How to prepare for data migration

It is not a process that we should be thinking about as we try to go to sleep at night. Sometimes you'll dream about it, and your subconscious can run with it. It's also fun. You're changing the business. You're figuring out how to take your business from today into a future model that will allow for growth and scale.

Welcome to Finance in the Clouds. Modern finance is broken, forcing finance and accounting teams to work like it’s 1985, the year Excel was invented. Here, we talk about the struggles finance teams face in fast-growing companies and discuss how they can spend less time catching up and more time in the clouds.

I'm your host, Jake Jones, multimedia producer and brand influencer at Zone & Co, and I'm joined this week by Hamza Zia, Director of Solution Architecture with Myers Holum, and Keith Goldschmidt, VP of Channel Alliances at Zone & Co. Thanks for joining me today, guys.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when you're moving your business to an ERP or any new financial system is making sure that your data is ready for the migration. We're joined today by some data migration experts to discuss how you can better prepare your business's data. Keith, Hamza, thank you both again for being here.

We're really excited. Hamza, we're really excited to hear your expertise on this topic. Myers Holum is one of the best at doing a lot of this. When we met with you guys, this topic instantly came up as one of interest to talk about. So, tell us a little bit about yourself and Myers Holum, what you guys do, and we’ll go from there.

Perfect. Thanks again, Jake, and I appreciate Keith as well for having me here today. Just a quick little intro on myself. My name is Hamza. I'm one of the Directors here specifically for our Solution Architecture practice. I’m responsible for sitting down with our prospective clients, understanding their business problems, and then ultimately outlining what that future-forward path and goal look like for them specifically in NetSuite and our partner solutions, such as ZoneBilling.

So, we're excited about the conversation here today. Myers Holum, by the way, is an award-winning leader in NetSuite, Boomi, Stripe, and Google Cloud Platform Solutions. We’re based in New York and operate worldwide, with over 350 consultants across North America, EMEA, and the APAC region to meet the needs of our evolving clientele, with boots on the ground if necessary.

Under my team, we have some of the brightest NetSuite consultants in the ecosystem. We work with executives, managers, and employees across enterprises to gather requirements and align them to NetSuite best practices or a partner-based, best-of-breed approach like ZoneBilling to meet our clients' bespoke needs.

Each of our solutions architects has very specific, tenured experience in various industries, such as SaaS, retail, manufacturing, and postal distribution. We have the expertise in-house to cater to the unique needs that come up.

Excited to hear you talk about this, Hamza, because you guys have the experience down for sure. Keith, let’s hear from you. Keith is a veteran to the podcast now—he might be the first returning guest! You should get an award for that, Keith. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do here at Zone.

I’m waiting for my trophy. I’m excited to put it on my desk for the next one. Thanks for having me back, I appreciate it. By way of introduction, my name is Keith, and I’ve been with Zone & Co for a little over two years now. My role in managing strategic alliances lets me work with smarter people than myself, like Hamza at Myers Holum and his whole team of experts.

I help them build their ZoneBilling practice, educate them, and support them as they perform implementations. Together, we go to market as partners. Before I took over this role on the alliances side, I was actually a technical consultant working on ZoneBilling for about a year and a half. I spent a lot of time inside data—cleaning, migrating, and struggling with it. So, this topic is near and dear to my heart.

I’m glad to have you, Keith, as well. Your expertise is going to be valuable here. Today, we’re going to discuss solutions and tips on how to prepare and better handle your data for migration. Let’s start with the basics: for someone unfamiliar with the term, what does data migration mean? Hamza, how would you describe it, and why is it such an important process?

I think before we jump into what data migration is, it’s important to understand where it fits in. A more important question might be: what is a system, and what is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool? Specifically here, we’re talking about NetSuite. Essentially, these tools can be used to perform all your day-to-day operations, whether it’s finance, procurement, sales, supply chain, or other functions.

As businesses evolve and the lines between brick-and-mortar and digital become more blurred, having an ERP or a system in place is crucial for organizations to adapt and grow. Data migration, in this context, is the process of moving data from one system to another. During this process, there’s accumulation, planning, cleansing, and ultimately the migration itself. It’s not just about moving the data but ensuring it aligns with the needs of the new system.

The most common data elements we see being migrated include the chart of accounts, vendors, customers, and products. However, there are complexities in the background—sometimes it feels like a black box—which we’ll dive into today.

