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An Entirely New Way of Converting Data

May 19, 2023

Data conversions are far too manual

Companies have moved their data from old to new since the first computer system was retired. Enterprise software has advanced a lot since then, but the process for converting data hasn’t. IT teams and consultants still rely on essential tools like spreadsheets, scripts, and SQL queries. These are labor-intensive and require high-level expertise, extending the timeline for onboarding new applications. This fragmented approach to data conversion is time-consuming and inefficient, resulting in too many projects delivered late and over budget.

Zengines has a better way of converting data with a platform that automates the entire process from end to end. With Zengines, data conversion efforts are faster and less labor-intensive resulting in reduced costs and risk.

AI-powered data conversion rapidly accelerates data analysis, mapping, and testing

Companies migrating to new systems often need more expertise in the new target system. In contrast, software vendors for the new system tend to shift the responsibility for data conversion onto the data owners. This creates a data conversion gap that is challenging to navigate. Questions that customers of new software often ask include:

·       How long will it take to convert the data?

·       Will there be a gap in the data compatibility and completeness between the two systems?

·       Is my source data sufficient to populate the target system

·       Will I be able to achieve the business goals we are seeking?

·       Do I need to enrich my data from other sources?

·       Can my target store all of my current data?

With Zengines, a data conversion project never starts from scratch. Our AI algorithms understand the requirements of the target system. They will automatically analyze the source system's table structures, relationships, and data to automate the data conversion process. The result is a tremendous head start with any data conversion projects and a better understanding of what is required to achieve your business objectives.

How Zengines uses artificial intelligence to accelerate data conversions

  1. Analyzer: Connect to 45 different databases or ingest multi-format data sets from CSV, Excel, XML, PDF, or APIs
  2. Analyzer: Classify tables and fields. Automatically build relationships based on primary-key/foreign-key relationships.
  3. Analyzer: Identify quality issues within source data.
  4. Mapper: Identify source-to-target field matching.
  5. Mapper: Detect and resolve data type differences.
  6. Mapper: Produce field-level logic where data needs to be transformed to meet the requirements of the new target system.
  7. Loader: Integrated Testing and Validation

Zengines ML models continually improve with each new conversion, offering better results with each data conversion project.

Automating the data conversion process with the Zengines platform

Zengines provides an end-to-end platform, digitizing and streamlining each step of the data conversion process. This integrated approach simplifies the user experience, with inputs and outputs for each step in the process, and they seamlessly flow from step to step until all data is converted. Four technologies underpin the flow of data throughout the process:

1.     Zengines Data CatalogTM System migration projects need up-to-date, accurate metadata to identify critical patterns between the source and target systems. Zengines’ intelligent data catalog is rapidly constructed from all source and target system schemas and metadata generated by Zengines Analyzer, providing the foundation for data conversion analysis.

2.     Zengines Knowledge GraphTM The Zengines Knowledge Graph is the repository for training our powerful data conversion models. Our patent-pending technology uniquely builds domain-specific models for each industry and commercial software platform we have worked with. Customers benefit from prior data conversion efforts, making the algorithms smarter over time.

3.     Data Conversion Pipeline – On the Zengines platform, data flows through an integrated process: ingestion à cleansing à transformation à post-processing à loading of data, à reconciliation. Our Data Conversion Pipeline controls the flow of this data as it is prepared for the target system and enables rapid iterative cycles through the pipeline to refine outputs continuously.

4.     Collaboration and Control – System migration efforts involve many teams, people, and environments, such as Development, Testing, User Acceptance Testing, and Production. Hundreds or even thousands of decisions need to be made and tracked during these projects. Zengines Collaboration and Control module ensures that project users and resources stay organized and can operate from a common source of truth.

Why we load data fast, early and often

Companies migrating to new systems often need more expertise in the target system, while vendors tend to shift the data conversion responsibility onto the data owners. This creates a data gap that is challenging to navigate. To address this issue, it's crucial to adopt a target system-focused approach, starting with the new system's requirements in mind.

Target and downstream system vendors, product owners, and users eagerly wait to see their data within the new system resulting in project delays and waste. Zengines believes in loading data quickly, even if it's not initially perfect, to allow for iterative improvements in data completeness and quality and to drive overall project efficiencies.

Conclusion

Zengines offers an entirely new way of converting data. With an emphasis on speed and repeatability, Zengines combines artificial intelligence and automation to transform manual and time-consuming data conversions into an efficient and predictable process.