Adapting to the needs of members, keeping running costs low and holding data securely are some of the main factors that drove digital transformation in the membership sector.
Based on our experience, membership bodies are finding their current CRM systems and Membership Management systems are too outdated to meet their growing business requirements.
The MemberWise Digital Excellence 2022 Report found these were 6 of the top 10 things holding back organisations:
- Inability to measure member engagement
- Inadequate website and membership management integration
- Lack of data or inadequate data management
- Multiple databases and silos of information
- Inadequate reporting tools
- Silo working
Although it may not be the root cause in all of these individual cases, outdated technology (particularly legacy systems) has proved to be a major contributing factor in these cases in the past.
The good news is you don’t have to become a victim to outdated technology.
I have spoken previously about modernising and improving legacy systems for membership bodies in particular. However, you might feel your organisation is in a position to scrap your legacy system and migrate your data to a newer system.
For those that do, here are six key steps to follow to prepare for a seamless migration and ensure you are well-equipped to digitally transform – and grow – your organisation.
1. Understand the goal of the migration
Why are you doing this migration?
Is the purpose to reduce operational costs? Do you want to streamline some of the processes within your department? You may even be looking to centralise communications across the organisation or simply provide a better overall customer experience.
While these may all be benefits of replacing or updating your system, the primary reason will help dictate which system you choose and the KPI metrics you’ll set to measure the success of the project.
Like with any project, understanding the end goal makes it easier to stay on track and makes sure all your objectives are met.
2. Define Migration Plan
Once you’re agreed on the reasons for the migration, a comprehensive plan can be defined.
Migrating legacy systems to the cloud gives you unique capabilities, enhanced functionalities and more productivity. Therefore, you should outline how the benefits will meet your goals and map out how you will measure these.
During the migration of legacy systems to cloud, the migration project should have clear objectives, motivation, scope and limitations.
3. Consider Costs and ROI
Having a strong plan in place (and a clear understanding of your goals) will help you identify the costs of the project.
Cost is sometimes one of the biggest issues to overcome when justifying a major IT transformation project. If you don’t have a full view of the current model, plus the benefits and ROI, it can be hard to put the migration project to key stakeholders.
If you’re using a third-party vendor to carry out the project, it’s important to work closely at all stages: particularly the development stage. This will give you a clear picture of your costs and will help you establish a solid ROI.
This reason – plus many others – is an example of why you should choose a vendor who works closely with you throughout the entire stage of the journey. Understanding your current set up, your goals and your organisation is a vital part of the project, and you should always work with a supplier who takes a thorough approach at this stage.
4. Understand the Legacy System
This part of the planning stage outlines all aspects of the current system (in this case, the legacy system). This includes compiling all the documentation and information of the system and analysing all its various components.
The analysis of the legacy system will help recognise the types of functions used by the system. This means that they can be aligned with your organisation’s goals and strategies; resulting in a system that is built specifically for your needs.
What we’re doing at this stage is ensuring that your system is doing everything your organisation needs to meet its goals and objectives.
5. Choosing the Right Migration and Strategy
There are several approaches, choosing the right one for your organisation depends entirely on all the factors set out in the steps above. One way is to “lift and shift” your application straight to the cloud as it is. An alternative is to migrate your application in chunks; leaving behind the pieces you no longer need.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are ways you patch up any parts of the code that are undated or unagile, or even break down and re-build the application.
Reminder: If any (or all) of this sounds like a foreign language to you, don’t worry. You’ll be advised each step of the way of the most effective approach by your supplier.
6. Run a pilot migration
A pilot (or test) migration is one of the most important parts of the project. Again, make sure you choose a vendor who invests a lot of time on the test phases before go-live.
A pilot migration allows you to test the application and see how users interact with the new system. It’s an opportunity to identify any snags or amendments that are needed to improve the intuitiveness of the system. Yes, they may be time-consuming, however it’s a low-risk way to find any potential pitfalls before you have even started the migration.
Migrate Your Legacy Application
You’ve planned prepared and tested your migration, so you should be ready to make that final step and start migrating.
If all that wasn’t enough, here’s two more things to remember: back up your data and remember to carry our post-migration testing to ensure the migration was a success.
PSP IT Design and Development has worked with membership bodies for more than 13 years. We have experience developing intuitive membership management systems that improve efficiency and boost member engagement.
[email protected] 01775 5722377
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