DATA
MIGRATION
Data migration projects come in all shapes and sizes. We know that all data migration projects are both technical and people projects, and we spend an equal amount of time on both elements. There’s more about the people part of the project on the strategy page, but here we discuss the technical aspect.
Whether it’s working with multi-site retailers to launch a new ERP system, migrating data from one SaaS product to another, an ageing legacy system to implementing a new cloud-based one, or merging data from disparate sources across a university, we approach every project with the same process.
We take a strategy-first approach to a data migration. It’s much more than just extract, transform and load (ETL) - it’s about understanding the impact on the organisation, resource planning and ensuring your data is in the best shape possible before migration. This means your projects have better outcomes, accurate timelines and fewer mistakes - something every PM is looking for.
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Data Migration Process
The five-step process, shown below, outlines how we tackle all data migration projects. While scale and complexity can change, we know all projects have many similarities. Our focus is on helping you through the migration process, ensuring that it runs as smoothly as possible.
Strategy
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Successful data migration projects start in the meeting room. Here we look at systems, resources and scope of the project to give the project the best chance of success.
We cover our Data Migration Strategy in more detail here.
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In the planning phase, we create the blueprints for the whole project. This is where we map out the migration and make the detailed plan for ETL and start looking at data quality through our ACE Data approach.
ACE Data is more than just a process, it’s a whole approach to your legacy data. ACE Data is an understanding that the migration process is the perfect time to improve the quality of your data set, not just for migration but to help the business thrive. No data is ever perfect, but ACE Data helps to improve the accuracy and usability of your data ahead of migration.
ACE stands for Analysis, Cleanse, and Enrichment.
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Analysis: Using our proprietary approach and tooling to analyse your data and highlight inconsistencies, gaps and issues.
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Cleanse: With support from Binary10, this client-led step purges and merges data to improve the quality of the existing data
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Enrichment: This client-led phase urges colleagues to complete missing information to allow the business to more effectively use the data.
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We run through DM Cycles from initial development, through ST/SIT, UAT, PCT and Dry-Run to understand the issues with the data migration.
While this is often seen as a technical step, we believe the value in Reconciliation and Testing of migrated data is human. The feedback from these stages is crucial in delivering a successful project. It’s the support of the project team and wider business at this stage that makes it so important.
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The go live stage. From a full project meeting to discuss the ‘go no go’ decision to the live migration of data from legacy to target, this is when all the planning pays off.
As we say here at Binary10, the devil is in the detail.
We don’t believe this stage should cause any sleepless nights - from strategy and planning, through to delivery and testing, every action we’ve taken up to this stage should provide confidence in the outcomes.
We’re integral in developing the overall cutover plan and, as part of every cutover, we have a roll back plan, just in case the worst happens. So you can sleep easily the night before Cutover.
After Cutover, Hypercare kicks in to ensure we can navigate our way through all the fixes and issues that often arise during these projects.
We provide training and mentoring to your team, work on fixing any of those small issues that crop up once the new system is live and provide an Audit Pack of final documentation.
To discuss your data migration needs and to find out how Binary10 can help, get in touch today.
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