Scenario: preparing manufacturer ERP data before migration
Quick answer
Scenario: preparing manufacturer ERP data before migration helps UK SMEs understand what Digital Adaption does, where it fits, and how the process works from first conversation to practical data management, migration, automation or reporting work.
This anonymised scenario is typical of an SME manufacturer preparing to move from a legacy ERP or finance system into a newer platform. The project is not blocked by software selection. It is blocked by years of product, supplier, stock and finance data that has grown around workarounds.
The company has product codes with inconsistent units of measure, supplier records with old payment terms, inactive items still used in reports, spreadsheet-based stock adjustments and finance dimensions that do not match the new reporting model. If those issues are discovered during cutover testing, the project loses time and trust.
Likely risks
- Duplicate products and inconsistent units of measure.
- Supplier records with old payment terms or missing tax details.
- Stock categories that do not match reporting needs.
- Manual spreadsheet adjustments at month-end.
- Open transactions that cannot be reconciled after load.
Commercial impact
Bad manufacturing data can delay go-live, damage purchasing, weaken stock reporting, create finance reconciliation problems and force users back into spreadsheets. The business ends up paying for a new ERP while still operating around the old data problems.
Practical response
The first step is a source inventory across ERP, finance, stock records, supplier files, spreadsheets and reporting extracts. The next step is a data-quality review focused on the records most likely to break migration: product master, supplier master, stock categories, finance codes, open orders and balances.
From there, the business needs source-to-target mapping, owner decisions, cleansing priorities and reconciliation checks before test loads begin. Not every defect needs to be fixed before go-live. The important point is knowing which defects matter, who owns them and how they will be validated.
Useful deliverables
- Source inventory for ERP, finance, stock, supplier and reporting data.
- Product and supplier data-quality report.
- Source-to-target mapping outline for critical fields.
- Cleansing backlog ranked by cutover risk.
- Reconciliation checklist for balances, orders, stock and reports.