Many large companies use antiquated business systems. This is not due to a lack of awareness, but rather awareness of the difficulty, expense and impact of migrating business systems.

The new system needs to have all of the functionality of the old system, whether it works exactly the same, or just fills the same role. This means that all of the development work done throughout the lifetime of old system has to be cataloged and rebuilt, or reimagined in the new system. The larger a company is the larger this body of work.

In addition the new system needs to have features that did not exist in the old system, otherwise what was the point of migrating? Finally this all has to happen without significant disruptions to user’s work, or else the lost hours have to be added to the total cost of the project.

This last part is difficult. In addition to any issues and time spent learning the new system that happen on cut over there are fewer, if any, resources dedicated to building, or improving the quality of the old system throughout the duration of the project. Even if the company does not devote any of their existing resources to the migration there will have to be a change freeze. A point after which no changes made in the old system will be migrated to the new system.

This all has to be weighed against the cost of the current system. Is the new system cheaper? Does it have functionality not achievable in the old system? Is it easier, or cheaper to find resources to maintain the new system? Is the new system a business standard that will make your company a more attractive employer? Is the speed of development on the new system faster?

After going through a migration myself I understand why large companies that have been on one system for decades rarely upgrade. There are, however, ways migrations can be less painful.

Break them up into as many pieces as possible. First move the team with the simplest system demands and continue from there. Do them for the future, not the present.

Try to avoid migrating and adding new functionality simultaneously. Undertake the migration with the understanding that it better enables the addition of new functionality in the future. This is not always possible as future changes can require overall design changes that are easier on migration, but it is worth considering.

Avoid underestimating the expense and effort the migration will take. This will lead to a stressful working environment with frustrated stakeholders.

Do not choose business systems lightly. Migrating from one business system to another is an expensive and difficult undertaking. Whenever a company chooses to adopt a new system it has the ability to minimize the number of migrations it needs to do by making a good choice the first time.