To that point, Hamza, most people are excited about implementing new software. They focus on what they’re purchasing and planning to automate but often overlook what they currently have and how to get from here to there. That “getting from here to there” only works if you have a map of your current state, including where your data is, what it is, and in what condition. Sometimes, the state of your data can undermine the entire implementation.

Exactly, Keith. It’s the crucial first step and really sets the tone for how the rest of the implementation goes. For those unfamiliar with ERP implementations, how long does a typical data migration take? And what does good versus bad data migration look like?

That’s a loaded question, Jake. You’re putting me on the spot! But let me break it down. In my experience, I see about 150 to 200 businesses a year, and they generally fall into three cohorts when it comes to ERP evolution and data migration.

The first cohort is smaller companies—likely on QuickBooks—who are outgrowing it and need a more robust, one-stop solution like NetSuite. These companies usually have minimal customers and vendors, and their processes are relatively straightforward. Their data is often easy to export and cleanse, making the migration process relatively quick—about two to three months on the fast end.

The second cohort is medium-sized businesses with higher transaction volumes. These companies are typically on an outdated, on-premises system that’s too slow to keep up with their operations. These businesses often have developed inefficient processes and bad data practices over the years. Unwinding that “ball of yarn” takes more effort. These migrations typically take four to five months and involve a lot of handholding.

The third cohort is medium-to-large businesses with significant complexity. These companies often have multiple systems holding disparate data elements, integrations, and customizations. Untangling this hairball requires a structured approach, and these projects generally take six to nine months.

Keith, what advice would you give to companies to avoid ending up in that third cohort?

If I had one piece of advice, it’s this: don’t wait until your data becomes a tangled mess. Think about where your data lives and establish standards early on. Even if you have multiple models, define and document them clearly. Without clean data, you can’t plan for the future effectively, whether it’s next year or five years down the road.

To Hamza’s point, planning is essential. The earlier you address your data migration needs, the smoother the process will be. You need a strong foundation because data is the base of your ERP implementation. It’s also about flexibility—clean data allows your system to scale as your business grows.

The picture of a foundation for a house is a great analogy. If the foundation crumbles, the house falls down. And that’s exactly what happens when data is messy. The first thing we do when we engage with a client is to assess their master data versus transactional data.

Transactional data, like sales or invoices, can often be recreated or adjusted later. But master data—things like your item master, customer master, and vendor master—must be rock solid. These are the pillars of your ERP system, and if they’re not standardized and well-structured, it can cause everything else to crumble.

Hamza, I love how you said earlier that shortcuts in day-to-day operations are often a sign of bad data. Can you elaborate on some of the red flags that companies should watch out for?

Absolutely. A telltale red flag is when your team relies heavily on workarounds or shortcuts. For example, in finance, you might have a single account number (like 6005) broken out into multiple variations—6005-2, 6005-3, and so on—just to make it easier to track departmental codes. Or in sales, you might see multiple customer records for the same entity, each with slight variations, like one for ACH payments and another for check payments.

While these shortcuts may seem helpful in the short term, they limit your ability to scale. As your business grows, adding new locations or expanding globally, these inefficiencies compound and make it nearly impossible to manage your data effectively. If you can count five or more of these shortcuts off the top of your head, it’s probably time to call an implementer.

Keith, what about from a sales perspective? What are some indicators that a company’s data might be in bad shape?

One of the simplest signs is if your finance team constantly calls sales to recreate or clarify sales data at the end of the month. If they’re always asking, “What happened with this deal?” or “Where’s the detail on that transaction?” it’s a clear indicator that your data reporting processes are broken.

These issues arise because, in the moment, shortcuts save time—but they come at a cost later on. As your business scales, the inefficiencies start to show, and you’ll pay for it in delayed reporting, poor decision-making, and added stress during month-end close.

So, how can smaller businesses that are starting to see growth establish best practices for data management now, to avoid these issues down the road?

From my perspective, it all starts with planning. Before you even think about data migration, plan out what data you’ll need to extract, who will extract it, and how long it will take. Don’t assume you can just click a button and export everything easily. Some legacy systems don’t export cleanly, and you need to account for that upfront.

Next, focus on communication. Data migration isn’t a one-person job. You need to involve business process owners—people who know their side of the business inside and out. For example, Cindy in finance, Jake in sales, and Keith in procurement each need to lead their respective areas of the migration process. This approach not only ensures accuracy but also improves change management, as these key players will become advocates for the new system.

Finally, prioritize validation. After planning, delegating, and executing, you need to validate the data in the new system. Run small test batches before loading everything to avoid costly mistakes. For example, don’t load thousands of transactions all at once without confirming that smaller datasets have been migrated correctly.

