Pretend for a moment that you're a colonist-to-be - a voyager with a world of opportunity awaiting you on the other side of the ocean. The trip won't be easy, but the rewards will outweigh the costs, and they will far outweigh staying put.
This scenario is analogous to the world of data migration. You may inherently know that it's time to seek passage out of your current situation, but the rationale has never seemed strong enough to propel you to go buy the ticket. Many organizations simply put off data migration because of uncertainties, asking "Why risk it when it can wait?" Other organizations take the plunge too quickly and find migration harder than they thought it would be.
The best way to find out if data migration works for your organization is to look at the immediate and long-term costs you may be incurring. In the long term, it is probably costing more to maintain your data than it would after a data migration. The premiums that cover your costs will need to stay the same or rise, which puts continued pressure on profitability. Your costs of business acquisition are higher. If you administer policies on multiple systems, you are likely to continue paying for the inefficiencies involved in redundancy.
In recent years, IT has become business' partner in driving operational efficiencies. The presence of tools designed specifically for data migration have allowed projects to be operated on fixed timescales with quantifiable, predictable results seen by everyone in your organization.
Benefits of Migration
The long-term financial and operational benefits to a data migration are varied, and encompass the whole of your business. First, migrating your data most often brings a new, streamlined approach to any task that interacts with it. Customer service improves, and users can immediately access the data they need without having to look through numerous systems. Your relationship with agents can improve too, as their productivity receives a boost from the consolidated information. Administrative personnel and clients also will see improvements in the time that it takes them to interact with your systems.
Another benefit that often goes unnoticed is what you avoid by conducting a timely data migration. The hardware supporting legacy data is often costlier to maintain than newer servers and IT infrastructure. Migration allows these systems to come offline. New IT resources will have more experience with these newer platforms, saving you on training costs as well.
Higher up, migrating data will allow the CFO to properly value the risk of your company's portfolio. This can ultimately lead to a better valuation of the entire company, providing a positive return on your investment even before the more traditional cost reductions are realized. For actuaries, improved data management also increases the reporting capabilities they need to make good decisions on new product development. Benefits can stretch as far a field as marketing, where a unified, clean data environment produces a much clearer picture of the customers your company needs to reach. Opportunities for up- and cross-selling that previously had gone unseen can be now be identified and exploited.
On a long voyage, the most important people are the captain and the ships' crew. Your company's most valuable cargo is its data, so it's imperative that you reach your destination in one piece. Bringing on consultants with the proper training and experience reduces the likelihood of complications and ensures that you navigate through the safest and shortest route possible, guiding you away from obstacles ahead of time instead of reacting to problems as they arise.
As with any large project, you will want to gather input from a wide range of stakeholders. But if you want to get the most out of your discussions, you need to begin by educating them about the benefits. Use their experience to help build the case for an ROI on your data migration. You will quickly see that what may seem like a long and costly voyage becomes easier with a good crew and the proper set of maps.
Mike Dufton is president at MajescoMastek, a subsidiary of Mastek Ltd., and Philip Magnall is data migration manager at Mastek.
