There’s no doubt that migrating financial transactions in a property management software implementation is a complex process and there are so many things to consider.
More than 80 per cent of data migration projects run late or over budget, which can put your property management software deployment at risk and negatively impact your business operations. What may seem like the straightforward task of moving financial data from an older system to a new application actually involves much more strategic planning and thought to successfully deliver trusted, accurate information that your business can run and rely on?
But hopefully, our 10 top tips for data migration success by Eurolink Service Operations Director Ariana Pampoulides will give you a good place to start.
1. Use a trusted experienced partner
A successful data migration project can revolutionise and streamline your property management business operations and efficiency. Your data migration project is a big deal. Time and effort should be put into creating an initial brief as well as agreeing on a budget. This will ensure the best possible management, and outcome, of your project.
2. Understand your data
Get your data right, from the beginning. By having a clear understanding of the purpose of your data, you’ll ensure that relevant information is captured from the outset and irrelevant data is not transferred.
3. Budget correctly
Just like all other business initiatives, you need to justify the return on investment. Data migration should be no exception.
4. Plan
This is the most important part of a data migration project and must be done properly before the process begins. This will reduce developer work, save money and allow you to decide the full scope of the project.
5. Don’t forget your record/field mapping
During data migration, it’s important to confirm exactly where the data from your existing system will be placed in your new property management software. This means mapping the records/fields in your existing system to the records/fields in the new system.
It may be the case that you require a specific field/record type that is not available in your new property management software. In this case, you may choose to create a new custom record/field to house this data.
6. Resource
Get your resource right, internally and externally, and make sure all relevant areas of the business are aware that their input may be needed, for example, finance, property management, lettings negotiators and senior management.
7. Future proof your system
What you need from your system now may change radically in the future. Allow the flexibility for different scenarios, for example – if you decide to expand your business into estate management.
8. Clean your data and keep it clean
Clean data saves time and money. Data migration is the ideal opportunity to conduct data cleansing and then put the relevant data protocol in place to keep it clean.
9. Use data migration as a reason for change
This is the ideal time to decide what your property management business actually needs – with the correct business rules and without those historic workarounds. The likelihood is that the new system will be different so train staff and make sure they utilise it correctly.
10. Space
Establish the scalability of the data migration across the lifetime of its usage. This should include an understanding of the volumes now and in the future.
“Eurolink has the innovative technology and expertise to enable organisations to confidently manage data migration during a property management implementation,” said Ariana “Eurolink delivers the most advanced data migration and management processes to reduce complexity and cost while minimising the exposure of data breaches.”
