General Migration FAQs
What is a data migration?
In our context, a data migration is when Engineering artifacts (CAD, PDFs, MS Office, BOMs, Items, ECOs, Attributes, Relationships, and Product Structure) are extracted from a source system, typically a Product Data Management (PDM) system, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system, or the Windows File System, transformed, and then loaded into a new or existing PDM / PLM system.
Do I need a migration?
If you have any legacy engineering documents stored in an external file or document management system and you want to access them in your new or existing PDM/PLM system, then yes, you need a data migration.
How much of my internal resources will a migration consume?
We can complete Phase 1 of our Data Migration Program in about 3 one-hour meetings, per source system. In these meetings we like to work with a customer stakeholder, data architect, and an engineering manager. In Phase 2 of our DMP we work with IT at the beginning of the migration for access and setup. Throughout the migration process we rely on our customers to provide the final system configuration, to make decisions, and to perform some validation tasks after each rehearsal.
What can I do to make my migration a success?
Step 1: View the data migration as a critical business activity that will ensure user adoption and maximize your investment. User adoption is the first measurable metric for a successful implementation or consolidation. The primary driver in user adoption is ease of use of the system and the data.
Step 2: Assign the role "Data Architect" to someone in your organization. This will provide immediate and long term strategic and tactical benefits. A Data Architect acts as a single point of contact for your enterprise standards, has a working knowledge of your business processes, provides a standard common vocabulary, and most importantly, designs and enforces your data standards. In our experience, customers who have assigned a data architect get more out their system and migration, and are better positioned for future automations and integrations.
Step 3: Work with us.
File System Migration FAQs
If you have a small amount of data, then yes, you can do a Manual Migration yourself with pretty good results. However, once your dataset size exceeds about a thousand objects, the cost, time, and quality of the migration should become a concern. If you plan on performing a Manual Migration yourself, determine your minimum standard for a successful migration and define a plan to make that a reality.
Our standard for a successful file system migration is: all data vaulted + duplicates resolved + resolved references + searchable metadata + correctly configured lifecycle statuses & revisions. Typically manual migrations end one of three ways: 1) the data is simply lost / left behind (the migration is never completed) or 2) the data quality standards are significantly lowered, or 3) outside help is required to complete it.
Cases 1) & 2) hurt the business in the short term and long term. If you want help planning your migration, let us know, our Data Migration Program is designed to help you learn your options.
File system migration costs are primarily driven by dataset size and data quality. Typical cost components include our source file system CAD extraction software (optional), CAD healing software (optional), data transformation engine software, and target PDM system data loading software, custom software (optional), and services. Phase 1 of our Data Migration Program is designed to quickly and accurately answer this question - for as many migration options as you need.
A quick file system migration lasts about 3 weeks and goes up from there. The parameters that impact the timeline the most are customer readiness and the frequency / duration of the migration rehearsals. Rehearsals are scaled by dataset size and data quality. The project roadmap deliverable of our Data Migration Program provides a realistic duration that you can use for your implementation and training planning.
In Phase 1 of our Data Migration Program we provide a Migration Architect to gather your requirements, provide recomended best practices, and design your strategies and script. The deliverable is a migration roadmap outlining your cost, resources, and duration for each migration option. In Phase 2, we provide a migration manager, migration engineers, and in some cases, migration software developers. We use our dedicated migration software and a 3-4 stage rehearsal process. During a file system migration rehearsal, we extract your metadata and relationships from your CAD data. In some cases, we resolve missing / broken references and heal your CAD files so they integrate with your PDM system correctly. Next, we analyze duplicates, resolve duplicates, clean up metadata, and enrich metadata. Finally we, load your data into the target PDM system and configure the data to work in your system.
PDM / PLM System Migration FAQs
If you have a small amount of data organized into discrete assemblies and you only need the latest version, then yes, you can do a Manual Migration yourself with pretty good results. However, once your dataset becomes more complex (dataset size, relationships, and versions), then cost, time, and quality of the migration should become a concern and the migration may quickly become unmanageable or even impossible.
PDM/PLM system migration costs are primarily driven by source system complexity, target CAD integration capabilities, object transformation requirements, dataset size, and version history requirements. Data quality is important, but typically not the most significant cost component. Typical cost components include our source system data extraction software, data transformation engine software, target PDM system data loading software, custom software (optional), and services. Phase 1 of our Data Migration Program is designed to quickly and accurately answer this question - for as many migration options as you need.
A quick PDM/PLM system migration lasts about 4 weeks and goes up from there unless the source and target are extremely common or the dataset is very small. The parameters that impact the timeline the most are customer readiness, complexity of the data extraction, and the frequency / duration of the migration rehearsals. In some cases, custom software development lead time is required. Rehearsals are scaled by dataset size and version requirements. The project roadmap deliverable of our Data Migration Program provides a realistic duration that you can use for your implementation and training planning.
In Phase 1 of our Data Migration Program we provide a Migration Architect to gather your requirements, provide recomended best practices, and design your strategies and script. The deliverable is a migration roadmap outlining your cost, resources, and duration for each migration option. In Phase 2, we provide a migration manager, migration engineers, and in some cases, migration software developers. In some cases we start by developing custom data extractors for your exact system. Then, we leverage our existing, dedicated migration software to perform 3-4 rehearsals to ensure that your data is correctly migrated in a safe environment isolated from your engineering team. This includes testing, optimization, and stability rehearsals and lots of validation. Each rehearsal includes extraction, transformation, and loading per the migration script defined in Phase 1. Finally, we execute our cut-over strategy and complete the migration.
Data Quality Improvements FAQs
If you have experience writing software or database scripts then, yes you can do this yourself, but you will likely save time and money if you use an off-the-shelf solution. Here's why. In many cases, the business logic required to perform the bulk update is quite simple and can be "hard-coded" into your custom utility. However, as special cases are found, more and more effort is spent on getting the special cases to succeed. Once the test cases are working, then scaling and optimization issues need to be resolved. As is the case, with most custom software projects, the scope and cost quickly exceeds the initial expectation. Use our existing, off-the-shelf data quality improvement software to save time and money.
Data quality costs are primarily driven by the complexity of the transformation and type of data to be transformed (e.g. Metadata vs. BOMs). Dataset size is also an important factor. Typical cost components may include our system data extraction software, data transformation engine software, target system data loading software, and services. In some cases, we create a custom subset of our existing software. Typically, within 1 or 2 meetings we can provide initial estimates on cost.
A quick data quality improvement project lasts about 2 weeks and goes up from there. The parameters that impact the timeline the most are customer readiness, complexity of the transformation, and the frequency / duration of the improvement rehearsals. In some cases, custom software development lead time is required.
We evaluate your requirements and business needs. Next, identify any gaps in our current software and determine if any additional software is needed. Then we quote the project and execute on approval. During the execution phase we perform 2-3 rehearsals in a test environment, then do the production upgrade, typically over the weekend or in the evening to avoid impacting your team.