End-to-End Data Migration Services

Data migration defines the scope and "Critical Path" of any social care, early help, education case management and finance system replacement project.

Why choose us?

ICT Revolutions have designed, tested and refined a rigorous, repeatable end-to-end and unique, approach to data migration of social care, early help, finance and education case management systems. Our accredited approach incorporates effective and agile data migration governance requirements as well as technical solutions to data quality, data security and data protection considerations.

ICT Revolutions has migrated from many legacy social care, education, and finance case management systems over the past decade. Many of the pitfalls and specific challenges are well understood - and our structures and information packs that are issued as Work Packages to officers describe specifically how to navigate successfully through the implementation.

What can we offer?

Data Migration Plans

A data migration plan supports all the data migration activities and are intended to provide the most efficient method of undertaking a migration in-line with wider project UAT activities such as configuration and testing.

The aim of a data migration plan is to prioritise the extraction, transformation and loading of data within each round of migration, setting clear milestones with priority given to the extraction of key elements of the data which are required to pass validation for go live. The intention of this prioritisation is to attend to the biggest, most complex interrelated parts of the migration that make up the spine of the case work or financial data structures.

Prioritising these areas first will feed directly into the Data Mapping & Gap Analysis and Data Quality work, in addition to informing the priorities for workloads of those particular functions. This will in turn drive the progression of the Data Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL).

In order to address these areas early on in the migration it is vital that the project plan timeline is ordered in such a way that greater time between project initiation and the earlier migration rounds is given, with the time between later rounds in the run up to go live becoming shorter. The reason for this is to give the wider project team time to become familiar with the new systems and for key decisions around configuration that affects the migration to be made. However, fundamentally it gives time for the migration team to perform enough analysis and investigation to resolve the major areas of the migration before loading the less complex areas in later rounds.

The perfect scenario would be to be performing complete data loads of each system by Migration Round 3. By this time the major issues should have been addressed, leaving lower volume issues to be addressed as they arise.

People and Roles

Social care, finance and education case management system data migrations are complicated and resource intensive process. It is therefore essential that it is adequately supported both by the project and the business in order for it to be a success. A typical data migration team would consist of:

Data Migration Lead

Working to the Project Manager
Provides strategic leadership and guidance to the migration team and all dependent work streams
Overall responsibility for the development and implementation of the data migration framework and plan
Key responsibility for communication to the customer and the rest of the project
Planning all migration related workshops and meetings
Providing leadership to the data extraction and problem solving process

Data Migration Analyst

Working to the Migration Lead
Responsibility for the implementation of the migration plan in their area of expertise
Leading migration related workshops and meetings
Providing detailed migration mapping specifications for the Data Migration Developers
Coordinating and facilitating migration testing

Data Migration Developers

Working to the Migration Lead
Key responsibility for the design, build and execution of the migration solution and extract, transform and load (ETL) process
Key responsibility for data validation
Contributor to migration related workshops and meetings

Landscape Analysis

We begin any data migration project with a landscape analysis and scope as this determines which legacy systems and data stores are required for the migration. A review of all edge systems, including ad-hoc databases and spreadsheets, etc., must take place to determine the source of the truth of all data within scope of the migration. It should be done quickly, and all systems scoped and agreed accordingly.

Migration Scope

A baseline scope concerning the breadth of client, casework and person data including related people along with the depth of historic data must be established at the beginning of the project and signed off with the business. It should also detail items that are out of scope and must be open to amendment during the migration. Issues of historic data quality are often the trigger for such amendments.

Data Testing

ICT Revolutions’ approach to data testing is to thoroughly test migrated data at each data migration round. This process is linked to the wider User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process but is treated separately and in parallel. Data testing should ideally be completed in a specific instance purely for this purpose.

