#cnotractmigrationproject

Whether you've decided to switch to a new contract management system or you're in the middle of a merger, your business still needs to maintain daily operations. You want to be sure that you're able to keep up the regular flow of business despite your data migration. No matter what changes you make internally, your clients expect the same high quality of service you've always provided. Read our contract migration project guide for help with your project from start to finish. As you start, there are several steps you can take to keep up with your normal business tasks and responsibilities.

Create a Plan for Your Migration

Attempting a data migration with no plan in place to maintain daily operations could prove catastrophic for your entire business. By creating a plan ahead of time, you can more effectively migrate your data. Proactively planning also protects the normal tasks your business needs to complete each day. Make sure you have a solid understanding of: The scope of the projectHow long you expect it to takeHow you'll keep up with normal work tasks during the migration project You also want to ensure communication with your entire staff. This will ensure that everyone knows what to expect during the migration project.

Migrate Data at the Right Time

Data migration will often cause some disruptions to your normal work processes. That does not necessarily mean, however, that you have to give up your business's usual efficiency. Instead, make sure you choose the right time to migrate your data. Some businesses choose the trickle method: they migrate data gradually over time, allowing for effective testing for the quality and integrity of each data set before moving on to the next set. Other businesses may choose the "big bang" approach. This approach migrates all of your data over at the same time, in one fell swoop. This method allows a fast swap to a new system. But it may make it more difficult to properly check the integrity of your data and your contracts before beginning to utilize the new system. It can also be too interruptive if you also need to maintain your daily operations. Whichever system you use, make sure you choose the time that is as convenient as possible for most of your departments. Do not, for example, schedule a data migration in the middle of the workday during your busiest sales season. That’s when multiple members of your team may need to access the contract management system at the same time. 

Set Clear Priorities

Make sure you assign clear priorities to the data that needs to be migrated fastest and most efficiently. High-priority data might include: Currently active contractsContracts that you're currently negotiatingContracts that you may need to refer back to in the near futureLease agreements and vendor contracts Other documents, including legacy contracts, can often wait until a later stage of the migration. While this data is still important for your business, it can wait until more critical data has been migrated over. 

Clearly Designate What System to Use When

If you're combining two businesses and migrating to a single data system, both businesses may want to continue using their existing systems until the migration is complete. This will make it easier for each business to maintain daily operations keep up with its own contracts during the migration process as well as clearly designating which company is responsible for taking care of specific responsibilities.  Set a clear date for when you expect your employees to start using the new system. Before that date arrives, make sure every employee has a clear understanding of how to use that system and what will need to change about their workflows and processes to complete the migration. 

Put Training on the Schedule

Migrating all your contracts to a single repository is a critical step for your business. Whether you need to merge legacy systems together or you have recently gone through a merger or acquisition, it streamlines how you do business. Many business owners, however, worry that they will face unnecessary downtime and other problems during the migration process. With the appropriate planning, you can protect your business and migrate your contracts to a single, highly effective repository. This will help you meet your contract management goals. 

Set Up a Separate Contract Migration Project

Migrating your contracts to a single repository is its own project and should be treated as such. It can be complicated, whether you're migrating several contract repositories at the same time or you're migrating a single existing contract repository to a new system. Set up your contract migration plan as a separate project and treat it accordingly. You may need to: 1. Assess the Scope of the Contract Migration Project Just like when you take a look at a project for a client, you need to take time to assess the scope of your contract migration project. How big of a project are you looking at? How many contracts do you need to move, and how many systems are you bringing together? Take a solid look at what you expect to happen during your contract migration. This includes any potential obstacles that may occur during the contract migration process. Be honest about how long you expect the project to take and just how big a project it is to handle. With this precaution, there’s less risk that you will face unexpected challenges later. 2. Evaluate Your Team Once you have a clear view of the scope of your project, take the time to evaluate your team and their skills. Ask: Who on your team will be responsible for managing the contract migration process? What role will each team member play?Do your team members have the skills needed to help? This includes migrating those contracts, identifying and removing duplicate records, and checking data integrity.What does your team's schedule look like? Do you have time to factor in your contract migration?Do you need to bring in additional help to aid with the contract management process? You may want additional help if your team doesn't have enough time in their schedules to properly handle the project.   Also, evaluate the system you're moving to and the challenges it may present, as well as the ability of your team to meet those challenges. Determine what customer service and assistance the contract management system's internal tech team will provide during the migration process. Then, you can get a better idea of what skills your team members may really need to accomplish that migration.  3. Create a Timeline Just like when you put together a project for a client, your team needs to know how long they have to complete the contract migration. Consider: When do you need to have your contract migration completed?  You may have a very specific timeline in which to complete your migration. For example, you're using a legacy system that will no longer be supported after a certain date. Alternatively, you might be dealing with a subscription service that you don't want to renew again. You may also find yourself restricted by an upcoming busy season. That means you need to have all your contracts in the new system and everything up and running smoothly.  How much time do you have to dedicate to your contract migration project?  Your contract migration project will require employees, resources, and time. Look at how those needs fit into your schedule and what you need to do in order to effectively manage your migration and prevent it from interfering with other projects, especially those related to your clients. How long is the project likely to take?  Consider factors like both the system you're transferring data to and the system you're transferring data from, since these can put limitations on the speed of your project. Do you need to manually check for data duplication? Do you have automated processes in place that will need to run before the migration is complete? Make sure you have a solid timeline in place that will let you know how long it will probably take to migrate your contracts to the new system. 

