It’s migration time.

Introduction:

As we live in this era of what we call the "Data Explosion", we witness the inordinate rate at which data is increasing. While we cannot deny the opportunities it brings in the innovation, analysis, and insight space. It also poses several challenges when it comes to storing, managing, and protecting data. This gives rise to the need to make “changes” in our current data consumption systems. To keep up with necessary technology upgrades, system replacements, and organizational changes – “Data migration” is the way out.

“The global market for Data Migration estimated at US$9.8 Billion in 2022 is projected to reach a revised size of US$34.2 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 16.8% over the analysis period 2022-2030”. - Source

Most organizations look out for data migration as a means to consolidate data from various systems, adopt advanced technology such as moving their infrastructure and applications to the cloud, reengineering business operations to optimize them, and reinstalling data integrity and compliance regulations. The huge demand for the process also brings along with it the need to migrate the business intelligence tools and techniques used for reporting in an organization.

Why is there a need to migrate BI tools?

Most times, reporting systems are upgraded either to incorporate more flexible and customizable analysis or for compatibility reasons.

Which BI tool should you migrate to?

Multiple BI tools exist in the market, including Tableau, PowerBI, Qlik, MicroStrategy, SAP, and many more. But which one is for you? The following aspects are taken into consideration while choosing the right BI tool for the organization:

●      Objective to switch – It’s important to identify the reasons why the change is required.

●      Comparing the pros and cons with the current BI tool – While there might be features in the new tool that will help address the soar points, the new system would come with its limitations. We must understand the migration would require employees to be trained/ hands-on with the new tool, it would involve licensing costs, and all BI tools have their unique capabilities that the new tool might be lacking.

●      Integration with Other Systems – To maintain uninterrupted workflows and unified reporting, it’s critical to ensure that the new BI tool has the capability to integrate with existing/newly added systems.

●      Business stakeholder's adaptivity – The final aim of the BI tool is to create reports and dashboards that will empower businesses to make data-driven decisions. It’s important to keep in mind how well the new tool will be perceived and adapted by the users.

●      Scalability and Future Scope – Performance is one of the key aspects of the BI tool. It's important to understand that the size of the database would be constantly growing, and the BI tool should be capable of handling it without any major performance loss. To accommodate future growth, design a new reporting system to be scalable.

Steps to follow for BI migration

A BI developer plays a crucial part in determining the success of a reporting system migration. The developer is responsible for preserving the accuracy of the reports being served. There are various checkpoints that the developer must maintain on his/her end to make sure that the transition is seamless.

1.     Rationalize -

●      Collect all resources

●      Study the legacy reporting system extensively to understand data sources, report types, user requirements, and limitations

●      Identify key strategic performance indicators and metrics

●      Spot redundant or reused data points to eliminate

●      Simplify and  standardize the migration process

2.     Assess -

●      Identify the report’s stakeholders and audience

●      Analyze their business requirements to better understand their goals, resources, and pain points

●      Understand the dataset refresh requirements

●      Involve stakeholders in the change process

●      Prioritize migration activities and build a roadmap

3.     Map -

●      Analyze the complete architecture of your data

●      Identify all data sources to be consumed

●      Map data sources, fields, and relationships from the legacy system

●      Catalog all calculated measures and security to be implemented

4.     Design -

●      Create a blueprint to access data from various sources/tables

●      Define key entities, their relationships, and properties

●      Follow the best practices while modeling to optimize the dataset

5.     Recreate -

●      Start off by creating a template for standardization

●      Redevelop or redesign measures and visuals as required

●      Keep the fundamental idea of the report intact

●      Keep the reports simple to use and self-explanatory

●      Avoid radical changes for quicker business adaptivity

6.     Build -

●      Utilize the migration process to serve new requirements

●      Plan on utilizing and incorporating all the salient features of the new platform to help stakeholders as per their need

●      Configure necessary data security to ensure appropriate user data access

7.     Optimize

●      Optimize reports to make them more performant (Minimize visual rendering time)

●      Identify areas for improvement and iterate back

●      Eliminate blockers such as slow queries, and resource constraints

8.     Validate

●      Perform necessary data validation

●      Check navigation capabilities, filter functionalities, alert, and exporting features

●      Go over formatting requirements for specific data fields and reports

9.     Test

●      Test user acceptance by measuring appropriate metrics

●      Provide necessary training to navigate through or utilize the reports

●      Educate users about the unique and advanced features of the new tool and how to consume them

●      Support businesses to adapt to the change

Efforts need to be taken to monitor, maintain, and tune BI tools post-migration.

Conclusion

Migration may be a challenging process, but with proper planning and execution, it can be facilitated. It requires diligent planning and preparation, quality checks, and data mapping testing. However, a seamless migration can be a means to upscale the reporting system in terms of connectivity, data accuracy, scalability, security, and performance.

Business intelligence tools act as a weapon to empower stakeholders to make the right data-driven decisions. The ultimate success of the migrations is assessed by the ease and agility by which the business can make befitting actions at the right time. This step-by-step guide on BI tool migration will come in handy to help developers go through the migration process steadily.