Simply put, data migration refers to the process of moving data from one location to another. While the concept appears to be easily understandable but things can become a bit overwhelming when you want to prepare your company for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM data migration. Thankfully, Dynamics 365 experts such as C.I.G Consultants are always there to assist you.
Primarily, there are three types of data migration:
Storage migration or database migration
Application migration
Cloud migration
However, there are certain challenges that you need to plan upon in advance so the entire data migration process is smooth and seamless. The challenges include:
Data loss and corruption
Data security and compliance
Data complexity
Data gravity and data silos
Dealing with impatient stakeholders
Important Steps to the Dynamics 365 CRM Data Migration Process
Data Extraction
Data extraction is one of the most critical and delicate parts of data transformation. If done incorrectly, the rest of the processes will fail. During the process of data extraction, you may pull data in a wide range of formats (like XML, RDBMS, JSON, and flat files) from the source. You will then need to convert these formats into a new format that allows you to transform them. During the process of data extraction, it is important to make sure at all times that the extracted data is relevant, correct, and accurate.
Data Transformation
The process of data transformation applies certain rules that have the ability to transform the extracted data. This helps in normalizing the data so it can be easily loaded into the new target structure (usually a data warehouse). An important component of the data transformation process is data cleansing so that only the right data gets loaded into the target structure. For this, you can set rules that select only specific information to load, no duplicate columns or duplicate sets of data get loaded into the target, change coded values, or perform a wide variety of other functions. Thereafter, you may leverage data mapping to join fields and columns of data together from a wide range of sources.
Data Loading
In this stage, you will have to load the data into the target data warehouse or delimited file. It is highly important that you have a clear and complete understanding of how you want your data warehouse to treat new data beforehand so an appropriate strategy can be formulated and executed.
Contact our team of Dynamics 365 experts to find out how we can help with your Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Data Migration needs and concerns.