Design a Plan

Once you have evaluated the full scope of your contract migration and set it up as a project within your system, you need to design a plan that will help keep you on track throughout the migration. Ask: What is the goal of this project? Like any other project, you need to have a clearly defined goal for your contract migration. In this case, it’s to have all of your contracts contained within one contract repository so that you can easily access the information you need when you need it. Secondary goals might include: Ensuring the data is clean and undamaged.  You may need to start by creating a data backup as you prepare for your project. Then, you will have clean copies of your contract data to refer back to if something fails to migrate correctly to the new system.  Creating a clear organization system that will establish how contracts are stored.  You may need an intuitive naming system as well as a storage method that makes sense to every member of the team who must use that system. This is essential if you're migrating over data from different companies.  Maintaining security both during and after the migration.  You do not want to lose valuable data or leave it vulnerable to hackers, who may choose to use it for their own purposes.  Aligning your contract storage system with your company's other goals and plans.  Your contract repository can help streamline many of your business practices and make it easier to ensure compliance and full implementation of your contracts. It can also help your company up with billing and other critical financial matters.  Setting up workflows and reminders in the new system that will keep business flowing smoothly. Your business needs to flow as smoothly as possible during the transition and afterward. Make sure that your reminders, workflows, and alerts are set up in the new system before you finish the migration.  What risks does the contract migration present to the company as a whole? When you migrate your contracts, you may face some risks. As you design a plan to migrate over your contracts, make sure you carefully consider those risks and take steps to mitigate them as much as possible ahead of time.  Does your current contract repository pose a known security risk?  If you're using legacy systems or outdated contract software, you may find that your existing enterprise contract management system poses a substantial security risk to your business. Migrating to a new, updated system, especially one that already has vital security in place, can help mitigate that risk.  Do you have a risk of unexpected downtime during the migration?  If you plan to move all your contract data over at once, you may have a period of downtime. You can control this downtime, to some extent, by planning your migration for a time that works best for your company. You may not want to schedule a migration for the busiest part of your day or for a time when you know you can expect increased amounts of business.  What resources will you need to accomplish your contract migration? Put together a list of all the resources you will need in order to fully accomplish your contract migration. This includes the time, manpower, and the physical resources you may need to accomplish your migration. Consider: How many people you will need in order to accomplish the migration. Clearly designate which team members you will need to have and what responsibility those team members will need to complete. You may need to block out those team members' schedules during the contract migration. Alternatively, you may need to designate a chunk of time each day to work on migration-related tasks.  How long you anticipate the project taking.  You already have an estimate of your timeline for contract migration completion. Make sure to include this as part of your plan so that you can schedule the right employees at the right time.  What machines you will need to use during the migration.  You may want to designate a particular machine or machines to handle the data migration. You may not be able to use this computer for other purposes while you're handling your migration to the cloud. If you currently store your contracts on an in-house server, you may need to dedicate that server to the contract migration process. Make sure to check with your IT team to learn what load those machines can handle and how it will impact the rest of the company. What virtual space you will need to handle the migration.  Consider elements like your network security as well as upload speed. Do you want to conduct your contract migration over a separate network from your usual processes? This can help increase upload speed as well as providing you with an additional layer of security, since you can more easily monitor exactly what devices are connected to that network throughout the contract migration process.  Are there any additional resources you will need to complete your contract migration project? Consider all the details of your project and what resources you may need to finish it effectively. If you will need to work after hours or on weekends, consider what resources will need to be made available to your team in order to maximize efficiency.  Create a clear budget for your contract migration. Make sure you establish what that budget is intended for. Also, leave some room in that budget for overtime if the migration takes longer than intended.  How do you plan to set up training?