New ERP Hated by All…Because No One Cleaned the Data

Users don’t like the new system – why?  Because they see the same information they had in the old system – but in a new format.

How many companies have spent millions of dollars on a new ERP system, then added a few more for a BI system, then added Balanced Score Cards and very pretty dashboards, then the CEO still gets reports from an Excel spreadsheet.  Ever wonder why?  There are many reasons; however one we find common is that when the new shiny ERP system was implemented no one cleaned the data from the old system(s) BEFORE it was loaded into the new system.

As a result all the reports that had wrong information before – still have wrong information – but they do look really pretty 🙂

Why does this happen?  Often time it is because the data migration/conversion stream of the ERP project did not receive the attention that it deserved.  It was left to the business – you know the old story – here is the file format we need – provide the data in this format and we’ll load it for you – but the responsibility for the quality of the data is with you.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  There are tools and processes available that help organizations structure the data migration stream of an ERP implementation project to minimize the risk of poor data getting into the new ERP system.  These methodologies have been developed based on the experience of professionals that have been doing data migrations for many years and have used that to ensure the methodology is practical and proven to result in business ready data loaded into the new ERP system.