Implementing NetSuite delivers a powerful modern ERP to help scale your organization. But without quality data migrated over from legacy systems, you undermine the entire transformation before even getting started. Garbage in, garbage out – as the saying goes.
Many impatient companies focus efforts on testing complex business logic in their new NetSuite instance and configuring cutting-edge workflows. Data migration takes a backseat. But saving that work until post-go-live means:
- Teams building workflows and reports using flawed data assets as the foundation
- Loss of historical trend visibility after go-live
- Misstated opening balances skewing financials
- Bad data owning downstream into vital systems like payroll
The key is putting in the upfront effort to clean and prepare your data NOW before migrating. It takes some heavy lifting but pays off tremendously.
Challenges with Legacy Data Sources
Before examining how to clean datasets for migration, it helps to understand what makes data dirty in the first place.
Issues often include:
Inconsistent data formats – Names, addresses, and other info recorded differently across systems based on user whims. No standard schemas exist.
Missing data – Key attributes not populated due to lack of validating workflows.
Outdated records – Finite purge processes meaning old inactive records linger across systems.
Duplicates – The same entity exists multiple times within a system or across various sources.
Incorrect data – Random user error during data entry with no validation.
Software limitations – Systems lacking controls, types of validations, integration, reporting, etc to maintain data integrity.
With data fragmented across various disconnected on-premise and cloud applications and databases, it becomes filled with errors over time.
Steps to Clean Data Pre-Migration
Cleaning datasets involves identifying and resolving the types of issues above through batch workflows and manual interventions.
1. Profile and Analyze Data
Profile the state of key datasets by scanning for anomalies, running deduplication tools, looking for gaps, and more. This exposes the level of effort needed.
Identify highest risk areas to prioritize fixes around based on business impact.
2. Standardize Data Formats
Standardizing formats is an essential early step to enabling matching and merging later.
For example, normalize how customer names, addresses, and contact details appear across sources into one consistent format per data type.
3. Fill Gaps
Spot check for missing attributes critical to business processes, like customer phone numbers or material costs, and fill or source from alternate systems.
4. Resolve Duplicates
Deduplicate customer, vendor, item, and other records consolidating into a single version of the truth centrally. workflows and manual interventions based on your data tools stack.
5. Correct Errors
Identify bad data that causes financial, operational, or compliance issues and fix to align with policies and actuals through batch processes or user corrections.
6. Archive Inactive Data
Flag and move inactive records, like closed opportunities or former employees, into separate archives to migrate only active data.
7. Enforce Data Governance
Institute centralized data governance workflows moving forward so new data remains clean post-migration with schema enforcement, duplications checks, mandatory attributes, validations, etc.
Why Choose SuiteRep for Data Migration?
Migrating even high-quality data is complex, but messy data makes it exponentially more difficult. As a 5-star NetSuite solution partner ranked #1 globally for quality implementations, SuiteRep helps prepare legacy data for seamless modernization.
A few unique advantages if engage SuiteRep:
Battle Tested Methodology: Our FIX (Find, Isolate, Examine, Transform) framework helps structure data remediation for superior outcomes based on years of project success.
Deep Tech Expertise: Our NetSuite consultants and developers assemble the optimal migration and data quality stack leveraging leading ETL, data preparation, analysis, and cleansing tools like Talend, Informatica, Melissa Data, and more.
Business User Friendly: We wrap sophisticated data transformation code behind intuitive user interfaces allowing business teams to participate in data stewardship rather than solely rely on IT.
Ongoing Data Governance: We help not only fix historical data but implement systemic data governance practices within NetSuite to enable continuous improvement.
Don’t leave data quality to chance. Partnering with SuiteRep unlocks our specialized expertise around ERP migrations to give your transformation a running head start on day one!