Master data seems pretty straightforward, so let's talk a bit about transactional data. At the point of go-live, CloudSuite becomes the system of record on our operational system, which means we need to bring over any open transactions that are required for business continuity. We also need to think about procurement transactions and any open purchase orders that might not have been received or invoiced yet. This is data that we tend to want to minimize because of its complications. Because transactional data is a moving target, we won’t have that same set of open data throughout the test rounds that lead up to our CloudSuite going live.
To minimize the open transactional data, we recommend using blackout periods wherever it is practical or reasonable. This process is something that's more akin to a net new implementation where you don't bring over all that historical sub-system data.
I know that Lawson customers are used to having a large amount of data come over because that was part of the upgrade process for ten, fifteen, twenty-five years. Yet in this situation, there's significant effort to map and bring that data over to make that transition possible.
However, the value is generally not there.
I think it’s important to balance the impact on our business areas while changing systems because it’s always a challenge to switch between two different systems for an interim period. However, I’m not trying to minimize the amount of effort it takes to convert over all this data. It’s an expectation that must be managed within an organization.
This brings us to the question of historical data. You need open data on day one of go-live, but depending on what business area we’re talking about, our business finds the realistic need to look at data going back three, five, maybe up to seven years. Many customers want to know if that data remains in the legacy system or do we convert it into CloudSuite – the answer is multi-faceted and there are pros and cons to both.
The right answer doesn't necessarily need to be the same for every functional area; as part of our pre-planning engagement, RPI will hold a conversion workshop and basically walk through all of the implications, gather feedback from the business leaders who will be impacted by these decisions, and really try to help an organization work through this decision-making process. Not only do we need to decide upon the scope of the historical data conversion, we need to think about where to put the data that's not getting converted. For example, if we're doing a CloudSuite implementation on a one-year timeline with a consolidated go-live, it's important to have an agreed-upon archiving strategy fairly early on in the project.
About the Authors
Keith Wayland
Managing Partner, RPI Consultants
Keith is the Managing Partner of RPI and is certified on Infor Cloud Suite Financials and Supply Chain. He has been working with Infor & Lawson customers for 20+ years and his passion is helping leaders develop strategies to optimize their use of the software. Keith leads and sets the direction for RPI – he is a driving force every day of our customer centric strategy as well as pushing our team to be thought leaders. He “leads from the front” by being a common presenter and the master of ceremonies of most of our webcasts or as we say our “carnival barker”. Keith also interacts daily with customer and Infor executives to promote the positive forward movement of our industry, community, and customers.
Richard Leigh Stout
Partner, Infor Practice Leader, RPI Consultants
Richard has been sharing his passion for helping clients implement optimized Infor solutions for more than 15 years. As an RPI partner and head of the Infor practice, he is widely known throughout the Infor community as a though leader in the space as well as one of the foremost figures in designing, developing, and optimizing successful ERP architectures leveraging the Infor solution. In addition to helping clients achieve their immediate and long-term goals, Richard focuses on educating the wider community on best practices, optimizing solutions, and moving organizations to their next level.
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