Planning to switch to Dynamics 365 Business Central? Here are some essential data migration best practices from the Kwixand Solutions team to follow.
If your legacy ERP solution is no longer working for your business, has become obsolete, or you’re looking to switch from on-premises to leverage the benefits of cloud ERP, an ERP migration project becomes necessary. This is the process of moving your data, workflows, and processes from an existing system to a new one – and data migration is a key factor in determining the success of your migration.
In this article, Sebastian Alexander, Director of Professional Services at Kwixand Solutions, Brian Paquette, CEO of Kwixand Solutions, and Jens Baun, Director of Sales at Kwixand Solutions offer key insights into the best practices you should follow for a smooth Business Central data migration.
Preparing for ERP Data Migration
As poor-quality data can derail any ERP system’s effectiveness, it’s vital to have a solid data migration strategy in place before embarking on an ERP migration project. “It’s also essential to not only work on that data migration strategy in solitude,” shares Alexander. "It’s vital to bring in your ERP consultants early on to make sure they’re involved in the process and can help contribute value to the data migration strategy, based on the knowledge and understanding they have of your new solution, and potentially the source ERP system as well."
Some ways to prepare your company for ERP migration include:
Audit, clean, and standardize existing data before migration
Develop a robust data migration plan with sufficient testing
Assign a data governance team to maintain accuracy and consistency
Common Challenges with Data Migration
One of the top challenges that can hinder a migration project to D365 Business Central is data quality. If you bring in data that is redundant or outdated to your new ERP solution, it can limit your insights and cause future issues. “One of the most common challenges is the amount of data and relevance of data being brought into a new system. Many companies want to transfer all their historical data just for the sake of having it,” shares Paquette. “This may make sense in some cases, but if the data is not providing value, it can make the process more complex and cause issues in the data.” According to Paquette, if companies want to retain all their historical data for reference purposes, there are other workarounds they could consider. “They could consider making the data available in an Azure SQL database or possibly migrating it into a Power BI repository,” he says.
Data mapping is another challenge that arises in Business Central migration projects. End-users may not be clear on how their existing data, (for example, fields, columns, attributes, data set, or the data structure), will transition over to the new Business Central system. “Being proactive in ensuring your end-users work with your consultants to understand the structure of Business Central is key,” says Alexander. “It provides context when they look at the data and they’re populating import templates, on how that data is going to transition.”
Some other common challenges include:
Regulatory and compliance issues: There may be regional or industry-specific guidelines your company must follow while transferring your data to be aware of.
Security issues: Migrating data from multiple sources needs to be conducted securely to prevent cybersecurity threats or sensitive material loss
Resource restraints: It can be time-consuming for end-users to clean and prepare data for migration
5 Steps to Ensure a Successful Business Central Data Migration
To ensure your data migration goes smoothly, here are 5 best practices you should follow, according to Alexander:
1️⃣ Focus on Data Cleansing and Preparation
Before migrating, it's crucial to clean and prepare your data by removing duplicates, correcting errors, and ensuring consistency across all data sets. This is the time to remove legacy data such as one-time vendors and standardize all data set attributes, such as province or state, phone numbers, etc.
2️⃣ Map Data Fields Carefully
Carefully map your existing data fields to the corresponding fields in Business Central. This involves understanding the data structure of both the source and target ERP systems and ensuring that all necessary data is accounted for and correctly aligned.
3️⃣ Remember to Backup Your Data
Always create a complete backup of your data before starting the migration process. This ensures you have a fallback option in case something goes wrong during the migration.
4️⃣ Test the Migration Process
Run a test migration with a subset of your data to identify any potential issues and to ensure that the process works as expected. This way you can address any problems before the full migration is executed.
5️⃣ Conduct End-User Training and Documentation
Ensure end-user training and provide clear instructions on the import template, such as columns, column headers, and column placement. You should also provide your end users with an overview of the Business Central data structure, such as the Chart of Accounts, ledger entries for historical transactional data, and Vendors / Customers. This provides context helping users understand how the data transitions through the migration process.
With these five steps, you’re taking measures to mitigate the risk of rework and ensuring a smooth transition to Business Central.
What Companies Should Know About a Business Central Data Migration
One specific difference in a Business Central migration is that D365 Business Central uses dimensions in your transactions. Dimensions are values that categorize your entries, so you can track and analyze them on documents.
For example, you could use dimensions in Business Central to indicate the department and project an entry came from. This means you would not have to set up separate general ledger accounts for each department and project, and you can use dimensions instead to avoid creating a complicated chart of accounts.
“You can use dimensions to specify location or product type, or anything,” explains Baun. “So, before the data migration process, I would sit down with my finance team and have a conversation about the chart of accounts. How will dimensions impact the chart of accounts and how can we optimize it? That would be an important first step.”
Another point to note about a Business Central data migration is that there are a lot of tools available to help simplify the process for you. “From what I’ve seen, Business Central actually empowers the users to make the data migration process easier, providing that data prep and data cleansing work is done beforehand,” shares Alexander. “You can use configuration packages, there’s an Edit in Excel feature if you’re more traditional. And as we look at the cloud, there are a lot of routines in place, API-wise, that you can transfer data through.
Key Takeaways
As more companies migrate from on-premises systems to cloud ERP solutions, it’s imperative that they get their ERP data migration right the first time to avoid backtracking and delays. A robust data migration strategy is key to success. Doing the due diligence by making your data is prepped and clean is another important step.
“A lot of companies migrating to new systems don’t take advantage of the opportunity to cleanse and prepare their data,” Alexander says, noting the importance of getting rid of legacy data and standardizing data sets where there are multiple entries or various versions of addresses, province or state abbreviations, etc. “I think stakeholders providing end-users the time to focus on prepping the data pre-migration is key for success.”
Brian Paquette, CEO of Kwixand Solutions, Sebastian Alexander, Director of Professional Services at Kwixand Solutions, and Jens Baun, Director of Sales at Kwixand Solutions have decades of experience in ERP migrations and implementations. Visit our About page to learn more.
Planning a Migration to Business Central? Kwixand Solutions Can Help
Data migration can be arduous and missteps can risk the integrity of your ERP data. By keeping these best practices in mind, you can ensure a smooth migration and avoid delays or data loss down the line.
Got questions? The team at Kwixand Solutions is happy to help and guide you through your ERP migration journey. We're a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner, and our team of highly experienced consultants bring over 50 years of combined experience helping businesses across Canada and the US digitally transform.
