Data migration and integration
We are one of the industry experts in delivering complex data migration and integration projects. We have completed data migrations for over 50 Local Authority sites and several large and small private sector organisations. Over this time, we have developed robust processes for delivering data migration and integration.
Our knowledge and experience enables us to work with a wide range of databases including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL & Microsoft Access. We can also extract data from other sources such as accounting packages like Sage, CRM systems, spreadsheets, text documents and even unstructured data in CSV files.
What is data migration & data integration?
Data migration is the process of transferring data between different data storage types, formats, or IT systems. Data integration is the process of combining data residing at different sources so as to provide users with a unified view of all the data.
Our process
The data migration and integration processes that we adopt are iterative and can be summarized into the following stages:
1 Data extraction, transformation and loadingExtraction is the process of extracting (exporting) data from existing systems. Loading is the process of loading (importing) the extracted data into the destination database. Transformation is the process of the transforming the data structures found in existing system(s) into that required by the destination systems. The greatest control of this process is gained by using a temporary, intermediate data store. |
2 Data standardizationThis is the process of standardizing on specific terms or names across many data sources. For example, an organisation may be entered into one system as "Joe Blogs" and entered into another system as "J Bloggs Homecare Ltd". If the data is not standardised then the above example would result in duplicate entries for this organisation or a failure to link data from different sources, which means that users may receive inaccurate information. |
3 Data cleansingData cleansing is the process of correcting the data. Generally, there are three types of data cleansing: structure cleansing, critical-data cleansing and non-critical-data cleansing. In structural cleansing faults in the organisation of individual data entries are corrected. The data is then divided into critical and no-critical depending on whether the core business processes can operate without it. |
4 ReconciliationReconciliation is the process of verifying that the data migrated into destination database matches the data in the previous system(s). The step is the final validation of the unified view presented in a data integration project. |
