Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.178 2026.08.01 高橋実

You Can Buy a New System, But You Cannot Buy Back Your Data

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.

When replacing a business system, some vendors will suggest things like:
"Let's start fresh without migrating data from the old system."
"Seven years of historical data should be more than enough."

Their reasoning often sounds something like this: data migration is complicated and costly, ongoing maintenance adds up, and old data is messy anyway.

At first glance, these arguments seem reasonable and even logical in some ways. However, our firm takes the exact opposite position. The heart of any system migration comes down to one question: can all your data be moved over? That's because your data is an asset packed with your company's hard-earned knowledge and know-how.

Which customers did you sell to, when, what did you sell them, and at what price? What notes did you record when that problem came up years ago? The records your employees have built up over the years represent your company's one-of-a-kind history — something that simply cannot be bought back once it's gone.

A system is just a container, a tool. When it reaches the end of its life or no longer meets your needs, you can replace it. But the data inside is a different matter entirely. Once historical data is lost, no amount of money will bring it back.

Yes, data migration comes at a cost — but it can also be viewed as the cost of protecting years' worth of irreplaceable business assets. If you're considering a system replacement, we recommend asking this question before you even get into features or interface design:

"Can all of our current data be migrated over?"

We hope this gives you a useful perspective as you evaluate system replacements and vendor selection.

That's all, Thank you for reading.

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