Successful data migration demands commitment and collaboration from all corners of the organization and business leaders can play a vital role in ensuring a successful project. This guidebook provides simple, tried and tested techniques that will help business leaders fully understand their pivotal part in delivering a successful data migration project.

Introduction

If there is one certainty in modern business, it is that change is inevitable. In a quest for competitive advantage, organizations simply have no choice but to implement frequent advances in their information systems. The need to migrate information from systems, departments or even whole organizations to a new technology and business environment is essential for remaining competitive and cost-effective. Data migration, so often the enabler for these corporate changes, is therefore not just a technical discipline but a business necessity. Achieve a successful data migration and your business will reap competitive advantages in record time, but get it wrong and the benefits afforded by the new system may be severely diminished.

This guidebook provides a series of practical tips and techniques for business leaders who wish to learn more about the challenges imposed by data migration projects on their particular area of the business.

Who Should Read This Guidebook?

Anyone who has direct responsibility for a business unit, department, organization, team or service that is affected by a data migration should read this guidebook. Data migration is as much about engaging and aligning the business as it is about the technicalities of moving bits and bytes of data.

If your data, staff, applications, services or customers will be touched by a data migration then you will find this guide invaluable for understanding how you can provide leadership to help support a smoother, more effective data migration.

Why Should You Read This Guidebook?

This guide will help you make better decisions before, during and after the data migration project. If you are not directly responsible for the data migration project, but still have a stake in its success, it will help you understand exactly what will be expected of you and your part of the business.

Many business leaders misunderstand the data migration process and as a result place themselves at risk.

By understanding how the business should engage with a data migration and what is expected of you personally you will be able to:

• Create an early plan and roadmap so you don't become a bottleneck
• Define the ‘rules of engagement’ within your area of responsibility so the business can function as normal whilst providing the correct level of assistance to the migration team
• Understand why data migration projects suffer a high failure rate and what you can do to help prevent this situation arising in your business
• Educate those around you so they also understand their responsibilities in the data migration process
• Ensure the migration implementation team understands your dependency on the project so they align their objectives with your business needs