Do you know that the failure rate for data migration from legacy systems is 38%? Remember, a failed data migration project can lead to your business being held up for an indefinite period of time. What leads to the failure of migration from legacy systems after all? Let’s have a look at 6 major reasons and solutions for it:
1: Poorly Documented Legacy Systems
If you haven’t been able to understand your existing legacy systems or if you have failed to document it properly, you could face this problem. Remember, the legacy system of every company is going to be unique. The mainframes that they have been using might be decades old and may comprise homegrown databases and software systems. The level of support and customization is also going to be in line with the needs of the organization. Adequate documentation of this existing legacy system might not exist from the start. The key staff members of your organization who were a part of your company when this legacy system was adopted might not be with you at the moment. This results in little to no knowledge about your existing database and legacy system.
The Right Solution
The right approach to take at this point of time will be to conduct an upfront data assessment and an analysis of your legacy system. You will be able to understand your legacy landscape better and determine what kind of servers, networks and cloud architecture you will require from there on out.
2: Inadequacy Of The New Platform
You understand what the entire process of migration means for your business. You are also confident that the new cloud architecture will be beneficial for your enterprise in the long run. However, if you are not certain about whether the new platform is going to meet the needs of your organization or not it might not be me in your best interest to adopt it just yet. You may be trading one problem for another if you are not certain whether this new legacy system is suitable for you or not. For example, if you have decided to move your office email and storage to the cloud, you may be depriving a section of your employees of large mailbox sizes and storage capacities who have become reliant on locally available ample memory. As a result their work might suffer and the entire migration process could turn out to be a failure.
The Right Solution
There is no substitute for engaging subject matter experts and representatives from all the divisions of your company in a fruitful dialogue before you begin with migration from legacy systems. There is also a pre-migration discovery process that is going to let all your team members understand what problems your organization is facing and what solutions you should be seeking from the new cloud architecture. You might be able to come up with better and complementary processes that can be used in conjunction with the new cloud framework to enhance automation and preserve memory in addition to saving costs and speeding up operations.
3: Lack Of Communication
What effective communication helps you do is discover certain key elements of the migration process beforehand so that any unfortunate incidents can be avoided. Effective communication is important at all levels before, during and even after the migration processes. If your executives and IT team members in addition to all your end users are not kept in the loop, they will never understand your current business requirements and what the new database and legacy system is capable of doing for them.
The Right Solution
Communicate with everyone in your company and inform them as to what to expect from this legacy system data migration process. Talk to them about the downtime that is expected and how to make the most of that gap in learning about the new system that will be replacing your old one.
4: Repetitive Changes
A typical data migration is going to bring about several changes in your organization. Once you begin with the testing procedures you will see how the new system can perform. These changes might be in numbers of hundreds or even thousands depending upon the level of automation and advancement you are seeking. Not all your employees and associates will be keen on accepting those changes. Several of them will have to struggle with the new system and the way it interacts with the end-user.
The Right Solution
Choose the right tests and the most appropriate test cycles. Testing can be done at practically every phase of the project. Shorter unit tests don’t just validate and confirm data migrations at every step of the way but also let your employees and end-users understand how the new/changed system will work. This is like a gradual integration with the new legacy system or cloud framework that you are going to implement throughout your organization.
5: Inadequate Planning/ Testing
Was there a lack of planning? The entire process of data migration is going to be very complex. Comprehensive QA and testing take a lot of planning and pre-discovery. Especially when it comes to testing the cloud framework or new system, all the rules and requirements should be properly applied and met with respectively. Before you go live with the new framework, you should be certain that it meets the needs of your business.
The Right Solution
Whether it is the initial planning phase or the stepwise testing phase, all your functional teams and technical experts should be involved in every step. Full and formal test cycles need to be created and followed through before the cloud platform is made life and implemented across the organization.
6: Lack Of Training
Have you failed to train your employees? This might not be considered a failure per se but it is still going to be a major hurdle in the way of complete adoption of your new cloud framework. Depending on what systems you have migrated and what changes you are expecting, the end-user will need to be trained and educated with regards to how to interact with their systems and machines. Your staff members might need to change the way they log in or probably learn how to make entries in a totally different manner with the new POS system.
The Right Solution
The best way to train your employees and associates about the new cloud framework and architecture is to provide them with useful documentation and training classes. You can do that during the migration process or between various phases of it. You will need simple and understandable documentation/ literature so that getting familiar with the new system becomes easier for everyone. Ideally, it should be a part of your overall legacy data migration strategy.
Conclusion
Do you think that ensuring a smooth migration process is easy? Well, it isn’t. There could be several challenges in your way but you have to be smart. You have to understand what kind of migration suits your business the best and what aspects of it are going to affect it most significantly.
It all begins with understanding your requirements and then involving the right people who will communicate the expected changes throughout your organization. We at Linking Logics work at the grassroots level so that this change can be communicated right up till the top of your managerial hierarchy. For information on how to make legacy data migration simple and work for your organization, contact us at your convenience.
