Migration pitfalls – what could possibly go wrong?

Neil Dyke

news | Over 3 years ago | Neil Dyke, chief technology officer at Phoebus

Migration pitfalls – what could possibly go wrong?

Lenders are often nervous to move their mortgage book from one software provider to another because of what might go wrong.

There are many reasons why migration of accounts might not proceed as envisaged, and that’s why it’s vital to ensure that the process is carefully planned.

Here are some key issues that need to be addressed:

No credible plan

It may be stating the obvious, but it is imperative to have structure and a workable plan with timeframes and clear direction on who is doing what.

What are the goals, objectives and testing methods for the migration?

Unclear data migration strategy

Which accounts should be migrated?

Is it all accounts in the source system or just open or redeemed ones?

Is it open and redeemed accounts within the last x number of years?

Data

There are many things to consider when moving data, with many stages along the way that could lead to delays, if you are not careful.

Here are the most common problems:

data loaded into the new system does not balance with data in the source system
it is not possible to accurately map source and destination data
data provided to the target system is not in the format required by its data load capability
the source system does not provide useful error reporting for accounts which fail to load
the target system does not have a data or loan account migration capability
a secure data transport mechanism is not in place between the source and target system — (VPN) or secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) can be expensive and take significant time to set up
data in the source system is incorrect or incomplete versus the destination system requirements — such as requiring a postcode for every address or a date of birth for each borrower
incomplete data — often the data sources are multiple and not available from all source systems at the same time
a lack of domain knowledge to explain various aspects of the data and data structures in the source system

Lack of effective collaboration and communication

Often in a lengthy project, there are changes of personnel and the collaboration and communication are affected, resulting in delays and more expensive data migration.

Communication between parties across the whole timeframe of the migration project is essential to avoid errors and misunderstanding.

Testing

Testing the functionalities on self-generated data is a very common pitfall for most migrations.

The testing strategy and plan should clearly reflect carrying out the activity on the real (or anonymised) migrated data.

If the testing and dry runs take too long to ensure a ‘clean’ migration, deadlines are missed and the project is delayed.

The Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) routines should be thoroughly tested and preferably been through dry runs followed by a final dress rehearsal.

Without these, even the best of mapped data can fail to load.

The last pitfall to consider is the technical migration, which can take too long and some of the working day/days are lost.

Don’t let these pitfalls get in the way of moving mortgage books from legacy systems to an efficient platform.

By working closely with a new provider and taking steps to mitigate potential challenges, migrations can, and indeed should, run smoothly.

data migration Neil Dyke Phoebus ETL VPN data management data migration strategy lenders mortgage book