Does strategy really matter when migrating data? Philip Howard & Carl Potter Publish conducted a study in which they found that only about 33% of projects are delivered on time. From these statistics, it is clear that this process is complex and troublesome. Therefore, preparing for it carefully and mobilizing the proper resources is necessary.
With a business-centric approach, data migration does not have to be painful for customers. By customers, we mean companies that merge, acquire, or upgrade their systems and applications, system integrators, software vendors, and data centers. Businesses can ensure a smooth and positive migration experience. This approach focuses on businesses’ needs and provides them with the necessary support at all stages of migration.
In this article, we will look at key strategies for business-centric data migration.
Traditional Migration vs Business-Centric Migration
During traditional data migration, most companies experience problems, such as exceeding the budget, losing time and resources, errors in the system, etc. This is usually due to an incorrectly constructed strategy, approach, and data transfer.
Let's analyze why the implicit or explicit choice of data migration approach can lead to problems.
When it comes to data migration, a common challenge is that organizations don't consider their approach carefully enough. Instead of developing a thoughtful strategy, they tend to fall back on known methods without giving sufficient thought to the intricacies involved.
Companies with a lack of experience or limited resources often implicit choose a traditional approach without any consideration of the different options available. They end up focusing on the technical aspects of moving data and applications from one platform to another. This alone can be a challenging and time-consuming process involving lacking focus and missing critical business deliverables, ignoring the actual customer's needs.
Since all attention is paid to technical aspects, this process does not really consider the client's ability to learn, participate and own the data transformation during the migration phase. As a result, this causes a global churn of customers and revenue, even if the migration turn out to be technically successful.
On the other hand, business-centric migration is a more holistic approach that focuses on the organization experience throughout the entire migration process. This approach starts with understanding the business needs and goals and then developing a migration plan that aligns with those needs.
- The business-centric solution emphasizes communication and collaboration with the different stakeholders throughout the process.
- Business-centric migration prioritizes uninterrupted business operations and minimal disruption for customers.
- This approach aligns with customer needs and objectives, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Business-centric service strategies boost organizational ROI (return on investment) by minimizing costs and maximizing customer satisfaction.
So, when developing your strategy for data migration, choosing the business-centric approach that allows you to balance the necessary technical requirements with the vision of the customer who will use this data or results of its processing.
The Main Points When Moving Data
Data migration is a complex process that requires attention to many details. The main point when transforming data is to ensure that the data is accurate, complete, and consistent and enables the new systems to works as expected. Being specific on scope and expectations are crucial for the data migration strategy. So, when preparing or creating a business-centric strategy, it is worth considering a number of aspects.
Clearly Choose the Approach You Need
Depending on the main purpose of your data migration, you may need to consider different approaches, such as scope, agile vs. waterfall, stakeholder, and tools. There are various ways to extract data from various sources, transform it into a usable format or structure, and then load it into a different database, data warehouse, or system for analysis, reporting, or other purposes. Just using the traditional business as usual model and tools at hand that organizations might already are using in their business intelligence, data warehousing, or analytics operations is just not good enough.
This choice of strategy and tools is important for any company or software vendor or large data centers or system integrators who want to migrate data for use on another platform or application.
Appropriate Software for the Project
Companies often choose inadequate software for data migration. The tools and technologies used may not be suitable for the volume or complexity of the data.
That is why Hopp has developed software enabling our customers to manage their data conveniently and efficiently. A user-oriented interface will help create business objects and apply rules and validation criteria. Adaptability allows you to adapt to any project of any size.
Business-Centric Migration Strategies for a Painless Transition
A well-thought-out strategy is the key to success. If your company is able to identify potential obstacles and avoid them, you will be ahead of the rest. To make your data migration successful, follow these steps.
Planning and Preparation
A smooth transition to a new platform begins with meticulous planning and thorough preparation. It's a multi-step process that starts with defining your objectives, comprehensively evaluating your existing setup, and devising a detailed migration blueprint. The company's data should be conditionally divided into the main business components that will be transferred.
It's about clarifying what you aim to accomplish with this transition, whether it's streamlining operations, cutting costs, or enhancing flexibility and adaptability. Having well-defined goals guides decision-making throughout the migration process and ensures alignment between the application migration steps and your ultimate business objectives.
Communication and Collaboration
Smooth transitions hinge on effective communication and collaboration among teams and stakeholders. It's imperative that your stakeholders are invested in the process and your team is well informed and actively involved to achieve success.
Clearly communicate the transition's objectives, timeline, and anticipated impact on team workflows. This transparency alleviates concerns and uncertainties and fosters a sense of engagement and ownership among team members. It’s about ensuring everyone understands the rationale behind the seamless transition and how it aligns with overarching goals.
Change Management
Managing change is crucial in helping your organization adjust to a new platform. It involves training them on the new system, offering support, and resolving any hesitations toward change.
Make sure your team understands the business-centric processes and give them thorough lessons on how to use the new platform. This will reduce their time figuring it out independently and prevent work slowdowns.
Also, be sure your team has the necessary resources to use the new platform well. This might include training, guides, frequently asked questions (FAQs), or a team ready to assist with any issues.
Testing and Validation
Ensuring the new system aligns with your requirements involves testing, data verification, and conducting a trial run.
First up, test everything. Try out all the parts and bits of the new platform to ensure they do what you need. Then, check the data to ensure it made the move correctly. You want to be sure it's accurate, complete, and not all jumbled up. That way, you can trust the info you're working with.
Before rolling out the new system to everyone, try it out with a small team. This mini-test helps find any hiccups or blips before the big launch so everything goes smoothly for everybody later. You will be able to confirm that your business-centric innovation is working correctly.
Monitoring and Maintenance
After shifting to the new platform, continue monitoring everything. Keeping everything going like clockwork requires watching how it performs and fixing and improving problems over time.
Keep tabs on performance to spot any hiccups or snags that might slow things down. Doing this lets you catch problems early and keep the platform running smoothly. Whenever issues pop up, tackle them right away. Quick fixes help prevent work disruptions and keep things ticking along smoothly for your team.
Don’t stop there. Keep finding ways to make the new platform even better. Look for opportunities to tweak and enhance it based on how it's used and feedback from your team.