A number of corporate initiatives are driving the demand for migration and consolidation of data. M&A is a prime example. A merger by its very nature requires a timely strategy for combining applications, business processes, financial, customer, and other types of information to reap the benefits of “synergy”. This same demand is driven by legacy migration, internal instance consolidation, implementing a new CRM or ERP application or a myriad of other initiatives. With the visibility and importance of these projects, is data migration perceived to be a top of mind issue? Much to the detriment of many projects, no. Migration and Consolidation are often treated as a single project plan line-item of the broader picture.
In my experience, yes, they are part of larger efforts. But often they are critical linchpins to overall success. And it’s a fact; most organizations don’t do this very well. A recent survey by Bloor Research showed 84% of migration projects fail to meet expectations in either budget or time. The research also shows that a one-off, hand-coded approach is almost always the path taken.

Informatica recently launched a new Data Migration Suite, a specialized packaging of product platform spanning data integration and data quality for data migration and consolidation projects. This offering delivers the right tools, bridges the right teams (business and IT) and simplifies the purchasing (term-based or perpetual license) and implementation processes. An open migration methodologyis also available for public use as are professional services of varying depth to assist in migration efforts. Other related news can be found at Jill Diche’s Blog and my interview with Steve Swoyer. Taken as a whole, Data Migration software, methodology and services comprise Informatica’s solution for Data Migration. All 3 solution pillars have emerged from a long history of successful practice in small, medium and large scale data migration projects.

In my estimation and Informatica’s experience, the better companies get at Data Migration and Consolidation, the better they will be at the initiatives mentioned above.

How does your company approach Data Migration and Consolidation? Relegated to one-off status? How could a consistent implementation and platform approach help? This is one area of low-hanging fruit I guarantee will pay dividends for your organization.

PS. You can also see a data migration demo.