People have started to overcome their fears regarding data security in the cloud and now they have started believing software as a service as a solid solution for their ERP. Getting migration done to cloud based ERP is not an easy step like signing a document or giving all the work to the vendor. Steps need to be followed for preparation when you talk about your organization data.
Things to consider before making choice of a Vendor
Preparation needs to begin before your company makes choice for the vendor. You need to address the questions like will you still own your own data and how much comfort you will have with the data generated by cloud based ERP solution with other applications that your organization uses. Data is your no doubt but vendor lock in is an emerging trend and this can make it difficult for customers to obtain backups of data to move data to another cloud vendor or on premises solution. You also need to consider will it mesh seamlessly with other systems or you require third part solution or some sort of plug in for data exchange.
Data Preparation
After selecting the most suitable vendor you need to prepare your data to move it to the cloud. Landscape analysis of the data needs to be done to understand the structure and how will it work along with the new system. You can also model the interactions and links and when you are done with this data assurance phase begins. Data needs to be profiled to see which data is of insufficient quality to get moved to the ERP system. Data cleansing needs to be done to remove and correct the data that is corrupt, incomplete, inaccurate and irrelevant. Data verification is done to ensure that it is accessible and in the right format for the cloud based ERP solution and you need to determine how this format will affect other systems.
Recent studies have revealed that data migration of the data which is not ready for the newly purchased ERP solution can cause plenty of problems for the implementation. Best practices needs to be followed in order to let the data migration provides an effective foundation and it is also important to review the regulations and standards for specific industry and geolocation as this will help to ensure that you can not only move your data to ERP solution but you can share it with the industry specific applications while remaining in complete compliance with rules and regulations which can make things difficult for you in the future.