Let's face it – data migration is a pain. Just the thought of moving years or decades of accumulated data from a worn or legacy system to something new is often enough to induce companies to cling to their data structures far beyond their shelf life. Pain avoidance becomes the focus instead of pursuing the gains to be realized by moving to a more modern system. But focusing on the benefits of an upgraded system shows that the move is usually justified.

The case for a PLM installation or upgrade

• End of support for current system
• A change in business requirements
• Increased regulatory demands
• Better security
• Better reporting
• Better (easier) interface
• A reduction in errors
• Quicker identification of problems
• Process efficiencies for faster turnaround and reduced costs
• A better understanding the business processes

I include the last benefit because in every migration I've been a part of the business gained new insight into how data flowed within the organization. That understanding was able to drive process efficiencies and a quicker turnaround in issue identification and resolution as well as shortening the overall production timeline. In and of itself this isn't a reason to upgrade (you can undertake a process study without an upgrade), but it is one of the side benefits of the migration process.

Here are a few insights into what will make your migration smoother and more likely to be the ROI success you envision it to be.

Start Smart

 Like the foundation of a house the most important work is done at the beginning. No matter how well built the rest of a house is, if the foundation is faulty then the whole house will be impacted. I've found the best predictor of a successful migration is the assembly of a good migration team. This needs to have a good project manager, but more importantly, it needs to include all of the stakeholders from the various departments or groups affected by the migration. Each one brings their experience with the data and how it is important to their part of the business. Getting handed a new tool or process without having any input results in poor acceptance and resistance, especially if that tool or process is poorly thought out. Not everyone needs to be a part of every meeting, but participation at both design and implementation is crucial.

Think Big Picture

 Too often as organizations grow (especially via mergers or acquisitions) there is a compartmentalization of understanding where data is simply thrown over the wall to the next downstream group without concern for the impact on that group. PLM means managing the entire product lifecycle, not just my little piece of it. It's a broader and more profitable exchange of data where isolated CAD information is leveraged into an interconnected family of data surrounding the item, design, vendor, change management, revisioning, and so on, accessible and useful to groups from regulatory to manufacturing to QA to marketing. Cultivate a broad mindset during the migration design. To reword a famous quote, "Ask not what your data can do for you, ask what your data can do for your company."

Play Well With Other Systems

 Does the data need to seamlessly flow into an ERP or other system? What are the requirements and limitations of that system? What regulatory and/or legal requirements are involved? Is there a document control system? What are the relevant SOPs? Are there pick lists or data formats that must be preserved? Having a 200 character attribute field in Agile isn't appropriate if that same field is required in a downstream system but is limited to 100 characters there. Again, process visibility and breaking down data silos is key.

Clean Data Is Happy Data

 It's inevitable that data errors creep in. Some are subtle, some are more noticeable, but like grit in a bearing they will degrade your business performance. Sometimes these errors arise by entering the wrong data. Sometimes they're in response to an inflexible user interface. Sometimes they're induced by lax formatting standards. For example, I've migrated datasets where there are as many as seven different names that refer to the same vendor. "ACME", "ACME Inc", "ACME Inc.", "ACME Incorporated", "ACME Corp", "ACME Co", and "ACME Co.." may mean a single vendor, but when it comes time to generate a report based on this vendor the results will be wrong. Migration is a great time to identify and clean up this dirty data - indeed, some data has to be cleaned up in order to successfully migrate it. Everyone benefits when the information they're working with is correct.

Installing or upgrading PLM isn't just about doing the same things faster. It's about doing the right things better. PLM data migration is a strategic process that will help your company move from legacy, outmoded, or inefficient technology to a PLM solution that supports rather than hinders your business goals. Along the way you can tweak your processes for maximum efficiency as you better understand your workflows and data sets. When you leverage your existing data across multiple departments from design concept to final product, feeding each group the information it needs in the manner it uses it, you will have gained time and cost savings that not only justify the upgrade effort but will continue forward giving returns for many years to come.

[Edit: Repost from 2015]