IT Migration: Why the Right Tool Matters

If you’re one of the many businesses who struggle with an outdated, complex system and hesitate to make a change because of the impact a major IT migration would have on your technology and operations—you’re not alone. 

A new ERP, EDI, or WMS will solve many problems but could potentially introduce countless others which are hard to see and address before impacting your business. But what if a small investment in resources and tools would allow you to monitor the impact of each change you make? This foresight and preparation would enable the meticulous attention to detail required for such a complex, large-scale change management effort and it can change your IT migration from an exercise in stress and futility to an innovative transformation.

The worst part is these failures in automated processes can go undetected for too long. An inventory planner wondering why the supplier is late in shipping an order discovers the supplier never got the order. The accounts payable department waits 30 days before following up on late invoices and discovers the customer never received the invoices.

But what if you had the right data visibility software to show you the changes in your data from before and after the migration? Or to alert you to problems as they occur in real-time?

That’s where Syncrofy comes in. Syncrofy is an EDI data visibility software that provides you with easy and configurable self-service access to your data without the need for IT support. Syncrofy can support and empower your migration project while helping you streamline processes and achieve a single version of the truth which everyone at your organization can rely on.

We recently worked with a leading packaged foods company to assist them with their ERP migration. Here’s how Syncrofy helped them streamline the migration process and see their entire business via a centralized platform:

Dynamic Dashboarding

The company used Syncrofy’s Dashboards to monitor post-migration document metrics against pre-migration baselines. With Syncrofy, they could ensure their system was acknowledging orders from their customers, and those orders were translating into accurate shipments from their warehouses. They were also able to track the number of exceptions created after the migration. 

Drill Down to Identify Discrepancies

The Document Detail Screen also helped identify potential mapping issues by giving non-technical users tools to troubleshoot data translation problems. These business users could compare the EDI purchase order with the ERP version, identifying missing line items or data which got distorted in translation. They could also compare invoice totals and delivery details with their billing system. Any problems they found they had the ability to report to the IT team with specific detailed examples so they could be resolved quickly and efficiently. The Search feature also helped non-technical users to find exactly what they were looking for and the Timeline views helped them ensure every correlated document was accounted for.

Exception Monitoring & Alerts

Syncrofy’s Exceptions feature highlights irregularities or inconsistencies within documents and provides proactive alerts regarding data that may require extra attention. They leveraged this to establish time-based exceptions to ensure all the documents they sent to their trading partners were processed in a reasonable amount of time and that the ERP was reliably and accurately sending data to their EDI. 

They also created exceptions for 997 (functional acknowledgements) rejections to ensure the invoices they were sending to their partners weren’t generating more errors and rejections. They used Exceptions to alert them to purchase orders they received which their systems didn’t automatically acknowledge, helping them confirm their ERP was recording those orders as it was supposed to.

Detailed Reporting & Proactive Notifications

The Reports feature was used to create reconciliation reports to ensure the EDI feeds matched what was intended to be processed. They also took advantage of Notifications to set up real-time alerts to monitor for specific documents coming from the ERP system. Additionally, users leveraged non-production environments in Syncrofy to test the new ERP system, helping them get accustomed to identifying errors.

Partner Collaboration

They expanded their testing community by utilizing Partner Invites to encourage their trading partners to join in on the process. They sent data from the new ERP to their partners to get approval on the EDI data being transmitted before the migration was finalized.

The bottom line? With the right technology, a company-wide IT migration can be a tremendous opportunity to drive innovation and efficiency across your organization—not a stressful, necessary evil. With Syncrofy, our customer was able to streamline their entire ERP migration process. It helped them effectively manage it by giving them the visibility they needed to make a smooth and quick transition.

To learn more about Syncrofy and how it can help you with your migration please visit https://www.coenterprise.com/solutions/syncrofy/ or schedule a consultation with us today.