What about historical data? That always seems to come up as a challenge during migrations.

Great point, Jake. Historical data is one of the biggest sticking points in migrations. Many clients want to bring years of data from their old systems into their new ERP, but that can be a monumental effort. The client usually has to extract the data, map it to the new system’s chart of accounts, and ensure it aligns with best practices.

My advice? Be selective. Only bring over the historical data you truly need. You don’t want to import years of bad data into a new system—it’s like bringing clutter into a freshly cleaned house. Instead, focus on what’s essential for compliance and reporting, and leave the rest archived in the old system.

Keith, any other tips for maintaining clean data during and after a migration?

Yes, take note of access control. Who is adding, modifying, or deleting data from your system? For example, you probably don’t want salespeople adding vendors or creating products. Assign ownership of specific data categories to the right people to maintain consistency and accountability.

Hamza, I love how you emphasized the importance of involving business process owners. Having one person responsible for each key data set is such a great practice.

Absolutely, Jake. It keeps the process organized and ensures there’s accountability. Plus, it prevents scenarios where everyone has access and nobody feels responsible for the data quality.

Those are excellent best practices for smaller companies preparing for growth. But what about larger businesses with that "twisted ball of yarn" data situation? What steps should they take before engaging with an implementer like Myers Holum?

The biggest thing is to start having internal conversations about what’s working and what’s not. Often, businesses wait for an implementer to come in and figure it out for them, but you can make the process much smoother by reflecting on your processes beforehand. For example, if your sales team is constantly running into issues because they can’t generate accurate reports, ask yourself: Why? If your finance team struggles with eliminations or reconciliations, dig deeper: What’s causing that?

Getting all the relevant stakeholders—your business process owners—into a room to outline what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing is incredibly valuable. That way, when you engage with a firm like Myers Holum, you’ve already done half the work. We can come in, refine the details, and focus on designing a better system, rather than spending time just uncovering the issues.

Keith, what about from your perspective? What should companies do to make your life easier as an implementer?

One thing that’s incredibly helpful is defining the data points you need for your business. Think of this as getting down to the field level: what specific fields or pieces of data do you need to track on every transaction, every customer record, or every product? For example, in transactional data, you might identify 20 specific fields that are critical for reporting. If you can define these ahead of time, it streamlines the entire process.

It’s also important to think about how these data points will help you plan and forecast. If you don’t have clean, structured data, you can’t make accurate predictions or informed decisions. Taking the time to identify and define these key data elements will make the implementation process much smoother.

That’s such great advice. For businesses with messy data, it sounds like getting clarity on their current state and defining what they need going forward are the critical first steps. Anything else they should consider?

Absolutely. One thing I always tell clients is to consider data ownership and access. Who is responsible for maintaining your master data, and who has access to make changes? For example, you don’t want sales reps creating new products or vendors—those responsibilities should belong to someone in finance or operations. By clearly defining ownership, you can maintain data integrity over time.

Hamza, you’ve mentioned change management a few times. Can you elaborate on why that’s so important during a data migration?

Sure. Change management is critical because moving to an ERP system isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s a complete business transformation. You’re not just migrating data; you’re changing the way your organization operates. For that transformation to succeed, you need buy-in from everyone involved.

When you involve business process owners in the migration process, they become advocates for the new system. They’re more likely to embrace the changes and help their teams adapt. Without that buy-in, even the best technical implementation can struggle to succeed.

Keith, would you agree?

100%. Change management is often overlooked, but it’s essential. You can have the most advanced ERP system in the world, but if your team isn’t on board with using it, it’s not going to deliver the ROI you’re expecting. Communication, training, and involvement are key.

As we wrap up, are there any final thoughts or advice you’d like to share with our audience about data migration?

Hamza: It all comes down to planning. If you take the time to plan, communicate, and involve the right people, the process becomes much more manageable. Think of it like building a strong foundation for your house. If you get the foundation right, everything else will follow.

Keith: I’d add that you should approach the process with an open mind. Yes, it’s challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to transform your business for the better. Don’t just think about the technical side—think about how this migration can set you up for future growth.

Jake: Hamza, Keith, thank you both for sharing your expertise and advice today. I’m sure our listeners learned a lot about how to prepare for data migration, whether they’re just starting out or dealing with complex data issues.

For our audience: how are you preparing your company for data migration? Let us know by emailing us at hello@zoneandco.com.

Finance in the Clouds now posts bi-weekly on Fridays. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or watch us on YouTube on the Zone & Co channel. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time!

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