Best Practices for Successful ERP Data Migration

ERP data migration is a time consuming yet important process. In many scenarios the process brings chaos and confusion and hence the future operations of the organization are derailed. But with due diligence, some precautions, and meticulous preparation organization can easily sail through the tides of data migration.

In this newsletter, we will try to uncover mysteries of ERP data migration and will help you to decode the complex process. Here we will also suggest you some best practices for successful ERP data migration.

Data migration is a yardstick to measure success of ERP implementation. Since ERP works on data, the role of data migration is crucial in proper functioning of the system. Until initial data is sorted and clutter free, one cannot expect system to provide correct information.

The main goal of data migration is that the data is free of redundancy, duplicity, and is relevant. The data should be credible and arranged in such a manner that it should enable systems to churn out correct information.

Data migration must hold following virtues:

• Accuracy
• Consistency
• Validity
• Completeness

Challenges in ERP Migration:

Many organizations consider data migration as just data copying. Migration is a wider term which ensures that the new data is clean, sorted, and relatable.

There should have been a system or a set of rules to input data in legacy system. If not done according to the system or rule, chances are that the data to be migrated is not clean.

There are some key challenges with respect to data migration, which are:

1. Ensuring credibility of data – Unorganized data can put forth various troubles like

• Excessive time spent over understanding of data
• Improper data quality and discovery
• Chances of drawing inaccurate conclusions

2. Limited knowledge of working with data – Working on data needs specialized skill and knowledge. Not having this knowledge poses troubles like:

• Data without inference is of no use. Hence, without the knowledge of handing data and taking out information from the data is a waste of data.
• Unable to understand how source and target systems work.

3. System and role-related challenges – A well-structured data is useful only to the relevant department. An ERP migration usually faces issue of role related data migration, making data tough to understand or irrelevant to unconcerned department.

4. Regulatory concerns – There are many regional and industry specific regulatory concerns that impact the way organizations store data. While making the transfer, compliance to these norms is a must.

Consequences of Poor Data Migration:

A well-defined data migration approach ensures that you adhere to implementation timeline, avoid costly budget overruns, and go-live with clean set of data which will help your business to absorb meaningful information.

However, risk of poor data migration includes:

1. Working with wrong data
2. Substandard performance of new system
3. Time and money loss on remedial actions
4. Probability of missing deadlines
5. Involved opportunity-loss cost
6. Deterioration of your relationship with ERP vendor
7. Inability to use ERP system with full capacity

Key Points to Remember When Migrating Data:

• Have a dedicated team to analyse data, perform the migration and evaluate the results.
• Start early on data to avoid mid-hassles of data redundancy. This will ensure timely completion of migration process.
• Begin tests as soon as the first lot of data is transferred and keep doing it as the data increases.
• Opt for an experienced vendor and work in unison with the vendor.

Best Practices of Successful ERP Data Migration:

As stated, data migration is a detailed process which involves planning, perseverance, and commitment. Following are some steps that will help to ensure that your ERP data migration is a success:

Have a migration team - Prepare a team of personnels from various departments who will be responsible for sorting the data to be transferred to new system. The team will decide important data, will clean up unwanted data and make a smooth path for migration.

Data analysis – Analyse the data deeply, find out redundant data, and remove it.

Training, testing and deployment - Testing the final structure of data for individual group/department will ensure that the implementation is on the right track.

Training is a very crucial part of successful ERP implementation practice. Train your employee, make them comfortable with the change and start using the new system.

Evaluate – Evaluate the efficiency of your new ERP system. Examine:

1. Change in productivity
2. Customer satisfaction
3. Inventory process
4. New workflow

Always remember to provide a teething period before analysing the performance of the new ERP. This adjusting period is the time which any workflow or system takes to reveal results. Wait at least for 8-12 months before you start analysing.

Support – Once the go-live is achieved, support is very important. Make sure the vendor provides unwavering support to handle any unpleasant or expected/unexpected breaks or challenges.

Conclusion:

Data migration is a very important process of any successful ERP project. Finding out the right members, devising a right strategy of migration, and planning everything has its due importance.

Your ERP vendor also plays a major role in successful ERP data migration.? ?Its expertise, experience and commitment make this complex process easy.

Having said that, it is worth mentioning that BatchMaster is one such ERP vendor having experience of more than 3000 implementations across the globe.

The implementation team works tirelessly to make ERP project a success. It has an amiable and 24*7 available support team to help you in any exigency situation. ?

If you have any query regarding ERP or data migration, feel free to contact us . Out expert team is available to assist you.