Migration made easy

In today’s digitally-led business environment, the ability to access and analyse data quickly is critical to success. Despite this, many New Zealand organisations still rely on legacy systems to store and manage their data, largely due to several real barriers and concerns associated with the process of data migration.

Data migration is not just a technical exercise, it is a strategic investment in a company’s future growth. By unlocking the potential of data and harnessing its power, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, agility, and innovation, leading to increased revenue and competitive advantage.

It’s no secret there are many barriers to data migration, such as time investment; lack of clarity on what data is critical for the business to know and understand; and the security, risk, legal and compliance implications of cloud data storage.

However, there is a growing number of factors that necessitate migrations. When these are paired with the value-add opportunities associated with data migration, business leaders must start looking at it as an investment.

Common triggers which necessitate data migration to the cloud are:

1. Legacy systems are limiting. As organisations grow and evolve, their data management needs change. Legacy systems may no longer be able to keep up with the company’s expanding data volumes and complexities, resulting in decreased ability to report on performance and drift in their reliability.
2. New regulatory requirements are constantly being introduced, which puts pressure on companies to ensure their data and storage platforms are secure and compliant. Planning a data migration will help you reduce the risk of significant financial and reputational damage due to non- compliance by helping you identify gaps.
3. When a company merges with or acquires another business, it often needs to integrate the acquired company’s data into its own systems. However, this can be a complex and time-consuming process, particularly if the data is stored in outdated legacy systems. Failing to migrate this data to a more modern and scalable cloud- based platform can result in missed opportunities to realise the new potential, streamline operations and reduce costs.

The political, economic, legislative and social landscapes in Aotearoa are in a state of flux. Organisations are needing to adapt to new and changing legislation, an increasingly urgent climate crisis and exciting technological advancements.

Alongside this, consumer cynicism is at an all-time high. Doing what is right as an organisation is simply not enough and all claims must be substantiated with enough evidence to weather external scrutiny.

How does data migration support this? Let’s look at ESG. As board members or senior company executives, you will be acutely aware of the increasingly intense microscope held by consumers, investors, regulators, employees and other stakeholders that are looking at your environmental and social performance.

By migrating data to the cloud, you will benefit from increased data flexibility, reporting, and analysis, allowing access to timely and accurate information to support the sharing and credibility of your ESG efforts. It also allows for timely and accurate internal risk management, so that when claims cannot be substantiated, organisations are equipped with the most accurate information to fix and learn from mistakes and wrongdoings.

Migrating data to the cloud also provides the additional benefits of more advanced data protection and cybersecurity measures. Cloud-based platforms have stronger security protocols compared to older systems, which means they offer better protection against cyber-attacks and other threats.

The reality is a robust, secure and successful data migration takes time and investment. When done in a thorough way, migrating your data is an opportunity to get clarity around business-critical questions, the reassurance you are operating in a compliant manner, and to create efficiencies in decision-making and reporting.

Powered Data Migration is KPMG’s holistic approach to data migration, which actively addresses common concerns and challenges. The operation is with a business migration and cutover lens, rather than just a technical ‘Extract, Transfer, Load’ (ETL) perspective. The approach incorporates traditional ETL technical functionality, plus forensics analytics and business, risk, legal and compliance expertise.

A variety of engagement and service delivery options allows for a light touch and rapid migration delivery, through to multi-jurisdiction, multi-phase global migrations. 

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To learn more, contact James Dowle jdowle@kpmg.co.nz or Alistair Evans alevans@kpmg.co.nz