Enterprise resource planning
Data migration is the process of moving, copying, and restructuring data from an existing system to the ERP system. Migration is critical to implementation success and requires significant planning. Unfortunately, since migration is one of the final activities before the production phase, it often receives insufficient attention. The following steps can structure migration planning:Often, data migration is incomplete because some of the data in the existing system is either incompatible or not needed in the new system. As such, the existing system may need to be kept as an archived database to refer back to once the new ERP system is in place.
Lossy data conversion
A lossy data conversion method is one where converting data between one storage format and another displays data in a form that is "close enough" to be useful, but may differ in some ways from the original. This type of conversion is used frequently between software packages that rely on different storage techniques. In many cases, a software package such as Microsoft Word will enable a document stored in one format to be saved as another, in particular HTML. The document saved in the lossy format may look identical, but the conversion can also cause some loss of fidelity or functionality.