Is your company preparing for a significant software transition? Migrating to a new system like the best-in-class Oracle NetSuite ERP platform requires a strategic approach to ensure that critical data is correctly and efficiently transferred.
Before importing data into the new platform, you want to ensure that all data is inspected, extracted, cleansed, and transformed from all previous sources. A NetSuite data migration strategy is essential in making sure your migration goes smoothly.
Learn more about why you need a strategy and what should be included in the strategy.
Why is a Data Migration Strategy Critical for Implementation?
A data migration strategy ensures that NetSuite implementation can be successfully completed according to your budget and timeline. You want to ensure that all data brought into the system is complete and accurate, which will reduce re-work and lost time.
A strategy can also help overcome common data migration challenges.
- Data migration cost: The cost of cleaning and reformatting data can add up to a generous amount of the total implementation budget.
- Data redundancy: If you are migrating from multiple systems into one NetSuite database, you must eliminate any repeated or unnecessary data.
- Regulatory issues: Your company needs to align with industry-specific regulations that control how businesses can use and store data.
- Stakeholder buy-in: A strategy will help you clearly communicate your data migration plans to internal and external parties that rely on your data.
Data Migration Checklist
Once you have a strategy, it’s time to execute it. These are the top-line items you need to complete on your checklist:
- Identify the number of users and level of authority for each user
- Finalize the data upload format
- Prepare for import
- Create a migration plan
- Execute the migration plan
Steps to Build a Data Migration Plan
To ensure the transition happens smoothly and according to expectations, you must have a data migration plan to ensure complete success.
1. Create a Migration Team
Having a migration team is essential to ensure a smooth transition. The migration team will decide how to clean up the data and determine which data should be transferred.
2. Map and Analyze the Data
The data migration team will look closely at the data from each source, then delete inconsistencies and redundancies. Before importing the data, the team will aim to resolve any issues on the front end so that they don’t have to worry about problems popping up on the back end.
3. Decide Which Data to Migrate
Outdated data tied to old suppliers or transactions is unnecessary to carry over into the new system. Your company can start fresh in the new ERP system by sorting through outdated data points.
4. Migrate, Validate, and Test Data
Once data migration is complete, your company should take the time to analyze and validate the data, then provide feedback to the data migration team. Taking this step will enable the team to refine the data, run additional tests on the new system, and prepare to go live.
Data Migration Best Practices for Successful Implementation
Overall, organizations should be aware of best practices for ERP data migration to support a smooth transition to the new system.
- Assign data governance responsibility: clearly determine who owns the data and how the data should be properly stored throughout the system. Assigning roles to your team can help make this process easier.
- Be selective with your chosen data: by piecing through your data and choosing which data points to bring to the new system, you can save yourself tremendous time and effort. Unnecessary data clogs up the system and can be counter-productive.
- Prioritize data migration: data migration can be daunting and can delay the full implementation if you don’t plan thoroughly. It’s essential to allocate enough sources and start early to be able to eliminate these problems.
- Think about the overall use of the data: analyzing how the old data can be used in your new system will help map out the implementation process and the best ways to go about the next steps in launching the new ERP system.
Consider Our NetSuite Data Migration Strategy
Finlyte is one of the industry leaders in NetSuite ERP migration. We understand the importance of creating and executing a NetSuite data migration strategy within the implementation process to ensure success.
- We will review the implementation checklist with you.
- We will identify the ideal starting point. (For example, the easiest way to move data into your new system is to start with orders and customer data, then slowly add more data.)
- We will address errors and redundancies before migrating data to the new system.
- We will continually test the new system leading to the go-live date.
- After going live, we will run tests on your day-to-day processes to improve usability.
If you are preparing to transition to NetSuite, we would like to speak with you. Our expert team can walk you through our implementation process and identify the right data migration strategy that fits your organizational need.
Schedule a consultation with our team today to discuss our NetSuite implementation capabilities.
