ERP migrations have a reputation for being expensive, exhausting, and unpredictable. And it’s not just the big, global rollouts. Even small, focused projects can spiral.

A six-month timeline turns into sixteen.
Your customisations don’t fit cleanly.
Your “clean” data turns out to be anything but.

Sounds familiar?

That’s exactly why we’ve spent the past year refining a data migration playbook that works — especially for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. It’s not flashy, but it’s structured, scalable, and realistic.

Let’s walk through what that actually means.

What does a “good” D365 F&O migration look like?

A solid migration process doesn’t just move data. It creates alignment between business needs, legacy structures, and the new system’s logic — and it makes that alignment visible to everyone involved.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Shared understanding from the start

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Kick off with collaborative scoping workshops. These sessions help define the core data entities, the essential fields, and the real business requirements behind each dataset. By the end, you’ve got a prioritised list of master, transactional, and configuration data — and a clear agreement on what matters at go-live.

Data quality as a first-class citizen

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Next, analyse source data for inconsistencies, duplicates, missing values, and odd formatting. This isn’t just about cleaning up typos — we’re talking about reconciling structure, aligning reference values, and spotting critical gaps before they break downstream processes.

Clear mapping, not just assumptions

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Every entity, every field, every transformation should be documented. Use an Excel-based mapping and metadata tracker that defines exactly how data flows from your old system into D365, including rules for enrichment, defaulting, and lookups. The goal is traceability and clarity, not guesswork.

A real ETL backbone

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The process is supported by a proper technical foundation. We use Azure Data Factory to orchestrate data movement, and Azure SQL as a staging layer with bronze, silver, and gold schema structures. These layers help us filter, transform, and validate data in stages, ensuring accuracy and referential integrity before anything lands in production.

Repeatable, testable load cycles

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Instead of a one-shot migration, use a gradual approach with weekly sprints to load data into test environments. Validate each cycle with smoke tests, basic process flows, and regression checks. This gives stakeholders the confidence that, come go-live, the data will actually support the processes it’s meant to.

But what about the dreaded stuff?

If you’ve browsed forums about ERP migration, you’ve seen it all:

“We thought it’d take 6 months. It took 16.”
“Our partner didn’t know how to handle our workflows.”
“The data blew up in size, and we got hit with surprise storage costs.”

These stories are real — and usually, the problem isn’t just the software. It’s the process. Most migration issues come down to underestimating three things:

• The complexity of legacy data

• The effort required to map custom logic

• The importance of incremental testing and validation

You can address these issues by making every step visible, documented, and testable.  

How we approach the D365 migration process

Here’s what our migration plan includes for customers switching to D365:

• A scoped, categorised list of entities, reviewed with business stakeholders

• A detailed mapping document with transformation logic, dependencies, and field-level rules

• A repeatable ETL framework using Azure Data Factory and SQL, with bronze–silver–gold architecture

• Weekly test loads with functional smoke tests and UAT-ready validation

• Structured cutover plans, including manual tasks, such as posting journals or setting up number sequences post-migration

• Azure DevOps for tracking tasks, bugs and decisions.

And once you’re live, we don’t disappear — we provide post-go-live support with daily check-ins, KPI monitoring, and issue triaging via DevOps.

Why optimising your ERP data migration matters now

Whether you're moving from a homegrown system, migrating on-prem, or finally replacing your 1980s-era ERP, the success of your Dynamics 365 rollout depends on how well you plan and document things. Good tooling helps — but good methodology makes the difference.

If you’re planning a migration (or in the middle of one and feeling stuck), let’s talk. Our process isn’t just about moving data — it’s about giving your business a clean, functional start in Dynamics 365.

Because no one wants to be the person saying “we thought it’d take six months…”

Need an experienced partner to overlook your ERP migration? Contact us for a free audit.

This is the first part of our series on ERP data migration. In the coming weeks, we will explore:  

• Reasons why your ERP migration is taking longer than expected,

• The importance of high-quality data management,

• Migrating ERP from legacy tech to D365, and

• The best practices for a successful ERP migration

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