Now is the time to consider migrating out of your old and outdated records management systems into a modern and efficient information management solution. Upgrading your systems will improve productivity, minimize risks and reassess security needs.
Choosing a new solution may be a challenge depending on budget, usability, and security requirements. Another challenge may be old legacy data or simply the hassle of migration when you’re talking millions of records. Before you take your next step, let’s focus on the top 3 data migration focus points your information team should understand well.
It’s fair to ask how difficult a data migration for your entire organization might be. Without proper understanding, mistakes that could be easily avoided will leave your organization with improperly secured data. Don’t drop into these pitfalls. These mistakes cost an enormous amount of time and money to repair. Let’s check out the 3 focus points below. Become acquainted and look forward to your next data migration.
1. Involve Users at Every Stage
Organizations are all about sharing and warehousing data. This involves a lot of consolidation from different systems securing different forms of information. When migrating data from one system to another, you need to involve everyone who might be affected by it. Allow your end-users to take an active role in the organization and migration of data into the new system. This will ensure a more functional structure or a mirrored structure that’s easy for current users to adopt.
2. Research Old and New System for Legacy Data Migration
Legacy data is a pain but somethings that’s your luck of the draw. The data in the legacy system needs to be migrated. Spend some time and research your current legacy system and see how compatible it may be with newer systems. Considering legacy systems are either outdated or unsupported, you may have poor quality data that even the best migration specialist won’t be able to fix. This is where the research really counts. You might be able to find a better fit solution for migration or understand ahead of time, saving you a headache or two, that some of that data may not be worth migrating.
3. Test and Validate Data Before Migration
Waiting until after migration to test and validate data is a disaster waiting to happen. Testing and validation should be done before migration. During the pre-migration stage, your organization should ask questions that assess and evaluate the quality of data currently in your system. Make sure to clean up this data before migration. Dirty data would make any management system defunct.
