Six Steps for a Successful Data Migration

Stuck on a Dying Platform?

Cloud computing is a very compelling choice when organizations are faced with the decision on what to do with their outdated, unsupported on-premise system. I talk with various organizations who are stuck on these platforms, and don’t want to incur the large costs of upgrading and supporting another on-premise platform. During our conversations about Dynamics 365, I’m often peppered with data migration related questions like…

“How do you efficiently migrate data from a legacy system, without interrupting their business?”

“How do you choose what data is important enough to survive the migration, and what data should be archived?”

“What defines a successful migration?”

For me, success is very easy to define. Data migrations are invisible to the end user, at least the good ones are. Users expect to log into their new Dynamics app, and see their data. This concept is very important when transitioning between applications because it builds a sense of familiarity, which improves user adoption.

If your users adopt Dynamics, then congratulations … you’ve achieved success 🙂

Beringer Technology Group has deep experience successfully migrating organizations from legacy systems to Dynamics 365. Here’s our six steps for a successful data migration.

Six Steps for a Successful Data Migration

Data Discovery: Beringer will work with your application specialists to determine the best way to consume data from your legacy system.  Our team will help you identify how the data is stored. Then we will help you create a data map as the blueprint for your migration.

Migration Development: Beringer will develop the data migration based on the data map, and then migrate samples into Dynamics 365.

Data Validation: Beringer will provide a clear and concise way for you to view your data in Dynamics 365.  This is your time to review the data and provide any feedback.

Full Migration: After you approve the data samples, Beringer will perform a full data migration. This will give you the opportunity to identify any oddities that can only be spotted by examining large data sets.

Functionality Testing: You can test all of your new Dynamics functionality against your own data. Expose it to your functional testers and power users, and see if they can poke any holes before go live.

Delta Migration: It’s very important that your users can continue to work in the legacy system until you are ready for go live.  We’ll plan a crossover date, then migrate any data that has changed since the full migration. Welcome to your new Dynamics system 🙂

Contact Us!

Beringer Technology Group is always here to provide expert knowledge in topics like these. Contact us today with any questions you may have.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Solutions.