The Efficient Way To Manage Data Migration

Outlining a plan is the most crucial part of a migration. Every migration must have a certain amount of strategic digital transformation of the content moving from the source repository to the destination. Considerations must include mapping metadata, folder structure, search capabilities, and many other elements that will allows users to find pertinent information. It is critical that you spend the time to identify the problems you are having and what is needed to move ahead.

Why Do Migrations Fail?

There are many reasons for this, most of which occur around poor planning. While the majority of businesses share the same requirement to find data efficiently, they frequently contrast on how they arrive there. There are numerous sources for your use when referring to data sorting, but without a strong plan in place, these resources can fail to function properly. Be sure you’ve crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s before migrating.

Wave has been executing enterprise migrations and providing consultation services since the mid ‘90s. We’ve performed migrations for customers utilizing OpenText, Microsoft, IBM, Paperclip, and more.

Our expert team understands the particular challenges that can happen in both modern and legacy ECM tools and we’ve refined our approach over the years as technology has evolved. Leverage our proficiency to execute a fruitful migration and digital transformation.

What Should You Consider When Planning A Data Migration?

Take An Inventory

Take the appropriate amount of time to determine what you own, how it’s cataloged, the quantity and what types of information you have, and any elements you need such as versions, annotations, and protocols.
Clean & Organize

Data migrations resemble moving to a new house- identify what you want to take with you and what you don’t need. Perhaps you have data that is no longer relevant. While analyzing your content, take a second to determine opportunities for improvement especially as it pertains to your institutional methods and metadata.
Test The Migration Process

Next, you should evaluate your migration and determine a standard to see how drawn-out the migration will be. Also, execute a data exchange analysis to be sure your migration pipeline is snag-free.
Check In Regularly

If you notice that your migration will take longer than planned during the benchmarking process, be sure to create regular progress checks during that time period and be sure no errors arise. If they do, you can adjust your timeline.
Validate Your End Result

To make sure that your final product in the destination program is equivalent to what you began with in the source platform, have a verification measure in place. If you’ve done data cleanup during the migration, your validation should be able to show that.
Account For New Content

Sometimes you aren’t able to make the entire system non-editable during a migration, and new data is included. You’ll want to ensure to show any new metadata and any new data that’s added.
Leverage AI Where Possible

Many repositories now offer Artificial Intelligence elements that can automate the content cataloging process of your migration. Should you choose to use this feature, you can use existing metadata, and augment it with the assistance of your AI features.