Is Your Legacy Data Holding You Back?

There was a time when data migration was viewed as a back-office task, an IT obligation done quietly in the shadow of bigger business initiatives. That time has passed. Today, data migration is often the proving ground for whether your enterprise is serious about scale, resilience, and operational clarity.

Data Migration as Your Key Business Strategy

Sen would know. He recently led the data architecture for a $500 million ERP overhaul at PHINIA’s UK Aftermarket unit, collapsing a 16-month SAP migration timeline into eight months.

His blueprint consolidated tens of thousands of order lines and customer records while harmonising supply chain rules across global divisions. “The goal wasn’t just to move data,” he says. “It was to make it interoperable and scalable.”

That focus on interoperability has marked Sen’s approach throughout his career. While leading SAP enhancement programs at Toyota Material Handling North America (TMHNA), Sen executed a phased migration that delivered both strategic revenue impact and deep operational efficiencies.

In one phase, he architected a Core Remanufacturing process in SAP that helped unlock a $3 million pipeline in parts revenue, while in another, he integrated Kardex Vertical Lift Modules with warehouse systems to reduce lead time by 20% and increase storage capacity by 25%. “Good architecture should enable automation, not create more steps,” he says.

Why Your Legacy Migrations Keep Failing

Most failures don’t start with your tech stack. They start with your assumptions. Your data teams often underestimate how many of your systems are built around informal rules, undocumented logic, or ad hoc integrations. And because your business processes evolve over years, not sprints, your data ends up entangled with operational habits no one remembers building.

That ambiguity creates migration risk in your organisation. At PHINIA, Sen and his team addressed it head-on, building a custom validation framework to test every data rule before cutover. It wasn’t just QA. It was part of the strategy that kept the defect rate low and helped retire nearly $300,000 in legacy licensing costs post-launch.

His method, centred on aggressive stakeholder alignment and DevOps-enabled testing cycles, highlights a larger shift: your migration is no longer the tail-end of transformation. It's your inflexion point.

Security and Scale: Your Overlooked Risks

Security gaps don’t always show up in your audits. They often emerge when your legacy data is ported into new systems without rethinking access controls or visibility layers. Sen, who also serves as a Globee Cybersecurity Awards judge, sees this frequently.

“Migrations are a chance to fix structural problems in how your data is governed,” he says. “But too often, companies carry over permissions from the old world into the new one, same risk, just a shinier interface.”

He’s an advocate for embedding role-based access and encryption validation directly into your migration workflows. In the PHINIA project, this reduced IT operations costs by over 30%, while accelerating month-end closing processes from 14 days to under three.

His work at TMHNA reflected similar principles, designing automated intercompany sales flows across subsidiaries that reduced manual input to nearly zero, and implementing robust tracking through Dealer Portal enhancements that improved Core return visibility in real time.

Why Your Methodology Matters More Than Your Toolset

Sen’s architectural approach blends waterfall discipline in your planning phase with agile flexibility in your testing and cutover. His team used mock data migrations to define load patterns and exception handling well before go-live.

He also built in lessons from his academic work. In his scholarly paper titled “The Intersection of TMS and Client Applications: Enhancing Infrastructure and Processes in Marketing Supply Chains”, Sen explored how tighter integration between Warehouse Management Systems and client-facing applications can improve not just data flow, but business agility.

The research emphasised that architecture decisions made at your infrastructure layer ripple across every function.

At TMHNA, he applied these same principles. By automating weight-based carrier selection and warehouse grouping logic, he enabled the logistics team to improve pick-pack productivity by 50%, going from 8 to 12 large orders per shift, without adding headcount.

“Architecture isn’t just diagrams,” Sen says. “It’s how your floor staff feels when the process works.”

Building for What Comes Next in Your Organisation

Successful migrations are no longer measured by clean cutovers alone. They’re judged by whether your business can build on top of them faster, safer, and with less friction.

“Your migration is only a success if the next project gets easier,” Sen says. “If every new region, every new integration, every new model fits without rewiring your foundation, then you’ve built it right.”

The lesson? Your data migration is no longer supported work. It’s an infrastructure strategy in disguise. And those who architect it well aren’t just delivering projects. They’re rewriting the rules for how your business moves.

Your Practical Guide to Successful Data Migration

As you approach your next data migration project, remember that success depends on treating it as a strategic business initiative rather than a technical task. Your migration will reveal organisational gaps, process inefficiencies, and data quality issues that have been accumulating for years.

Rather than seeing these as obstacles, view them as opportunities to build a stronger operational foundation.

Start by mapping not just your data, but the business rules and processes that depend on it. Engage stakeholders from across your organisation early and often; their insights will help you understand the context behind seemingly obscure data fields and business rules.

Implement rigorous testing protocols that validate both data accuracy and business logic before cutover.

Remember that security shouldn't be an afterthought. Use your migration as an opportunity to implement modern access controls and data governance practices that will serve your organisation long after the migration is complete. Build processes that are repeatable and scalable, so future integrations and expansions become progressively easier.

Ultimately, your goal shouldn't just be moving data from point A to point B. It should be creating a data foundation that enables faster decision-making, reduces operational friction, and positions your organisation for whatever comes next.

When approached strategically, data migration becomes less about technical execution and more about building competitive advantage through better data architecture.

The most successful migrations are those that leave your organisation not just with new systems, but with new capabilities, the ability to move faster, make better decisions, and adapt more quickly to changing business conditions. That's the real measure of migration success in today's business environment.

Thank you for reading

DataMigration.AI & Team