TL;DR

ERP projects don’t collapse because of the software — they collapse when messy, inconsistent, or incomplete data is pushed into the new system. Bad data leads to broken processes, frustrated users, unreliable reports, and compliance risks. The only way to avoid this is to treat data quality as a business priority, not an IT afterthought. That means profiling and cleansing records early, aligning them to Dynamics 365’s logic instead of legacy quirks, validating and reconciling every migration cycle, and involving business owners throughout. Clean data isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the foundation of a successful ERP rollout.

Your ERP is only as good as your data

You can have the best ERP system in the world. But if your data is incomplete, inconsistent, or poorly structured, the result is always the same: broken processes, frustrated users, and decisions based on guesswork.

We’ve seen Dynamics 365 projects delayed or derailed not because of the software — but because teams underestimated how messy their data really was.

So let’s talk about what happens when you migrate bad data, and what you should do instead.

This is the third part of our series on ERP data migration. In our previous posts, we covered:

• Our step-by-step playbook for successful ERP migration

• Why your ERP migration is delayed and how to speed it up without sacrificing quality

What bad data looks like in an ERP system

A new ERP system is supposed to streamline your operations, not create more chaos. But if your master data isn’t accurate, it starts causing problems right away.

Broken workflows

• Sales orders that fail because customer IDs don’t match  

• Invoices that bounce because VAT settings are missing  

• Stock that disappears because unit of measure conversions weren’t mapped

User frustration

• Employees waste hours trying to fix errors manually  

• They lose confidence in the system

• Adoption suffers. Shadow systems start creeping in

Poor reporting

• Your shiny new dashboards don’t reflect reality.  

• Finance teams can’t close the books.  

• Operations can’t trust inventory figures.  

• Leadership can’t make informed decisions.

Compliance risks

• Missing fields

• Outdated codes  

• Unauthorised access to sensitive records  

• Inconsistent naming conventions that make data hard to track  

All of these can lead to audit issues or worse.

And yet, despite the stakes, data quality is often treated as a “technical detail” — something IT will sort out later. That’s exactly how costly mistakes happen.

Why data quality needs to be a business priority — not an IT afterthought

Data quality isn’t just about spreadsheets. It’s about trust, efficiency, and the ability to run your business.

Good ERP data supports business processes. It aligns with how teams actually work. And it evolves with your organisation — if you put the right structures in place.

Too many ERP projects approach migration as a technical handover: extract, transform, load. But that mindset ignores a crucial reality — only business users know what the data should say.

That’s why successful migrations start with cross-functional ownership, not just technical execution.

What good data management looks like before ERP migration

Identify and fix bad data early

Run profiling tools or even basic Excel checks to spot issues:  

• duplicates,  

• incomplete fields,  

• outdated reference codes.  

Don’t wait for them to break test environments.

Fit your data to the new system — not the old one

Legacy ERPs allowed all sorts of workarounds. Dynamics 365 has stricter logic.  

You’ll need to normalise values, align with global address book structures, and reformat transactional data to fit new entities.

Validate everything

Don’t assume data has moved just because the ETL pipeline ran.  

Build checks into each stage:  

• record counts

• value audits  

• referential integrity checks.  

Set up test environments that reflect real-world usage.

Involve business users early

IT can move data. But only process owners know if it's right.  

Loop in finance, sales, procurement, inventory — whoever owns the source and target data. Get their input before migration begins.

Plan for reconciliation 

Post-load, run audits to confirm data landed correctly. Compare source and target figures.  

Validate key reports. Fix gaps before go-live, not after.

Data quality isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a critical success factor

ERP migration is the perfect time to raise the bar. But to do that, you have to treat data quality as a core deliverable — not a side task.

That means budgeting time and effort for:

• Cleansing legacy records

• Enriching and standardising key fields

• Testing and validating multiple migration cycles

• Assigning ownership to named individuals

• Reviewing outcomes collaboratively with business teams

When done right, good data management saves time, cost, and credibility — not just during the migration, but long after go-live.

Clean data makes or breaks your ERP project

If you migrate messy, unvalidated data into Dynamics 365, the problems don’t go away — they multiply. This looks like:

• Broken processes

• Unhappy users

• Useless reports

• Extra costs

• Compliance headaches

But with the right approach, data becomes a strength — not a liability.

• Profile and clean your data early

• Fit it to Dynamics 365, not legacy quirks

• Validate, reconcile, and document

• Involve business users throughout

• Treat data quality as a strategic priority

A clean start in Dynamics 365 begins with clean data. And that’s something worth investing in.

The good news is that these potential mistakes can be avoided early on with a detailed migration plan. Consult with our experts to create one for your team.
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Up next in our series on ERP migration:

How to migrate ERP data from legacy tools to D365

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