Don’t let your transformation fail: your data is your secret weapon

No one wants their transformation project to fail. And yet, despite the millions spent on cutting-edge technology, progress often stalls, timelines slip and technologies don’t deliver on their promise. 

Why? Because under pressure to innovate, organisations often overlook the most crucial factor in any transformation: their data. Without a solid foundation of high quality data, even the most sophisticated technologies will fall short. 

Now, as businesses plan large-scale transformations, data quality is emerging as a key blocker. In fact, recent research by the UK and Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG) has found a staggering 77% of respondents believe data management presents a significant challenge when moving to SAP S/4HANA. 

And this is not unique to SAP implementations, it’s a common challenge across all platforms and technologies. But it doesn’t have to be inevitable. Data management could be your secret weapon.

Start early

Even when organisations recognise the importance of data, they often act too late. Treated almost as an afterthought, IT teams scramble to clean and organise data as the migration date looms. Uncovering issues late in the project, pushing back deadlines and adding extra cost.

A transformation is stressful enough without last minute data management. Taking a Data First approach - focusing on data quality right at the start - gives your project a strong foundation to build from. By making sure you’re migrating the accurate, up-to-date data, in a format that fits your new technology, you’re streamlining the migrations and reducing risk.

Ideally, this builds on an existing data strategy. However, the same UKISUG survey found that just 12% of organisations have a comprehensive data strategy, leaving many with outdated, inaccurate, or siloed data, and unclear priorities for migration. 

This means that addressing data quality early in the project is even more of a priority. 

How to approach your data

If your data is feeling out of control, it can be difficult to know where to start. In my experience, the organisations that follow 3 simple principles tend to have much better and longer-lasting transformation results.

Before the project starts, teams on their way to a successful transformation will:

Get to know existing data

Kick off with a thorough audit of existing data to identify what’s necessary and what can be eliminated. Reducing clutter means you’re only migrating the data you really need to

Set goals

Link your data goals with wider business objectives. Consider how reliable that data needs to be and how current. Some data needs to be 100% accurate (or as close as possible) 100% of the time - for regulatory compliance for example.  

Other data might not need such high levels of accuracy, or only needs to be at that level for a limited time period. Knowing that is great too: it means you won’t put too much energy into maintaining something that’s not vital for good results.

Maintain data quality long-term

Without rules and guidance in place, it’s easy for errors to slip in. We’ve all been there: spent months of work cleaning up priority data only to discover that it’s back to square one just a few weeks later. So introduce and enforce policies, procedures, and standards to ensure your critical data stays accurate and usable. 

And finally, engage the C-suite. Data quality shouldn’t be left solely to the IT team, it’s a business-wide priority. Senior leaders depend on accurate data to make informed decisions, improve performance and manage risk, so data governance must be on their agenda. To get their buy-in, demonstrate how poor data impacts business outcomes and how their involvement can drive a culture of accountability across the organisation, so everyone understands the critical role of high-quality data.

Don’t despair…

If your transformation project is underway, it’s not too late to prioritise your data. No matter what stage you're at, refining your data strategy and governance will benefit your migration and help you secure better business benefits. 

The other option: ignoring it and hoping for the best is guaranteed to bring you extra headaches at an already high pressure time. 

But remember, addressing data early is ideal. Focusing on it before the project begins, using it as your secret weapon, sets you on a clearer path to a successful transformation.