ERP Data Migration Checklist

An ERP Data Migration is a key part of a successful ERP implementation. Data migration involves transferring data from its original location to your new ERP system. This often requires taking data stored in multiple different formats, systems, and storage types and converting it all into one common structure. Transferring data incorrectly can cause problems for your business. That’s why we’re here. The tips and strategies outlined below will help your business avoid ERP implementation failure and all the pitfalls that come with it.

4 Easy Steps for Building an ERP Data Migration Strategy and Plan

  To successfully complete an ERP data migration, it’s important to create a migration strategy that includes several key elements and steps.  

1. Create a Migration Team

  Organize a group that will determine which data has to be imported and how to clean it up. This group is usually part of your larger ERP implementation team and often contains individuals from varying business backgrounds with different perspectives on how to use data.  

2. Analyze and Map the Data

  Next, you should examine the data stored in your current source systems to identify redundancies and inconsistences. The data migration team should decide how to resolve any data discrepancies or other issues before completing the migration.  You’ll also need to map the data to the ERP database’s structure during this implementation step so that automated tools can import the data.  

3. Choose What Data to Migrate

  Older systems may contain information that is no longer accurate, including data on out-of-date products, former suppliers that have gone out of business, and customers who haven’t placed orders in a long time. Systems might also have records of historical transactions. Depending on your data retention policies, you may not need to migrate such information to your new system. Your company may wish to store unnecessary or outdated data offline or in a different system.  

4. Migrate, Validate, and Test

  Investigate to see whether your new ERP has tools to help you automate the data import process. Before migrating the data, you may have to rationalize it or convert it to a form your new ERP system can recognize. It’s also important to test your migrated data before going live.  

Building an ERP Data Migration Checklist

  As part of this process, it might help to build an ERP Data Migration checklist. This will ensure your company has all the information you need to make your data migration a success.  

• Collect organizational data (types of ownership, locations of org units, operating markets)
• Determine the layout of the organization
• Create a list of departments use your ERP
• Create a list of ERP-compliant certifications (CMMI, GDRP, ISO, etc.)
• Determine the level of daily ERP usage, including usage at the operational level, by employees, and by top management
• Define the ERP’s infrastructure, including networking, internet, and servers
• Make a list of challenges with your current ERP
• List any business niches or specializations

4 ERP Data Migration Best Practices

  Following ERP data migration best practices educes risk and helps keep the project on track. The top four best data migration practices include:  

1. Prioritize Data Migration

  Data migration is an intricate process that requires a lot of work and time. If you don’t plan carefully, data migration can delay your entire implementation. It’s essential to start early and devote enough resources to data migration to ensure the process doesn’t stall. When you begin the implementation, create procedures for cleansing and extracting data from source systems.  

2. Think about the Broader Business Use of Migrated Data

  Take time to analyze your existing data thoroughly, determine how it will be utilized in the ERP system, map it to the structure of the ERP database, and create rules for translating the data to your new system before beginning the migration process. An ERP implementation provides opportunities to gain better insight into business processes by analyzing existing data. When migrating, consider how data will be used for decisions throughout the business, including each department.  

3. Assign Data Governance Responsibility

  Define who owns what data and allocate designated roles to your team members accordingly. For example, your team will have to decide which version of duplicate or redundant customer data is accurate and therefore should be included in your new system, and which versions should be discarded. Additionally, this is a good time to decide who bears the overall responsibility for ensuring your data and procedures remain in compliance with any rules and regulations that apply to your company. Mistakes here can be expensive, particularly with new laws such as the GDPR and CCPA.  

4. Be Selective

  You might be tempted to hoard some data, or transfer everything from your old systems to your new ERP system because you think you might need it someday. Not all historical data needs to be immediately accessible for analysis or other use. Importing unneeded historical data may slow system performance or reduce productivity by making it harder for employees to find the data they needed.   If no team member can provide a compelling reason why a specific type of data should be included in the new system, that’s a sign it may not need to be migrated to your new ERP. Some companies choose to preserve historical data outside of their ERP in case this data is needed for historical analysis.

ERP Data Migration Tips

  Proper testing procedures can help ensure a successful ERP data migration. Here are some top data migration tips:  

• Begin testing the new system with small portions of migrated data as early as possible and slowly build up over time to more thorough testing.
• Start testing using representative subsets of clients and orders, and then slowly broaden testing to include all types of information, uses, and applications.
• Go through your checklist and perform test tests where users perform all of their regular tasks on your new system to check for problems that may have been previously missed.

The best tip of all is to hire an experienced ERP implementation consultant like CertiPro to help implement your ERP and complete your ERP data migration. Our expert team has handled countless ERP implementations for clients across multiple industries. We help companies build the solutions they need to succeed and grow.   Contact us to schedule a demo and see how we can help your business grow.