Small Businesses Can Meet the Challenges of Data Conversion

Implementing new data systems is a difficult process sometimes. New systems result in some amazing benefits including improved processes and the ability to access data more easily, but they are also going to need data to be converted to a format that can be used in the new system. This is a challenge that small businesses must face. This post will look at 5 challenges of data conversion to ensure that you are prepared to conquer them!

Scope of Data

The first step is to define the scope of the data to determine how much of it needs to be converted. You’ll likely find that some of it is essentially useless so there is no need to convert that. Make a list and double check it. How much data is being converted? How much of this data must be converted manually? Determining the scope of data that needs to be converted is a critical step because it allows you to create a plan of action.

Data Sources and Destinations Need to Be Defined

Now you will have to determine exactly where the data is coming from. Are you pulling it from different databases or have you consolidated everything into a single database? You must clearly define the source.

Once you know the source, identify the destination for the data. This will determine exactly what type of conversion is necessary. In some cases, there might be more than one destination so you’ll need to identify what data goes into specific destinations. Write all of this down.

It’s Easy to Get Lost in the Complexity

There is so much data that is accumulated by a business that it’s easy to get lost in a sea of raw data. The sheer intimidation of all this data is what leads to many entrepreneurs to procrastinate updating their systems. They simply don’t want to deal with all of this data conversion.

However, there is a way to face this challenge – data mapping. This is seen by many experts as an essential step to successful data conversion. Detail the requirements for each element of data within the conversion. You’ll have a list by this point to help make this easier. Define all of the following details:

  • What will business processes be affected by the change?
  • What will the overall transformation look like?
  • What new data inputs can you incorporate to meet the needs of the new system?

Every element of the conversion must be documented and mapped out in detail. This includes the estimated time to implement each change.

Determining Everyone’s Roles

This is another challenge that can become a major bottleneck in the overall conversion of data. I’ve seen companies forget to define everyone’s roles during the conversion so they all do their own thing, resulting in an even bigger mess. It’s essential that you detail every team member’s roles before you begin the data conversion process.

  • Who will be validating the new data?
  • Who will input data into the new system in order to keep the business running?
  • Who needs to be locked out of the system until the conversion is finished?

What Resources Are Required?

Finally, you’ll have to make a list of every resource required throughout the data conversion process. Develop a full plan of action from beginning to end including development, testing, and validating new data. Then make sure that you review this plan in detail with all associates involved.

Keeping your systems up-to-date is important because the business world continues to grow at a record pace. If you can meet all of the challenges in this post, then you will find that it’s not quite as intimidating as you believed.

Views: 280

Comment

You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!

Join Codetown

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Presentation: Inflection Points in Engineering Productivity as Amazon Grew 30x

Carlos Arguelles discusses pivotal inflection points throughout Amazon's monumental growth. He explains how significant operational crises, exponential engineer growth, and market shifts drove crucial investments in engineering productivity and foundational infrastructure, offering valuable lessons for senior developers and leaders.

By Carlos Arguelles

Article: Ceph RBD Turns 15: A Story of Open Source Creation

Fifteen years ago, Ceph RBD began as a community-driven idea that grew into essential infrastructure powering today's cloud platforms. This insider story from Yehuda Sadeh-Weinraub reveals how two developers started a distributed storage that now supports OpenStack and Kubernetes through transparent, collaborative development.

By Yehuda Sadeh-Weinraub

Podcast: Mandy Gu on Generative AI (GenAI) Implementation, User Profiles and Adoption of LLMs

In this podcast, Mandy Gu from Wealthsimple discusses how to establish AI programs in organizations and implement Generative AI (GenAI) initiatives, and the relationship between user profiles and adoption of LLMs.

By Mandy Gu

Azure AI Foundry Agent Service Gains Model Context Protocol Support in Preview

Microsoft's Azure AI Foundry Service now supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), revolutionizing AI agent integration. This streamlined approach eliminates cumbersome custom coding, allowing seamless connection to data sources and workflows. With enterprise-grade security, developers can effortlessly enhance agent capabilities, ushering in a new era of interoperability and efficiency in AI.

By Steef-Jan Wiggers

Java News Roundup: Spring gRPC, Micronaut, JReleaser, Tomcat, Quarkus Legacy Config Classes

This week's Java roundup for June 30th, 2025, features news highlighting: point and maintenance releases of Spring gRPC, Micronaut, JReleaser, Quarkus and Apache Tomcat; the beta release of Open Liberty 25.0.0.7; and sunsetting of the Quarkus legacy configuration classes.

By Michael Redlich

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service