Data Migration + ERP Customization for Edtech Firm
Summary
Our client, a leading ed-tech non-profit based in the US, has been suffering from the consequences of siloed, poorly structured databases spread across a disparate digital ecosystem. This has caused significant challenges when attempting to demonstrate ROI to funding source providers (federal & state), as well as inefficient, repetitive processes which have hampered staff.
As a result, we have been conducting a data transformation and migration process for all of their systems, ranging from client databases through to surveys and marketing platforms. This has included moving from siloed systems / databases through to one single open source system.
We are currently in the final month of the contract having performed:
A set of full data & system diagnosis
User research & requirements writing
A comprehensive data cleanup & transformation
Customization of the open source platform with additional features required
Data mapping & migration (95% completed)
Stats
PROBLEM
The client had issues in demonstrating ROI to funding source providers due to disparate, confusing systems & databases.
SOLUTION
Performed data cleanup & transformation, selected a new single source platform & migrate all data
Discover
We conducted a set of kick of workshops to establish overall project objectives, KPIs, scope, stakeholder mapping & refine the delivery plan further with client input.
We identified the full set of platforms, as well as the types of data stored within them. This process was challenging given:
Suitability of existing platform(s); the CRM database they were using was not built for their use case, leading to its misuse by staff
This led to substantial issues relating to consistency of data, undermining data accuracy, reliability & credibility internal & externally
Every time staff had to pull insights for reporting, staff dissatisfaction, stress and inefficiency increased dramatically
In addition, we also conducted interviews & surveys across the project team and organization, helping us to further refine our understanding of what was working, what needed improving and what need full transformation.
This included conducting requirements gathering and sign off workshops, ensuring the client always understood what outputs to expect and de-risking any decision making for key stakeholders via collective sign offs based on mutual agreement.
Design
Having further refined our understanding of the intricacies of the databases and their respective data, the wider project and the corporate culture, we began to trial potential platforms for the client’s specific needs and wants. This included trialling best in class CRM databases against their other, wider requirements (e.g. marketing tool, survey tool, invoicing tool etc).
As a team we identified 3 potential frontrunners and ran week long proof of concepts where we:
Introduced sample data
Tested against requirements
Tested against specific user flows, experiences, jobs to be done etc
We then created an evaluation form / scoring rubric with the client, scoring each platform independently so as to ensure a fair, user based process throughout. With the client we all voted on the most suitable platform which we have no been working on to localize around their additional requirements (e.g. event management flows, new communication flows etc).
Consequently we performed advanced data mapping, comprehensively identifying changes needed (new data fields, changes to data types / data interpretation) for the new platform and began writing migration scripts, iteratively improving them and consolidating the successful ones into correctly sequenced master scripts for the final migration.
Deliver
Having been through this journey over the last few months, we are hugely excited about this final phase now. We have successfully had 90% of requirements signed off, 95% of data has been migrated successfully and we are now designing the documentation and training for the continued, sustained use of the platform and new processes we have set up for the firm.
