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Sooner or later every business has to move its data: out of a system that is being retired, into a new one, or between two systems that both have to stay. GEN extract, convert and move that data, including from systems so old that few others will touch them. We recently lifted parts data from a 30 year old HP9000 and converted it to CSV and XML, ready for import into a new ERP system.
The same skills keep data flowing between live systems afterwards, on a schedule or as changes happen, over secure channels, so nobody has to export and re-key it by hand.
Legacy accounts and ERP systems, such as SAP R/3, Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards and Baan, rarely make it easy to leave. The data is there, but in structures and formats designed decades ago and often undocumented. QuickBooks and other smaller packages have their own versions of the same problem.
We analyse the existing system, work out the safest route out, and write conversion tools that do the work automatically, so the move can be rehearsed and repeated rather than done once by hand and hoped for. The integrity of the data is the point of the exercise: it has to arrive complete, correct and usable.
If the old system has to keep running while you move, our legacy system support can keep it going, including HP9000 and other hardware few others still maintain.
Off-the-shelf export tools rarely produce exactly what the next system needs. We build exports for reporting, analysis and data warehousing, and imports that bring outside data into your own databases.
Extract, transform and load processes that convert one system's data model into another's, validating and restructuring on the way, and removing the manual manipulation where most errors creep in.
Data moved between platforms, databases and applications on a timetable, through their APIs, standard protocols or files, so each system holds the same figures without anyone running an export.
Where a delay matters, changes are picked up as they happen, using event-driven designs and change data capture, and reflected in the other systems within moments.
Encryption in transit, secure file transfer such as SFTP, and access controls throughout, so the data is as well protected on the move as it is at rest.
Orders, invoices and stock files exchanged with trading partners in the format each of them uses, and converted automatically on the way in and out of your own systems.
Interchange is about moving data between systems intact. When a project needs the systems themselves connected, so that one can act on another directly, that is system integration. When the data needs enriching, cross-referencing and analysing as it arrives, before being delivered by API or report, that is our real-time data platform. Many projects touch all three, and the same team works on each.
Often, yes. Age is rarely the obstacle: we recently lifted parts data from a 30 year old HP9000 and converted it into CSV and XML, ready to import into a new ERP system. If the old system has to keep running while you move, our legacy support team can keep it going.
Accounts and ERP systems such as SAP R/3, Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Baan and QuickBooks, which rarely make it easy, as well as older in-house and minicomputer systems. The target can be any system that takes an import or has an API.
It is encrypted in transit, moved over secure protocols such as SFTP, and protected by access controls in transit and at rest, in line with data protection law.
No. Once the mapping is built, exchange can run on a schedule, or be triggered as changes happen in the source system, so each system stays up to date without anyone running an export.
No. Interchange moves and converts data between systems. Our real-time data platform is for data that needs enriching, cross-referencing and analysing as it arrives, before it is delivered by API or report. Some projects start with one and grow into the other.
Tell us what the old system is, what it runs on, and where the data needs to end up. That is usually enough for us to say how we would get it out, how long it would take, and what could go wrong, before you commit to anything.
If you want the whole replacement planned and costed first, our consultancy can do that, and if the new system has yet to be written, see bespoke software.