We ensure Data Testing is robust by managing four distinct phases of testing in each round:

Cohort sampling – using performance reports to compare cohorts of data between the legacy and new systems, such as number of On School Roll children or students, pupils and learners with a package of support from x provider. This stage allows initial data migration results to be analysed for large volumes of cases, and also includes the use of ay validation reports developed to support the migration.
Dip sampling – using individual records identified in each migration round, testers compare the cases in the front end of the legacy and source systems to ensure that all data is migrated correctly. Sample cases are identified that meet all criteria included in each migration round (e.g. Appeal Cases, Home Educated Cases with additional support services (i.e. Homecare)).
Workflow progression – using individual cases identified in each migration round, testers progress cases through the new system workflow(s). This ensures that any impact on the new system workflows caused by legacy system data are mitigated
Caseload sampling – individual case workers should review their own case load to ensure that data has migrated successfully, and also progress cases through the workflow(s). This is essentially a focussed repeat of dip sampling and workflow testing, where the tester is knowledgeable about that individual case

We draw workers from different areas of the business to complete Data Testing, including:

Workers already involved in the Data Quality workstream
Performance and Reporting staff
Project Team members
Super-Users / Champions / UAT testers from the wider business

This will ensure that there is sufficient knowledge among the testers to review data, compare the legacy and new systems, and process cases through the workflow.

ICT Revolutions can setup and manage your Data Testing rounds, ensuring that:

All required testing logins, case data etc. is set up in advance of testing
Testers are briefed in advance of testing on what is expected, and any changes to note from prior testing
Detailed UAT datasets and scripts are supplied to testers, covering all cases and processes to be tested
All testers complete and sign a Data UAT report to record all issues identified
Any specific areas for testing (e.g. previous data issues, configuration changes) are identified

Prior to testing, we can provide training to testers, to ensure that they understand the requirements of testing, the scope to be tested – and possess the required skills and knowledge to complete the testing in the new system(s). At the end of each UAT round, we can provide a report to the project board, highlighting any issues arising from testing for feedback to the Data Quality and Configuration processes.

Data Quality

Accurately recorded data is a key factor in the delivery of a successful data migration. Therefore, data cleansing is essential to support to the data migration workstream. ICT Revolutions can facilitate the creation of a Data Quality Board to oversee the issues arising from the migration workstream, and to prioritise and allocate resources to address these issues, whether in the legacy system(s) or via transformation of data.

Our approach to data migration can be divided into two phases. The initial phase can be used to tackle common data quality issues that are found in any system. The second migration phase can be used to address specific issues that are uncovered during data migration mapping, coding and testing.

Once work has begun to map and code the migration load tables, specific data quality issues will be discovered. These can be addressed as and when they arise.

A Data Migration Lead would take the lead role in evaluating and prioritising all data quality issues identified, ahead of presenting these to the Data Quality Board. As a data migration load is being prepared, the full suite of validation reports are run. These would highlight data quality issues that have not been addressed. After each data load, data testing uncovers further data quality issues, which will then be resolved prior to the next round.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we buy a number of days in a year to use as we need?

Yes you can, our services are available to pre-purchase as Service Pack Days, so that you can use as required when you identify an area where we can help deliver or provide support, or temporarily fill a gap in your BAU teams.

Once you have purchased a Service Pack, these days can be called off at any time to meet your needs. We recognise the dynamic nature of this service and work with customers to always provide support as quickly as possible - particularly where an urgent need or support requirement is identified.

Can you offer ad hoc support if we just need a few days to work on something specific?

Yes of course. Every customer’s needs are different and some of the services we provide may just be a couple of days consultancy e.g. building a standalone form, or providing service desk support to cover in-house staff members absence, or even to just talk through options for you to then implement our recommendations without us.

You may not know exactly what you need our help with, we can work with you to put together a plan so you can work out what resources you have in-house and what external support you might need from us.

Can you migrate from any source, e.g. Spreadsheets, Access Databases, CSV’s?

Yes we can. As long as the data has some structure and contains a way to identify the individual record, or records that are required, we can extract the relevant data. The data owner is always consulted so that we understand what must be achieved.