Lumary AH - This article answers frequently asked questions about migrating data into Lumary AH.
Click on the text links to find answers to the following commonly asked data migration questions:
- What is data migration?
- Who needs to be involved?
- How do I get my data into the system?
- How 'clean' does my data need to be?
- Does my data file need to be in a specific format?
- Can I import my files and attachments for my client records?
- Can I limit what I migrate?
- Can I bring in data from multiple systems?
- Do you have migration templates available?
- What about notes, attachments, emails, tasks, etc?
- How long will the migration take?
What is data migration?
Data migration is the process of moving data from one location to another, one format to another, or one application to another. Generally, it is a required component when introducing a new system or location for your data.
For Lumary clients, this typically includes:
- paper files
- spreadsheets, for example, Excel or Google Sheets
- CRM software, for example, Cliniko, Echidna or Zoho
- accounting software, for example, Xero or MYOB, and/or
- bespoke software systems.
Who needs to be involved?
To ensure a smooth and efficient process, it's crucial to identify the people involved in the data migration process early and to verify that they understand their responsibilities. Data migration needs to be time-boxed (constrained to a fixed period of time) within the project, as there needs to be a point at which data stops being entered into the legacy system prior to the go-live date.
A member of Lumary's AH team will play a lead role in your data migration. This person will be your key point of contact for all things data migration during the implementation process.
Your business will need to nominate a data ambassador or data owner. This is probably you, if you're reading this document. We highly recommend for this person to be exclusively in charge of data migration and that they have no other responsibilities relating to the project. This allows for maximum focus by reducing context switching.
How do I get my data into the system?
Your Lumary AH implementation will use two methods to get your data into the system:
Data import
We'll load your data into Lumary AH by uploading your completed data migration templates.
This process starts by you getting the data out of your current (legacy) system. You should be able to find support articles for your relevant platform online, or in our Help Centre if its one of our frequently migrated platforms. Once you’ve got your data exports, we'll help you populate our data migration templates. These templates are simple spreadsheets that have been formatted for quick and efficient upload.
Manual migration
Lumary AH is designed according to database architecture best practices.
Unfortunately, this means that if you're using a legacy system that does not support full exports or doesn't have a sufficient quality data model, it may not be possible to translate your data into our data migration templates.
Where this is the case, we'll help you to manually input your data into Lumary AH.
How 'clean' does my data need to be?
Data migration is the perfect opportunity to clean up your data. Not only will having clean data make the entire process faster and more efficient, it'll improve the quality of your reporting, internal system adoption and overall business performance.
For data migration to be successful, we require a certain standard of data hygiene. The table below shows some of the data cleanliness requirements, as well as some optional hygiene activities you may wish to tackle.
| Required | Optional but highly recommended |
| Correct the formatting of data. For example, make sure that there only numbers in fields such as phone numbers. | Remove duplicates of records. For example, remove multiple records of the same contact. |
| Standardise picklist values. For example, make sure that spelling and grammar is consistent. | Remove bad data or old data that no longer needs to be kept for compliance reasons. |
| Correct the grammar and spelling in your case notes or other general text fields. |
Does my data file need to be in a specific format?
Your Lumary AH implementation team only work with CSV formats, and we only load data into the system using our data migration templates. We'll teach you how to work with these and provide all the support and guidance you need to complete them.
Can I import my files and attachments for my client records?
Files and attachments are not part of the standard Lumary AH implementation. If this is something you'd like or require, you'll need to raise it as a discussion point prior to your implementation commencing.
Can I limit what I migrate?
Your data migration depends on what you can extract from your legacy system(s) and what you input into our data migration templates. You may want to restrict the data you’re moving, for example, only bringing in workers and clients but not suppliers. To do that, you’ll need to be able to pull the data out of your legacy system and then only input the relevant information into our templates.
However, we generally recommend bringing in all of your data.
Can I bring in data from multiple systems?
Yes, we can upload data from multiple systems. It'll complicate the data migration process and require the implementation team and your project team to allocate a greater focus and amount of effort, but it's absolutely possible and we have experience in this area. There may or may not be an additional cost, depending on what is required.
Do you have migration templates available?
Yes! We have data migration templates and we'll run workshops as part of data migration to help you work with these templates. You'll be responsible for filling out the templates, and we'll handle the uploading.
What about notes, attachments, emails, tasks, etc?
This will depend on the system that you're migrating from. Generally, if you're able to get your data out of your legacy system and into our data migration templates, it's possible to migrate.
How long will the migration take?
The length of time depends on several variables, such as the:
- system you're coming from
- amount of data you have
- state of your data, and
- availability of support staff.
But most of all, it depends on you. Factoring in how you prepare your data and how responsive you are can help considerably cut down the amount of time required.