The Efficient Way To Manage Data Migration

Outlining a plan is the most important element of a migration. Every migration requires a certain amount of strategic digital transformation of the information moving from the source repository to the destination. Considerations must include mapping metadata, folder structure, search capabilities, and many other elements that will help users to find relevant information. It is critical that you spend the time to understand the problems you have and what is necessary to move forward.

Why Do Migrations Fail?

There are several reasons for this, most of which occur around poor planning. While most companies share the same need to procure data efficiently, they frequently contrast on how they arrive there. There are many sources at your disposal when in reference to data sorting, but without a solid plan in place, these resources can fail to perform. Be sure you’ve crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s before migrating.

Wave has been expertly handling enterprise migrations and giving advisement services since the mid ‘90s. We’ve expertly handled migrations for clients utilizing OpenText, Microsoft, IBM, Paperclip, and more.

Our highly capable team understands the particular obstacles that can occur in both modern and legacy ECM tools and we’ve distilled our methods over the years as technology has expanded. Leverage our expertise to implement a prosperous migration and digital transformation.

What Should You Consider When Planning A Data Migration?

Take An Inventory

Take the necessary time to understand what you have, how it’s organized, how much and what types of data you possess, and any elements you require like versions, directions, and processes.
Clean & Organize

Data migrations are much like moving to a new house- identify what you want to take with you and what you can get rid of. Maybe you have data that is no longer relevant. While reviewing your content, take a minute to identify opportunities for improvement especially as it pertains to your organizational procedures and metadata.
Test The Migration Process

Next, you should evaluate your migration and pinpoint a standard to see how long the migration will be. Also, execute a data exchange test to make sure your migration pipeline is snag-free.
Check In Regularly

If you see that your migration will take longer than planned during the benchmarking process, be sure to implement regular progress checks during that cycle and make sure no problems happen. If they do, you can fine-tune your project plan.
Validate Your End Result

To ensure that your final product in the destination program matches what you began with in the source platform, have a validation protocol in place. If you’ve done data cleanup during the migration, your validation should be able to account for that.
Account For New Content

Sometimes it’s not possible to make the entire system non-editable during a migration, and new data is created. You’ll want to make sure to account for any new metadata and any new content that’s added.
Leverage AI Where Possible

Many sources now offer Artificial Intelligence features that can automate the content organization portion of your migration. Should you determine to use this feature, you can leverage existing metadata, and improve it with the help of your AI features.