Rethinking traditional ERP migration
Rethinking Traditional ERP Migration
In the fast moving-business world, at some point all organizations are guaranteed to undergo a digital transformation, enhance existing systems and software, or even go through mergers & acquisitions, and ensuring that data gets migrated, implemented, and integrated correctly throughout the process is essential.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is one of the most essential software for any organization, providing a detailed look at operations and productivity across departments. However, the robust nature of ERP systems makes ERP migration quite a challenging and complex ordeal. Let’s dive into what makes ERP migration so difficult, and why investing in a data integration strategy might be a better fit.
Why do ERP Migrations Fail?
Whether a business is looking to upgrade an existing ERP, overhaul its infrastructure, or merge with a newly acquired company, migrating all of that data can be a massive endeavour prone to many risks. In fact, one study found that 62% of all data migrations are more complicated than expected, and many of these fail.
There are a few reasons why ERP migrations have such a low success rate, including:
- Cost
ERP migrations are costly, time-consuming, and tremendously resource-intensive, sometimes taking 12 to 14 months to complete and going over budget 55% of the time. They also require a great deal of manual investment from your team, and diverting these resources from core business operations causes unnecessary downtime.
- Resistance to change
It should come as no surprise that people like to work with what they already know. Users feel more comfortable when they have access to the tools and systems they are already familiar with, and replacing existing ERP systems by migrating to an entirely new system can be difficult.
- Losing sight of the bigger picture
While an ERP is at the core of an organization, multiple core systems, applications, and individual tools are usually involved to guide operations and priorities. In many cases, these systems don’t talk to one another and as a result, the business may feel disjointed, and the organization might not see the purpose of an ERP migration.
Why is a Data Integration Strategy a Better Fit than an ERP Migration?
A data integration strategy is often a better fit than an ERP migration for many organizations, as it combines data from different sources across the company into a single, unified view. With a data integration strategy, businesses can:
- Get a holistic view of data
With a data integration strategy, businesses get a better view of their data without jeopardizing growth, with relevant insights provided in a fraction of the time and with less investment, regardless of data maturity level.
- Manage change resistance
A data integration strategy is a far more flexible approach to managing change resistance. Deployment of a data integration strategy still allows for staff to use the tools that work best for them, while the underlying data behind those systems gets collected, reported, and analyzed in a centralized database.
- Combine data from disparate systems
A comprehensive data strategy allows businesses to extract and combine data from disparate systems to see how departments work together across the organization. By combining data, decision makers can see the full picture to determine what works and what doesn’t, and where resources need to be redistributed or allocated.
We believe it’s time to rethink traditional ERP migration, and instead invest in a data integration strategy. With a data integration strategy, you can seamlessly and rapidly migrate and integrate data all while dodging the biggest risks that come with the traditional approach to ERP migration.
Work with Fastloop to Strategize a Data Integration Solution
In order to meet the needs of today’s rapidly evolving market, your data needs to be collected and used like an asset. With a data integration strategy in place, you can put all of these assets in one place – including your ERP data - to enable more unified reporting, improved business processes and standardized critical business functions.
At Fastloop, we help companies unlock and operationalize data with impactful analytics and AI services that deliver transformative business insights, outcomes, and values, and implement a data strategy that propels teams toward their goals to optimize business performance. Get in touch with our data integration experts to become a data-driven business with access to a holistic view of the entire organization.
By Yogesh Bhatt, Chief Data Officer
Yogesh leads all technical aspects of Fastloop, including client strategy, technical leadership and all data, analytics, AI and digital transformation services. Yogesh brings a wealth of global experience to Fastloop, including ~25 years working with some of the globe’s largest data and AI programs across sectors including Oil & Gas, Retail, Loyalty, Airlines, Automotive, Heavy Industry, Manufacturing, and CPG among others. Prior to Fastloop, Yogesh spent much of his career managing Data, Cloud, Analytics and ML/AI services across 14 countries for global consulting firms.
