by Rohini Sood
What is data migration, and why does it seem challenging? Let’s discuss the challenges associated with ATS data migration and how organizations can overcome them.
“Data migration - it’s a tad bit easy,” said no one ever!
With the advancements in recruiting process and strategy also come challenges and roadblocks. An enormous amount of work must be finished upfront: purchasing the software/ATS, configuring the new ATS, and training the teams on the new system.
Questions about “what to do with significant recruiting data” can get lost in the shuffle between all these complex processes. But this data can be resourceful to your organization, and ignoring the crucial data migration component can lead to dire consequences.
There are numerous reasons an organization might consider transitioning to a new applicant tracking system (ATS).
Whether you’re a budding startup looking for a comprehensive feature set, or an establishment that wants to move the hiring process forward, it’s evident that there can be massive gains to moving to a new ATS.
What is Data Migration?
Data migration involves transferring data from various platforms, locations, or from one ATS to another ATS. Data migration is essential to any business that involves technology upgrades or modifications.
Why is Data Migration Seen as Challenging and Uncertain?
With a technology upgrade underway, businesses need to move data from one system to another. In certain circumstances where a business has acquired or merged with another company, several structures must o be combined.
Even though the entire process may seem straightforward, it requires tremendous effort and precautions to accomplish a successful data migration with minimum or no error whatsoever.
The enormous amount of data makes it complicated for businesses to migrate data successfully. Data migration challenges block its path, including the possibility of data corruption, data loss, and extended downtime.
If the target system encounters some defect while the transfer is underway, the data migration process will be unsuccessful, leading to data corruption.
Therefore, a strategically planned data migration process is highly significant. While conducting data migration, organizations should maintain sequential order.
Top 5 Data Migration Challenges
Some of the primary data migration challenges that often disrupt the process are listed below:
1. Data Loss
During the process of data migration, data loss can take place. When you migrate the data to the new system, some data may not move over from the source system.
Your greatest assets are your candidate database, including resumes and cover letters. Losing all that information would be, in simple words, a disaster. While shifting systems, you may not lose any data but obtain damaged and corrupted data.
Every bit of missing data means lost information on skill sets, previous work experiences, and other crucial aspects of getting the ideal candidate.
2. Semantics Risk
Even after accomplishing the data migration process, semantics errors can occur. For instance, there is a field called “experience” in the source data; the information in that field could be moved over into a different data field in the target system.
The discrepancy in data could lead to several issues for organizations that need to migrate their data to new environments. Therefore, be advised to undertake data migration testing while migrating substantial amounts of business data.
3. Data Corruption
Data corruption can occur when organizations set rules and validations on the target system. This leads to unwanted data migration into the new system, leading to the possibility of failure and data corruption, resulting in inaccuracy for the client.
4. Prolonged Downtime
The probability of extended downtime occurs when the data migration process takes longer than anticipated. The source system is not functional during the migration process, which presents a potential risk for organizations.
5. Other Associated Risks
- Data dump in various formats like JSON, CSV, and XML
- Lack of skilled professionals to operate the new infrastructure
- Incorrect or jumbled data
How to Overcome the Risks Associated with Data Migration?
While migrating data, here are some of the best practices to keep in mind:
- Data Back-up: Make sure to back up data before implementing. If something goes wrong during the execution, you can revert if you have taken a backup.
- Plan Efficiently Beforehand: Manage your resources in advance to effectively carry out the migration process. Data migration can be complex and frustrating, so stick to the plan and work accordingly.
- Testing: To ensure favorable outcomes, testing is crucial. Therefore, test the data migration process throughout the planning and implementation phase.
Data Migration Simplified with RChilli
At RChilli, we know that migrating data is a challenging process. No two ATS are similar, and moving data from one system to another can be difficult. Hence, we have a dedicated team of data migration specialists to undertake this process. Here’s our 7-step approach to data migration:
- Getting access to the source dataset
- Analyzing the source dataset
- Setting up the data migration process
- Mapping the data
- Creating a backup of data
- Testing data migration
- Migrating the data
Conclusion
Migrating data is a complex process undertaken with utmost guidance, safety, and supervision. A slight mistake can lead to negative consequences, resulting in disastrous changes to information. Thus, planning and assessing the data migration process before performing it is of great importance.
Data migration risks can be huge, but you can protect your data during migration. The foremost thing to think about is developing a detailed strategy and approach. To successfully implement the data migration process, one must carefully plan the entire process from pre-planning to implementation.
Are you ready to see how RChilli can help you with successful data migration at a faster pace? Book a FREE consultation with one of our experts.
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