Data migration is a critical component of every successful cloud ERP implementation, regardless of the platform. As the project manager, you'll want to ensure that data migration is correctly scoped and staffed from the beginning. Here's how you can get it right:
1. Choose the data you want to migrate
Identify all of the present apps affected by the ERP deployment to ensure that you find out all of the data in scope. Then list all of the apps that your new ERP system will replace.
If you are replacing more than one program, you may have to migrate data from many different apps simultaneously.
2. Review your upload templates as early as possible
When you export data from your old ERP system, you must format it to match the upload template created for the new ERP system.
Examine the template as soon as possible to determine the level of difficulty associated with the needed formatting.
3. Identify data mapping challenges
You will need to consider the different data types that exist in each system - which is integral to the data mapping process
If you have a customer ID in one program that supports alphanumeric characters and another application that only takes numeric characters, you might have a conflict.
During the mapping and migration process, you will need to determine how to accommodate this discrepancy.
4. Choose your migration parameters
Most project managers choose to move just a portion of their data to the new cloud ERP system. There are multiple factors that play a role in this.
For example, if the amount of data is large and will take a long time to migrate, if the data is old and no longer relevant, or if moving all of the data is too expensive, the data may be considered obsolete.
As a result, project managers often select to move only data that has been collected after a specified date. In the example above, teams should transfer only data that has been input after January 1, 2020.
Some additional settings, such as whether teams should transfer data for suppliers that are no longer serving your firm, may be desirable.
5. Consider new data
In addition, the data migration process is an excellent opportunity to think about any additional data you want to record in your new ERP system and how this will impact the data load into your new ERP system.
Depending on whether this data was available in your previous system and needed in your new ERP, you may have to produce it during the transfer process. For example, the status field, a new date field, or anything else necessary in your new application might be included in this section.
6. Anticipate manual data entry
While you will automate as much of the data movement as feasible, there may be scenarios in which the time and effort invested in automating the migration are not worth it. For example, you may have five suppliers that are exempt from the regulation in your organization.
Within your migration process, you'll find it easier to manually input or change the data for five vendors in your new application rather than creating conversion scripts for each of them.
7. Check on data accuracy
If you are planning to migrate your data to a new ERP program, you may want to include time in your timetable for testing to ensure that the data being moved is correct and complete.
It's best to arrange any cleaning work ahead of time to not interfere with the data extraction process.
The fact that you have set out time for this procedure guarantees that the data entering your new ERP application is correct from the start.
8. Execute test migrations
Executing test data migrations is the most effective method of ensuring that your data migration scripts are functioning correctly.
If any mistakes are discovered during the migrating process, they may be fixed and retested. To ensure that the final migration to production will be swift and successful, it is usual practice for test migrations to be performed many times.
