Extracting, cleaning and loading master data and balances from old systems into the new ERP before go-live.
Data migration is the workstream that moves data from the old systems, spreadsheets and accounting package into the new ERP: customers, suppliers, products, price lists, chart of accounts, employees, bills of materials and opening balances. It usually involves extraction, cleansing, mapping to the new structure, test loads and a final load at cut-over.
It matters because it is the most common cause of a delayed or unhappy go-live. Legacy data is rarely clean: duplicate customers, products with no tax code, missing TRNs, stock counts that do not match the ledger. A UAE business about to enter e-invoicing cannot afford to carry those errors across. Migration is also the moment to archive what is no longer needed.
In an ERP project, assign a data owner on the client side, not just the implementer, and start cleansing early. Do at least two full trial loads and let users check their own data. Decide how much history to migrate; often open items and balances are enough, with the old system kept read-only for reference.
A 30-minute look at how your business runs today, with a senior consultant. Free, and the findings are yours.
Book a 30-minute discovery call