Are you ready to move your data?

1. 01 Do you know how many years of history you need to carry across?

   Tax, employment and company records in New Zealand have different retention periods.

   Yes — we know the exact requirement Roughly, but it has never been written down No — we assumed it all comes across
2. 02 Can you list every system that holds customer or financial data?

   Including the spreadsheets, the shared drive and the database someone built in 2015.

   Yes — there is a current inventory The main ones, but there will be surprises No — that is part of the problem
3. 03 Do you know how clean the data is before it moves?

   Duplicates, dead records and blank required fields are what turn a two-week job into a two-month one.

   We have profiled it and know the issues We know there are problems, not the extent We have never looked
4. 04 Is there someone internally who can sign off that the data is correct?

   A migration needs a business owner, not just an IT contact.

   Yes — a named person with the authority Probably, but they are already flat out No — nobody owns it
5. 05 How much downtime can the business tolerate at cutover?

   The honest answer changes the whole approach.

   A planned weekend is fine A few hours at most None — we trade continuously
6. 06 If the migration went wrong, could you go back?

   A tested rollback is the difference between a bad weekend and a bad quarter.

   Yes — backups are tested, not just taken We have backups, never tested a restore Not confidently
7. 07 Do you know your obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 for this data?

   Moving personal information is a processing activity, and it has rules.

   Yes — and we can evidence compliance Broadly aware, nothing documented Not really
8. 08 Is there a fixed date driving this?

   Licence expiry, end of financial year, a sale or an audit.

   Yes — and it is more than 3 months away Yes — within the next 3 months No date, we are exploring

Please answer every question to see your result.