2009-10-31 - Data migration team demonstrates high level of concentration and diligence to get data “squeaky clean”
New Berlin, Wisconsin, November 1, 2009 . . . When the public address system inside the ABB New Berlin Campus asked all SAP users to log off the SAP system shared with Finland (FISAP), it got very quiet throughout the building. The last sales order entered in FISAP was by Kathy Holms in Customer Service, 10 minutes and four seconds – at 3:49 PM CDT – ahead of the blackout, and it was for a Low Voltage drive.
Cutover – Loading Data for USSAP System & Use
The schedule for data extraction from the legacy system went into immediate implementation, with the team in Cleveland loading the data for validation and testing – then sending it to New Berlin for testing. Issues identified by the team in Wisconsin were sent back to the team in Ohio, with business leads working with the core team to correct them. With fixes made, the data was re-sent to New Berlin and re-tested; this process went on nearly round the clock from Thursday through Sunday.
“OsA business leads and team members from across the drives and motors businesses dug in hard, and worked with enormous concentration,” noted Mats Sjoberg, director or IS, Automation Products division, North America. “It makes an enormous difference downstream to scrub and get this data as ‘squeaky clean’ as possible now,” he said – because it minimizes problems, and the need to fix fallout downstream, when we bring this new business system up on line.”
15 People; One Hour!
Kelly Kling, business lead for data migration, cited the teamwork that mobilized “within five minutes” to enter, manually, changes to 700 lines of transactional data on commissions. “It was a crossroads decision – to take 1.5 hours and create a program that we could not be 100% sure of, or enter the information manually, with a very high level of cross-checking,” she said. Fifteen people stepped up and completed the load within an hour. “That is exceptional teamwork, and builds a lot of confidence, as we get ready to bring USSAP into service on Monday morning, November 2,” she noted.
Final Checks of Data; Go-Live!
Saturday and Sunday, team members double checked data and transactions, to ensure the “Go-Live” can be as bump-less as possible. “This preparation is as thorough as we’ve been able to conduct in the host of Go-Lives across NAM businesses,” Sjoberg said. “It also is the last Go-Live this year – and everyone is committed to it going well; all the skills and know-how of team members are being fully deployed.”
Photos inside full story at right . . .