in different formats. Some departments within organizations may even have their own separate data classification. It’s important to be prepared for the complexity of the process and create a migration design that allows for uniformity and standardization. You should also be ready to cleanse data that comes from multiple sources.
Tackling the data migration process is something not every organization will have the skills or resources to achieve. It can be helpful to get expert support from an external consultancy. They can ensure you’re making informed decisions across the implementation process. Working with a data quality partner can help you to keep the project on time and on budget. This can also minimize the risk of missing any business objectives while you migrate to the new system.
