Working with Slow Providers

Working with Slow Providers

Universal Migrator's best practices are generally optimized around doing migrations as quickly as possible.  This is the ideal scenario, however, sometimes providers implement restrictions that force data to move much slower than technically possible.

The following guidelines should be used when transferring data from a slow provider.

Process

1.  Freeze Contacts and Matters from the Legacy System
You should inform the client that, effective immediately, they may not add or edit any contacts or matters in the legacy system.  They may still create and edit documents, time, expenses, etc. for existing contacts and matters in the legacy system, however, no new contacts and matters should be created in it.

At this point, the client should be "live" in the new system; all new contacts and matters should be created in the new system and all work related to these new contacts and matters should be performed in the new system.

2.  Transfer Contacts and Matters from the Legacy System.
You should then create a backup of all contacts and matters from the legacy system and restore them into the new system.  This backup should only contain the minimal information related to the contacts and matters.

3.  Freeze All Data in the Legacy System
Once the restore is complete, effective immediately, the client should not create or edit any records at all in the legacy system.  The client may still view data from the legacy system, but they should not add or edit any data in it whatsoever.  At this point, the client should be fully "live" in the new system for all data.  If a client needs to edit a document, they may open it from the legacy system, make any changes, and then simply ensure they save it to the new system and not the old.

4.  Transfer all Outstanding Records
You should then take a final backup of the legacy system and transfer all remaining records to the new application.

Additional Information

The above information is the best practice for migrations from slow providers.  Some firms may find this inconvenient and request an alternate process, however, you should inform them that, because they are leaving a provider who intentionally makes migrations slow, this is the only process that reliably works.

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