NetSuiteFAQ | Everything You Wanted To Know About Data Migration
When British mathematician and data science entrepreneur Clive Humby coined the phrase, “Data is the new oil’ in 2006, sixteen years later, the metaphor remains resilient, growing more powerful each day. The fuel for modern businesses in a digital economy, big data never sleeps. Crucial to the smooth functioning of your business, the integration of data and data migration need to be seamless processes that are well established. Whether you are migrating your data from one storehouse to another, or inputting it into a data lake, a competent data migration plan helps increase efficacy.
What is Data Migration?
Simply put, data migration is the process of moving your data from one location to another, one application to another, or one format to another. This is largely the result of introducing a system or location for the data. This is driven by application migration or consolidation in which legacy systems are either replaced, or are bolstered by new applications that share the same dataset. Deemed difficult and risky due to ‘data gravity’, choosing the right ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) partner for your business is crucial
What does NetSuite Data Migration Service do?
NetSuite helps extract data from your legacy systems and exports it to systems like: QuickBooks, Sage, ACT, Microsoft, etc. Before data is imported, it needs to be cleansed, scrubbed, properly formatted, and de-duplicated to improve quality, and eliminate information that is obsolete and no longer necessary, to eventually match the requirements of the new solution. Once the final NetSuite data conversion is conducted through data verification, your data is accurately translated, eliminating any room for error. Make sure you utilize multiple data integration tools like CSV Imports, Web Services, Celigo, Boomi and others.
What are the best practices for Data Migration?
Ensuring you follow best practices at the time of ERP data migration not only helps organizations avoid pitfalls, and but also helps you keep your ERP project on track.
a) Make sure you prioritize data migration: Before you start the process of migration, it is important to understand that this will become time-consuming if the implementation is not carefully planned. There can be unexpected delays and bottlenecks if you don’t prioritize and allocate resources wisely. A typical approach would be to let the ERP implementation team comprise of representatives from various groups on how data is used by them.
b) Strategy is key: A number of times data managers end up making plans and then abandoning it when things get out of hand. Even if you deem it complicated at the start, ensure you stick to your strategy all the way through.
c) Analyze and map your data: Look for inconsistencies and redundancies when you examine the data from various source systems. It is then upon the data management team to map the structure of the database and in the process, have automated tools that can import information.
d) You don’t need to migrate everything: Sift through outdated information which is no longer needed like customers who probably haven’t ordered in years, or list of suppliers that may have gone out of business. A lot of times historical data of old transactions may not be needed altogether. If you feel the need at all to have it, you can always store it offline in a separate system, vis-à-vis your data retention policies.
e) Put it to test: While you are sticking to the schedule, ensure you test the data migration in order to achieve the desired result based on your organization’s needs and goals. Be structured and methodical about it.
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What is the sequence of data migration while importing legacy data into NetSuite?
While one usually imports all master transactions, following a sequence sets the tone where master transactions which are not dependent on other masters are imported first, and then subsequent masters. When all masters are imported, related transactions can be eventually imported to reference the masters and import. The CSV tools that NetSuite provides make a superb CSV tool to import both masters and transactions. For more complex data migration one can use webservices or write your own connector.
Suggested sequence to follow through:
- Classifications
- Chart of Accounts
- Employees
- Communication & Activities
- Relationships/ Entities
- Opening Balances
- Transactions
How does one prepare for Data Migration process into NetSuite?
Before you prioritize importing your data, it is crucial to scrub and cleanse data. When NetSuite accepts your data, it is first logically segregated. It tries to understand the sequence of data import, e.g. Import customer data and then their contacts. Addresses should be broken out into variety of columns to meet NetSuite requirements, or the way you would like to see the field structure to be in NetSuite. Keep in mind that transaction level data is not recommended to be brought into NetSuite because of the tiring and potentially messy reconciliation process. What the recommended practice suggests is that you must bring in open balances and open transactions so that operations do not suffer when it is moved into a new system.
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