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Data migration approach is critical to your business

By Suzanne Franco, Surveys Editorial Project Manager at ITWeb.
Johannesburg, 08 Jun 2016

In 2016 we can expect to see more data migration projects taking place within organisations and the aim of this Data Migration Approach survey is to clarify some of the challenges that companies face today when migrating data.

"JMR has a comprehensive data migration solution, developed and deployed over the past 20 years," says Mike Richards, CEO, JMR Software.

Richards points out that data is growing in value, volume and the velocity in which it is used today.

"The focus on any migration project will often be on usability and new exciting functionality of the application, as well as business benefits gained from the migration. The data elements can often be left too late and no clear data migration strategy agreed. This can then lead to issues that can result in delayed deployment of the end solution," he adds.

Richards believes there are a number of elements that make a significant difference when it comes to the success or failure of data migration projects.

"Early planning and agreeing on a data migration strategy with full business engagement and buy-in is critical," he says. "Getting business involved at an early stage is very important, particularly when we are mapping the data from an existing system to a new environment. They know the data better than anybody, but also any rules or calculations that interact with the data."

He points out that you need to know where you are headed and plan the correct route through in order to reach the right destination when embarking on a data migration project.

"One of the key things that we have factored into our solution is reconciliation of data and providing the business with a comprehensive view of the data at every stage of the project. It is important for people to have full visibility of data at all times, as by doing this you can identify any potential issues early. We provide a high level overview, but also the ability for our clients to drill down to a detailed level to understand what problems have been identified," Richards explains.

He lists a number of other challenges that companies face in successfully migrating data, which include: lack of skills, capability and resources.

Richards says this is not something that some companies will frequently do.

"Often we find that companies buy in to data migration tools, but then struggle to use them or gain vendor support when it is needed most."

Data migration journeys considered a daunting, but necessary process

"There are so many ways in which to approach data migration, but Gartner has quoted that 'Through 2019, more than 50% of data migration projects will exceed budget and/or result in some form of business disruption due to flawed execution'," says Richards.

He notes this is a significant number. "But with our data migration solution we have a 100% success rate of delivering complex migrations of millions of lines of data."

Richards believes that there are significant risks for any organisation in moving data.

"The impact of a failed migration can be felt across the organisation, but also lead to brand and reputational damage. This is why JMR Software developed a comprehensive solution supported by our data migration experts with a proven methodology that significantly de-risk any data migration project," he concludes.

Click here to complete the survey and you can win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet E 9.6 wi-fi.

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