How to Migrate to a New System Without Stopping the Business
When switching to a new system, the biggest focus is usually on migrating a large volume of data that has built up over the years across different sources and formats. Other typical tasks include integrating with accounting, CRM, or banking services and organizing how the team works throughout the migration. Read on to see what this process looks like in practice.
Companies usually decide to move to a new system when their current tools no longer meet business needs. The company grows, data volumes increase, and new processes and services appear. The existing system's capabilities become insufficient for these changes, so a growing number of operations that could be automated are still done manually.
The next question is how to make the transition while the team keeps working as usual. Downtime usually comes down to three causes: switching off the old system too early, carrying duplicates and formatting errors over along with the data, and no technical analysis before the project starts. When these factors are accounted for in the plan, the migration does not affect ongoing processes.
Migration scenarios
Integration & Migration is part of our Automate service line and covers data migration and systems integration. The complexity of such projects depends on the starting situation, so the service offers three scenarios, each designed for a specific type of task.
⚪ Excel Migration: for companies that have kept customer records, accounting, or requests in Excel for years and want to automate their processes. Along with the data migration, the company receives a report on discrepancies and gaps identified in the data.
⚪ System Integration: for companies that work across several separate systems and have to duplicate data manually. Integration is possible with accounting systems, banking APIs, CRM, and other services with a REST API or webhooks. Data exchange can be one-way or two-way, scheduled or event-driven, with conflict handling, operation logs, and error notifications.
⚪ Legacy Modernization: a transition from an outdated system to Spiro for companies whose system is no longer developed or supported by the vendor but whose daily processes still depend on it. We migrate the data with its relationships and history and modernize processes to fit the logic of the new system.
Integration & Migration most often complements Quick Process Automation or Multi-Process Automation Suite, but it can also be a standalone solution. To learn more about each scenario, including its cost and timeline, visit the Integration & Migration page.
How does the migration process work?
Step 1. Technical analysis
We start by understanding what we will be working with: we study the systems, the data to be migrated or synchronized, and the technical constraints. Depending on the task, we audit the file structure, assess API capabilities, or reverse-engineer the legacy system.
Step 2. Data preparation and cleanup
We prepare the data for migration from Excel or a legacy system: we remove duplicates, fix formats, and fill in required fields. If the task is systems integration, at this stage we design the data exchange schema and synchronization rules.
Step 3. Migration / integration setup
We migrate the data to Spiro or set up two-way synchronization. We test the solution on real data, covering all record types and transfer scenarios. When replacing a legacy system, we run both systems in parallel, so the team keeps working as usual.
Step 4. Verification and handover
At this stage, we check that everything has been migrated correctly: we run spot checks against the source, validate the relationships between records, and test synchronization scenarios. When replacing a legacy system, we switch off the old one only after the full transition has been confirmed.
Migrating to a new system can be done without stopping the company's operations. The scenario depends on the starting situation: migrating data from Excel, integrating systems, or replacing a legacy solution. We clean and structure the records in advance, while the source data and the old system remain available until the transition has been confirmed as correct. As a result, the company gets a new system with up-to-date, consistent data that can be used to automate processes.
Planning a move to a new system? Leave your contact details in the form, and we will discuss your task on a free 30-minute call and give you a preliminary estimate of cost and timeline.
