Migrate to a future-proof EDI solution

1. Overlooking the human element

Yes, IT Migrations naturally involve technical aspects, however, those technical aspects cannot be completed without the human element. Many individuals from your business will need to be involved to ensure the migration project is a success. Your people are invaluable in this process, they will know areas of the business in much greater detail than anyone else. But does this mean they know how to implement the migration itself? If you don’t have the specific migration knowledge in-house, we suggest you look for an expert partner who can work with you to ensure the success of your migration project.

2. Lack of planning

Have you heard the phrase ‘measure twice, cut once’? Great execution is down to the careful consideration that is brought into the planning phase of a project. So, don’t underestimate the amount of time you need to spend in this planning phase. Take the time to figure out what skills and knowledge you have in-house. Once you have this mapped out you can begin to identify the gaps you have. Talk to several different expert providers to get a feel for what this type of project includes as it may become apparent that you have more holes than you weren’t initially aware of. Once you have fully fleshed out the requirements of the project and understand the breadth of your in-house capabilities, you can find the right expert or provider who has the missing skills to ensure the project is a success!

3. Not testing thoroughly enough

It is key to incorporate testing across your project stages. This allows you to identify any issues or flaws as soon as possible. As a result, you have more time to fix those issues. Plus you prevent them from becoming much larger issues later on down the project. Again, make sure you consider who is doing your testing and if they have enough knowledge to cover all eventualities.

4. Reaching for the stars too soon 

Often businesses see migration as a one-time or rare project investment. This is where things can go wrong. ‘If we are only going to do this once, then we had better go all out and do it properly’, is the common mentality. I can see why businesses would choose this approach and on the face of it, it does make sense. However, if you start to think about it, projects are normally broken down in to phases and there is a reason for this. Change results in issues, so breaking down the change that takes place and concentrating on a few aspects at a time ensures success. It also allows the time for any teething problems to be rectified before moving on to the next phase. 

When reaching for the stars, it is common for these broad hefty visions and projects to lead to much larger problems. Those teething problems can go unidentified whilst the rest of the project moves on at speed, causing the issue to grow out of control. These become rather costly to track back and fix.