Validation Challenge
Data validation is critical to the success of every Oracle ERP Cloud implementation. Without knowing how or what to validate, or without the proper tools, validation can lead to unpredictable test cycles, long hours, and project delays. Frequently, a project team’s pre-conversion validation plan heavily relies on the review of FBDI load errors as they occur, resulting in a scramble late in the project to review and repair records. This is followed by a disjointed post-migration validation process that involves spot checking records from the front end, ad hoc Excel dumps, and a manual comparison between legacy and Oracle Cloud reports. In contrast, Definian has developed a way to avoid the headaches traditionally associated with data validation and better ensure data validation success as part of our entire data migration solution.
Over the past 35 years, Definian has focused on data migration and addressing the issues surrounding data validation. We have used our experience to shape our consulting services and optimize our proprietary data migration software. Our process and software are proven across the entire data migration, allowing implementation teams to deliver results on time and within budget. Recently, Definian joined a project team that measured our validation process against their existing process and tools. Their analysis determined that Definian saved them approximately 300 hours on supplier validation alone.
“...Definian has done WONDERS for our data conversion. ... [They] helped us work ahead, shortening the length of the conversion...“
Validation Solution
Definian’s validation and reconciliation approach is designed to accelerate efforts by predicting conversion results before the Oracle ERP Cloud load and by proving results after the migration. This approach is powered by our proprietary data migration software, Applaud®, and is facilitated by our data migration experts.
There are four main aspects to our validation approach:
- Critical-To-Quality (CTQ) validations simulate the data migration and identify conversion issues without executing the Oracle Cloud Load applications. CTQs validate legacy data against both Oracle Cloud configuration and the conversion business requirements. This allows the team to address missing configurations, would-be load errors, and issues within the legacy data, thereby projecting load results prior to execution.
- Conversion Readiness Dashboards provide actionable metrics and insights that give the data cleanup and enrichment greater transparency. Our dashboards serve as platforms for monitoring data quality throughout the implementation, keeping project leadership up to date on the status of cleansing activities.
- Pre-conversion data comparisons bring focus to data differences from conversion cycle to conversion cycle. By isolating delta changes between cycles, the project team can spend their time reviewing the new and unexpected findings rather than repeatedly reviewing the same data.
- Comprehensive post-conversion reconciliation reports accelerate the post-conversion validation and prove the migration by one of three methods. The first and primary method is to extract and juxtapose the converted data from the Oracle Cloud application tables with the original legacy data, allowing users to side-by-side compare current and future states and quickly identify potential issues. The second method compares front end reports from both Oracle Cloud and legacy applications, verifying that business reports balance between current and future states. The third method isolates data differences between the prior and current Oracle Cloud environments, allowing the team to focus on what changed rather than what was already validated.
The Results
We compared our validation approach to other methods commonly employed on data migration projects and Definian’s solution has consistently resulted in greater savings of time and resources, as well as improved data quality.
In addition to the 300 hours we saved on supplier validation, we recently executed our validation method as part of our entire data migration solution during a project that was already in-flight. The adaptation of our solution enabled the client to triple the number of divisions being converted simultaneously, while also cutting in half the allotted time frames between go live dates.
These benefits are made possible by our expert consulting staff, who average over seven years of experience working on data migration projects, and by our Applaud software that we have optimized to make the entire data migration predictable, repeatable, and highly automated.
For over 35 years, some of the most recognizable brands in the world have trusted Definian as their data migration partner. When comparing Definian to their internal teams, our clients consistently tell us that we complete the work “twice as fast with half the resources.”
