Solving the Data Migration Nightmare

Xperate are a UK based software development company that offers everything from a full design and development service through to short term projects. In this blog, Xperate's Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Garnish takes a look at the challenging process of Data Migration.

Transferring data from one system to another is often a painful, prolonged, and high-risk process that many law firms prefer to avoid. However, to stay competitive, law firms must upgrade their practice management systems or other platforms over time. When law firms merge or acquire other practices, there is an urgent need to consolidate systems and standardise operations.

Data migrations tend to be more successful when part of a full system change, as there is ample time to prepare for a comprehensive migration. However, mergers or acquisitions present more challenges, as data must be integrated from one system into another.

In this blog, we explore why data migrations are so challenging and introduce a solution developed by Xperate. This solution also allows firms to decommission older systems that are often retained solely because they contain data that couldn't be migrated.

The Challenges of Moving Data

The complexity doesn't lie in re-numbering clients and matters to match the new system or in creating complex mappings between fee earner codes, case types, and activity codes. While these tasks are difficult, they are achievable. The real challenges stem from four main areas:

• Accessing the data in the first place
• Transferring historical data in a usable state
• Managing expectations on the duration of the entire process
• The target PCMS not supporting historical data migrations

Getting Access to Data

This should be the easy bit but sadly it often doesn’t turn out that way. The Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) charter states that all members had to cooperate (for a reasonable fee) to help law firms move from one supplier to the other. In most cases that didn’t happen, and it certainly doesn’t now. Some suppliers refuse to cooperate entirely, telling their clients they can access all their data using standard products. Have you ever tried downloading tens of thousands of documents from the cloud one at a time? Even with robotic process automation (RPA), processing time is limited by your supplier’s UI response.

If you have full access to the old system, the next challenge is knowing what to do with it. Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington is fantastic, but eating it doesn't mean you know how to cook it. Even with the recipe, it's still hard to make. Practice and Case Management Systems (PCMS) suppliers usually won't provide the "recipe," leaving you to figure out the data structure on your own. SQL databases make it easier for skilled individuals to decipher, but not all PCMS use SQL. For cloud suppliers, where data is often stored in multi-tenant systems, you won't know what database they use, and even if you did, you're unlikely to get access to it.

Transferring Historical Data in a Useable State

So, you've managed to gain full access to your current PCMS and found someone who understands the data structure or has convinced you they can figure it out. Your next challenge is extracting the right financial and other data to create historical entries in your new system.

You might think that reaching this stage means the process will be easy, but that would be a huge mistake. To migrate financial data and billing history to the level of detail required by law firms, you need to extract all corresponding data from each invoice and flag it as part of that invoice. Then, you need to figure out how to migrate this data into the new PCMS. This is incredibly difficult and requires significant skill.

To complicate matters further, many systems don't balance internally and have been patched over the years to ensure they do. This works fine when using the patched system but quickly unravels when you extract the data for transfer.

Is it any wonder that many firms stick with their incumbent suppliers until they have no choice? This also explains why full data migrations are so incredibly expensive and often realistically unachievable.

How Long the Process Takes

Law firms often don't inform their suppliers about mergers until the contracts are finalised. While this is understandable, it creates an expectation that the migration should be completed within two months (or by the transaction's closing date). Even if your supplier has the technical expertise for the migration, they likely won't have the resources to start immediately. Moreover, two months is generally insufficient to complete the job properly.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, law firms should consider involving their suppliers in discussions about data migrations at the earliest opportunity. Those that do will reap significant long-term benefits.

Target PCMS Not Supporting Historical Data Migrations

Interestingly, many traditional and modern PCMS do not support historical data migrations. It's understandable, as newer cloud-based systems focus on getting you operational quickly. Historical data transfers can slow down this process and introduce additional risk and complexity.

So, what can you do about this?

Engaging specialists like Xperate is a great starting point, but there are limitations to what we can achieve alone. Post-migration support from your PCMS supplier is crucial, and they typically provide this only if you have used their services or their approved methods for data migration, which they do not permit third parties to use.

Xperate has created a solution to address both challenges.

Introducing the Xperate Static Data Model (XSDM), a program designed to provide a read-only or static view of all your historical data. This Xperate developed solution is compatible with any PCMS, ensuring you have access to all necessary data while allowing you to decommission old systems previously kept for historical data access. This approach reduces long-term maintenance and storage costs and can eliminate the need for ongoing license fees for accessing old data.

Additionally, we have developed methods approved by every PCMS to bring forward clients, matters, and financial balances.

Xperate have a dedicated Data Services team who are waiting to provide you with the necessary expertise to make your merger, acquisition, or legacy system migration a smooth, seamless and cost-effective process.

If you would like further information or to talk to Xperate about navigating data migration projects, please contact us at dataservices@xperate.com.