There was a time when migrating to a new system meant leaving your data behind. The simple truth was that it was difficult to move the data to a new system and hence the costs we high and the reliability was low. Often, integrators were reluctant to recommend moving the data and customers were unwilling to pay the price.
The Old Way
Of course, there were times when the data needed to be moved no matter what, and when that was the case there was a great deal of manual work coupled with Excel spreadsheets and some bespoke scripting or coding that was cobbled together to try and get the data out of the old system, restructured and translated for the new system and then loaded in. As you can probably imagine, the possibilities for errors were high hence the rework and overruns on the project. This is why the chance of a migration project exceeding cost and time projections was so high. Studies by Gartner have shown that 83% of all data migration projects either fail or exceed their budgets or schedules. The reality is that if these approaches to data migration are used then the chance of a data migration project meeting its budget and timescales are low.
The Challenges
There are significant challenges in moving data from one system to another. Often the data structures are different and even when they are not, data will need to be translated so that it fits within the processes of the new system. Coupled with this there are the relationships between data that must be maintained which can be challenging to ensure on the new system. Another area is how to migrate complex data such as attachments, images, links, formatting, and more. Finally, validating that the data has been correctly migrated can be an arduous task if attempted manually.
However, data migration automation has changed this. Now it is possible to migrate data across even the most complex systems reliably and cost effectively. Which means you can have your data where you want it.
Why is moving Data Important
The modern approach to Service Management means keeping your data and below are some of the reasons why:
Customer Experience (CX) and Employee Experience (EX) is an important part of good Service Management and the key to this is knowing your customers and employees. To know them is to know your history with them.
AI relies on data and leveraging the latest generation of AI solutions means having data. To maximize your ability to leverage AI on your latest platform ensure you have the data there.
Migrating knowledge base articles is a significant time saver. You won’t have to copy and paste or rewrite articles. Migrating is also an excellent opportunity to review your knowledge base, update articles that are out of date, and eliminate those that are no longer relevant.
Asset data can be an essential input to your company’s finances, enabling proper calculation of depreciation and the company balance sheet. If you can migrate your asset data, you won’t need to refer to two different Service Management systems for this information, thereby reducing complexity, and you can make a cleaner break from your old Service Management system. Plus, you have the flexibility to opt-out of migrating data for assets that have already been retired.
Migrating Historical ticket data ensures continuity in your trend data and key performance metrics. Switching platforms doesn’t mean starting over from scratch.
The Solution
Data Migration Automation Solutions simplify the process of migrating data which means faster, lower cost data migration projects.
Not only do they have the tools to enable migration of any type of data between different systems but the best ones have pre-built templates for many of the most popular systems which save more time in setting up the migration project. In addition to this, they include features to increase migration speed such as multi-threading, comprehensive reporting for validation and the ability to handle network interruptions.
For more information about how you can leverage data migration automation or to schedule a demo, contact Precision Bridge today.