01 Start with a readiness audit
The readiness audit is a standalone engagement, sold separately. Its purpose is to establish the state of the source data and define a credible scope for the migration.
First step: a scoping call. Describe your source and target systems, data families, estimated volumes and planned cutover. We agree which sources and objects the audit will cover, how access will work and who will contribute before issuing the audit proposal.
- Inputs: read access or extracts covering the agreed scope, the available target model, and existing mapping or quality rules. Full-volume profiling establishes volumes and anomaly counts; any access limitations are recorded;
- Your contribution: a technical contact for access and extraction, your integrator for the target model, and business owners to explain exceptions and validate priorities;
- Deliverables: a report of volumes, dependencies and anomalies; a prioritised risk map; an initial source-to-target matrix; a migration and reconciliation strategy; and a representative pilot plan;
- Proposal: scope, deliverables, client contribution, schedule and price are agreed based on the number of sources, data families, access conditions and analysis required. No commitment to the subsequent migration is required.
Scope your audit→
02 What the engagement covers
One scope, five phases, delivered in order. They match our methodology exactly, because the commercial engagement and the execution are the same thing described twice.
- 01 · Audit: full extraction and profiling of the source data. Volumes, duplicates, orphaned objects, diverging reference data, accumulated exceptions. Deliverable: a quantified risk map, and an estimate that finally rests on measurement instead of assumption;
- 02 · Build: a configurable, traceable, repeatable migration chain. Every record carries its own status and its own error. Not a set of scripts written for the big day;
- 03 · Run / Fix: execute on real scopes, investigate discrepancies, apply agreed corrections and repeat until acceptance criteria are met.
- 04 · Dry run: the dress rehearsal at real volume, across the complete chain, with the cutover clock running;
- 05 · Go-live: cutover after acceptance criteria, outstanding issues and rollback arrangements have been reviewed.
03 Systems we migrate
We work on industrial ERP and PLM estates. The target system matters far less than the state of the sources, but the target model has to be known in detail to shape data for it.
Source and target coverage | Domain | Systems | Typical move |
|---|
| ERP | SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, IFS, homegrown legacy systems | ECC to S/4HANA, homegrown to packaged ERP, multi-instance consolidation |
| PLM | PTC Windchill, Dassault 3DEXPERIENCE, Siemens Teamcenter, PDM and file shares | Windchill to 3DEXPERIENCE, PDM to PLM, on-premise to cloud tenant |
| Data families | Master data, bills of materials, CAD and documents, lifecycles, open transactions | Qualification, deduplication, restructuring to the target model |
04 What we do not do
A service page that only lists strengths is not informative. Here is where we are the wrong call:
- We do not implement the ERP or the PLM. Configuration, functional design and training belong to your integrator. We take the data workstream, and we work alongside them;
- We do not do fast or simplified migrations. If the plan is to load a clean extract into a new tenant over one weekend, the methodology is oversized and you will pay for rigour you do not need;
- We do not sell a migration product. There is no licence at the end of the engagement. The chain we build is yours, and it stays readable by your teams;
- We do not validate on samples. If the programme cannot give access to the real data at real volume, we cannot commit to an outcome, and we will say so before signing rather than after.
05 Engagement model and budget
The audit is sold separately. Its scope, deliverables, access requirements and client contribution are agreed before the proposal is issued. Its findings support the estimate for the subsequent migration.
Beyond the audit, engagement is time and materials against a phased plan, with scope reviewed at each phase gate. The estimate accounts for sources, volumes, business decisions, interfaces and rehearsals.
The public reports discussed in our cost article distinguish lower sales, extra charges and programme expenditure. They provide context for the risk discussion, not a price or predicted loss for your project.
06 A dedicated data owner alongside your integrator
The integrator configures and deploys the target system. MigQuest brings dedicated capacity to qualify the sources, define transformations, resolve discrepancies and reconcile the results. These responsibilities complement each other and share the same acceptance criteria.
Together with your business owners, we agree the dependencies between functional design, data decisions and cutover. The ERP guide and PLM guide describe the specific work involved.