Tips For A Successful Data Conversion Process
Posted on: 29 May 2017
Data conversion is necessary on an occasional basis to help your business keep up with new technologies. Here are some tips on how to manage a successful data conversion process.
What Is Data Conversion, and Why Is it Important?
Unless you are the IT manager of your company, you might need a little bit of a starter course on why the process of data conversion is necessary. The simple answer is that different software uses data in different formats. It may have to do with the way data is encoded; your new software can't read the data in its old format. If you try to import the data directly into the new program, you may get a lot of errors in the data and have incorrect calculations. Or, the program may simply not function at all. While data conversion can be a tedious process, it's necessary in many cases.
Ask What Data Needs to Be Moved
It's important to get a real sense of what the data conversion will do for your business because it might not be completely necessary to convert all data into the new format. Sit down with an IT person in your company and discuss how the changes will impact your company's dealings with each type of data. For example, the new technology may greatly increase the speed of building tables for visualization or producing certain routine reporting. But is all of the data involved? Are some data read-only, in the sense that converting them won't really affect how easily people can use the data? You might not need to do an entire data conversion. And this is key because some data may be more difficult, or more costly, to convert to a new format. Some data types can even have known errors in conversion, so make sure that you discuss these with a specialist and understand the possible outcomes.
Use Knowledgeable Data Conversion Services
Your IT team may be able to do a data conversion, but it's still better to leave the job to a company that specializes in data conversion services. The process of data conversion is one that changes all the time, as new safeguards are put in place to reduce the risks in data conversion. You wouldn't want to lose critical data or have the integrity of the final product be questionable. When you have sensitive and important data to convert, splurge on a specialist.
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