Data Conversion Software

Smooth over your next software transition with the right data conversion tools

Data conversion software can help make transitioning from one software system to another one easier. Between retraining your employees and ensuring that your hardware is up to speed, the process can quickly become a nightmare. And that nightmare has only begun when you start to map out your conversion of data. There are several data conversion applications on the market that can help you.

By utilizing specific software for transferring data from your old system to your new, you're able to eliminate a lot of the labor that was once typical for data conversions. Your IT team used to need weeks to map every type of data in your old system to its new home, and often had to design a custom data converter, used once and then discarded. With the many options available to you today in commercial software for data conversion, your IT team's time and effort can now be better spent on ensuring that your new system is 100% ready to use.

When choosing your next piece of data conversion software, among the key points to consider are:

1. The timeframe under which you can execute your data conversion utility software.

2. The format of your software and data for conversion.

3. The level of expertise amongst your IT team in data conversion and program design.

Don't select a data converter at the last second

Data conversion is often an afterthought when launching a new system; everyone instead focuses on the new software and how to make it as strong as possible. While this is great, it will all be for naught if you can't access your historical data without opening your old system. Be sure to include your data conversion utility software planning in as early a step in your system design as possible.

Research if your data conversion software can handle the type of historical data you're moving

The ability of modern data conversion tools to handle your historical data can often depend on when your former software program was written. The older your software, the more difficult it is for one of today's data conversion applications to handle it smoothly. Therefore, it's critical to know the type of data you have on hand as well as how it's stored in your system.

Tailor your choice of software for data conversion to your IT team's expertise level

While it would be ideal if your entire IT team was thoroughly knowledgeable on how to enact a successful data conversion effort, the truth is that this is not likely. Instead, you should focus on finding a data conversion program that allows your team to focus on the part they know best--the data itself--and takes care of the difficult part of the conversion of data on its own.

• Make sure to include some of your employees and end-users in your data file conversion design. They'll be best able to tell you what data is essential to transfer and what data can be left behind.

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