employees even begin using it.
Aeterna cleans, maps, validates and tests the relevant legacy data so the new system does not inherit preventable errors from the old one.
THE SITUATION
A company has selected a new ERP or CRM.
The software may already be configured, the implementation partner may be preparing the import and the go-live date may already be scheduled.
However, the information that must enter the new system is still distributed across:
- Legacy software
- Spreadsheets
- Departmental databases
- Accounting exports
- Customer and supplier lists
- Product catalogues
- Shared folders
- Manually maintained records
The data was created for different systems, teams and business needs.
Fields use different names, formats and definitions. Some records are incomplete, duplicated, outdated or no longer relevant.
The new system is ready.
The existing data is not.
WHY IT BECOMES A PROBLEM
A migration does not automatically correct the information being transferred.
When inconsistent records are imported without sufficient preparation, the new system can inherit:
- Duplicate customers and suppliers
- Missing mandatory fields
- Invalid identifiers
- Incorrect product relationships
- Conflicting account ownership
- Outdated contact information
- Inconsistent categories and statuses
- Records that cannot be matched
- Historical information that should have remained archived
These problems can cause rejected imports, repeated manual corrections, unreliable reporting and delays before go-live.
Even when the import technically succeeds, the business may later discover that totals do not reconcile, customer histories are incomplete or employees cannot trust the information inside the new system..
A SUCCESSFUL IMPORT DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN A SUCCESSFUL MIGRATION.
WHAT A BETTER PROCESS LOOKS LIKE
The business decides which information must enter the new system, which records should remain archived and which definitions must be confirmed.
Aeterna then prepares the relevant data for the structure and requirements of the destination system.
Records that can be corrected safely follow approved rules.
Ambiguous information remains visible for review instead of being changed automatically.
Before go-live, representative imports and reconciliation checks are used to verify that the prepared information is complete, traceable and usable.
THE NEW SYSTEM SHOULD NOT INHERIT THE OLD SYSTEM’S CONFUSION.
COMMON COMPLICATIONS
DUPLICATE RECORDS
The same customer, supplier or product appears several times with slightly different names, addresses or identifiers.
MISSING REQUIRED INFORMATION
The destination system requires fields that were never collected consistently.
CONFLICTING DEFINITIONS
Sales, finance and operations use different meanings for customer status, product category, account ownership or order stage.
INCOMPATIBLE FORMATS
Dates, currencies, tax identifiers, country codes and reference numbers do not follow the destination requirements.
BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
Transactions, products, variants or customer histories cannot be connected because their identifiers do not match.
UNNECESSARY LEGACY DATA
Old or inactive information is migrated simply because it exists, making the new system harder to use from the beginning.
UNCLEAR BUSINESS OWNERSHIP
The technical team can identify an inconsistency, but only the business can decide which value or definition should prevail.
WHAT AETERNA FIXES
Aeterna works between the company, its existing data and the implementation partner.
Depending on the agreed scope, Aeterna can:
- Clean and standardize customer, supplier, product or operational records
- Identify and consolidate approved duplicates
- Correct preventable structural inconsistencies
- Map source fields and values to the destination system
- Separate migration data from information that should remain archived
- Validate required identifiers and mandatory fields
- Reconnect records whose relationships can be confirmed
- Prepare controlled import-ready files
- Support representative trial imports
- Correct and retest rejected records
- Reconcile record counts, totals and important relationships
- Keep unresolved business decisions visible for approval
The objective is not to deliver a report explaining that the data is inconsistent.
The objective is to leave the company and its implementation partner with cleaner, mapped and tested information that can be used in the migration.
EXPECTED WORKING RESULT
Depending on the scope, the company receives migration data that is:
- Cleaner and more consistent
- Mapped to the destination structure
- Separated from unnecessary historical information
- Checked for required fields and identifiers
- Tested through representative imports
- Reconciled against approved source information
- Accompanied by visible unresolved exceptions
The migration is not treated as complete merely because a file has been imported.
The information must also be usable and sufficiently reliable for employees to work with it.
OPERATIONAL VALUE
FEWER SURPRISES BEFORE GO-LIVE
Data problems become visible while they can still be investigated and corrected.
FEWER MANUAL CORRECTIONS
Approved cleaning and mapping reduce repetitive adjustments during import.
MORE RELIABLE INFORMATION
The destination system begins with cleaner records and stronger relationships.
CLEARER BUSINESS DECISIONS
Ambiguous definitions and conflicting records reach the people responsible for resolving them.
BETTER COORDINATION WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER
The technical provider receives structured information and visible exceptions instead of unprepared legacy exports.
A STRONGER START FOR THE NEW SYSTEM
Employees are more likely to trust and use a system when the information inside it is understandable and usable.
WHAT THE BUSINESS RECEIVES
Depending on the agreed engagement:
- Cleaned and standardized records
- Approved field and value mappings
- Import-ready datasets
- Separated archive and migration records
- Visible unresolved exceptions
- Results from representative trial imports
- Corrected rejected records
- Reconciliation results
- Essential instructions for maintaining future data quality
Documentation is limited to what is necessary to execute, validate and maintain the migration result.
SCOPE BOUNDARIES
Aeterna prepares and tests the operational data involved in the migration.
The company remains responsible for confirming:
- Business definitions
- Record-retention decisions
- Ambiguous customer or supplier matches
- Accounting and financial classifications
- Commercial ownership rules
- Exceptions that require business judgment
The ERP or CRM implementation partner remains responsible for platform-specific configuration, deployment and technical requirements outside the agreed scope.
Aeterna does not claim expertise across every module of every ERP platform.
Critical changes are performed only with appropriate backups, access and validation procedures.
RELATED SERVICE
DATA QUALITY & MIGRATION
A hands-on engagement for cleaning, mapping, validating and testing legacy information before it enters a new ERP, CRM, webshop or business platform.
Suitable for:
- ERP or CRM replacements
- Business Central, Odoo or similar implementations
- CRM consolidation
- Webshop and product-data migrations
- Company mergers
- System consolidation
- Legacy-system retirement
- Major data imports
