Will data conversion lose your records?

• Author: Phillips, John T.
• Position: Technology - Data migration planning

Imagine getting approved for all the funding you requested for a completely new information management system. Then imagine selecting an exciting new software system that does everything your department could possibly want or need. After these impossible dreams come true, imagine having the vendor install the software, loading all of your existing data - and having the system run perfectly. Impossible? Not really. But the most unlikely scenario is the last one.

Management does sometimes approve more-than-adequate budgets. Most new software is a vast improvement over older products. However, converting data from older to newer systems requires such extremely detailed project planning and execution that new system start-up problems are all too common.

This year, many information management departments will select new software systems for implementation due to the perceived inadequacies of existing systems with regard to Y2K requirements. Other reasons to buy new software and systems include the lack of integration between existing systems, or inability of those systems to meet organizational requirements for ease of use or special functions.

A common reason for buying new software is to gain more control of documents and records. Imagine the unpleasant surprise if a new software system actually caused an organization to have less control of some records series, due to poor data conversion or actual data loss. It has happened before and will happen again.

Software is sometimes reviewed, bought, and scheduled for delivery before any significant data migration planning occurs, under the assumption that data migration will be a parallel task once the system arrives and is installed. When there is relatively little existing data from past manual systems, data migration is seldom a major project challenge. In such cases, the data must be manually entered. However, legacy systems that contain considerable amounts of data can present serious challenges to successful completion of records management system projects. Data migration can also consume a large portion of an otherwise adequate budget.

Why is accurate data conversion so difficult? What are the danger signals that indicate possible data loss? Are there any standards for data conversion? Who should be responsible for data conversion, and how do you know that data has been successfully converted? These are a few of the questions to address before successfully implementing a software system and demonstrating the magical return on investment that technology project managers seek.

Bytes to Bytes

The aphorism "garbage in/garbage out" is never truer than on a data conversion project. Data is the raw material for the machinery of computing. Without data, software is an empty shell. In fact, software versions or vendors can be changed often, but the data that resides in a computer system has long-term meaning and importance. The data and the documents and records built from it - are the real knowledge or corporate memory of an enterprise. Erroneous data can mean misleading information, false conclusions, and lost business records.

Even though software programming languages, operating systems, and physical hardware may vary with different applications, the data remains constant. New software will have new modules, functions, screens...