Data Migration in Oracle Project Management Cloud

Are you in the midst of implementing Oracle Project Management Cloud (aka Oracle PPM cloud) and struggling to get your head around migrating existing data to the new application?

Well, you are not the only one, data migration is arguably one of the key stumbling blocks in the successful implementation of any ERP system, not just Oracle and it becomes even more complicated when having most of your enterprise data woven around Projects.

Hang on! Is this another data migration blog? Haven’t you seen enough of them already?

Well, perhaps you have, and you should not read it any further if terms like ‘Oracle Project Management Cloud or Oracle PPM Cloud’ do not mean anything to you; however, if they do then it might be worth a read.

Unlike a normal ERP application design, in a project-centric architecture most of your financial data such as Cost, Revenue, invoices, Assets, etc are all linked to projects and therefore having projects in scope has an overarching impact on your overall data migration strategy.

If you have invested in a tool like ‘Oracle PPM Cloud’ then it is quite likely that you are a projects-centric business and getting the right project data in the new application is imperative for the success of the digital transformation you are embarking on.

So, what is so special about migrating data when it comes to Oracle projects? The answer lies in the word ‘Project’ (no prize for guessing).

Unlike a normal ERP application design, in a project-centric architecture most of your financial data such as Cost, Revenue, invoices, Assets, etc are all linked to projects and therefore having projects in scope has an overarching impact on your overall data migration strategy.

In this article, I am going to discuss the following 7 key data objects that are likely to be part of the data migration scope if you are implementing ‘Oracle Projects Financial Cloud’.

Projects, Tasks and Financial Plan
Project Budgets
Project Forecast
Project Cost Transactions
Customer Contracts for Project Billing and Revenue
Project Invoices and Revenue
Project Assets, Asset lines and Assignments

1. Projects, Tasks and Financial Plan

What to Migrate

All ‘Active’ projects, their associated tasks, team members, classifications, transaction controls (if applicable) and other additional attributes. Consider migrating Closed projects if any of the following holds amongst other business reasons -

There are pending transactions such as Cost/Revenue/Customer Invoice
Project is linked to an active program.
Project is linked to an active contract.
Project is feeding an integrated application.
Using Project Number as a segment in the COA structure and journals to be posted against it.

Optional - After successfully migrating projects, related tasks, and other required attributes import the financial project plan comprising Task Assignments, Planned quantities, etc.

Tip - If possible, keep ‘Financial Plan’ outside of the scope of data migration and let Project Managers handle this independently after go-live.

Prerequisites

Before beginning to migrate projects from the Legacy application to the PPM cloud, make sure the following hold.

Application Configuration stands completed.
Person record exists in HCM for the employees/ Contingent workers that need to be added as Project Team Members.

How to Migrate

Use predefined FBDI (File Based Data Import) templates that can be used to mass import projects and related data in one go.
Oracle also provides an option of a ‘Visual Builder’ add-in for Microsoft Excel that can be used to update or create projects through Rest APIs.

Best Practices/Considerations

It is recommended to retain the project number from the legacy application, this will reduce the transformation needed when migrating related data objects such as budgets, costs, invoices, etc and will make reconciliation easier. If that’s not possible – use the source project reference field to capture the project number from the legacy application.
Leverage Project Templates as much as possible to copy project and task attributes that are common across a particular data set.
To avoid last minutes hurdles, pre-validate the data items against the allowable character limit especially if your legacy application is non-Oracle. Similarly, watch out for special characters in the project name, number, and description.
Ensure that Project Status is flagged as ‘Initial Project Status’ in project status controls.

2. Projects Budgets

What to Migrate

Not every organisation needs to migrate project budgets; however, if you do then here are your options –

Migrate one or multiple budget versions to capture different budgets created during the life of a project.
Determine how many baselined versions you need to create and further mark a version as Original and Current (if needed)
Depending on the business need you can migrate the cost and revenue budget in a single version or have a different version for each or just have the cost or revenue budget migrated to the PPM cloud.

Prerequisites

Before beginning to migrate budgets from the Legacy application, make sure the following hold.

Application Configuration stands completed.
Projects and tasks migrated.
If migrating the revenue budget, ensure the customer contract has already been migrated or created and linked to the project.

How to Migrate?

Use the predefined FBDI (File Based Data Import) template that can be used to mass import project budgets.
Oracle also provides an option of a ‘Visual Builder’ add-in for Microsoft Excel that can be used to update or create projects through Rest APIs.

Pitfalls/Considerations

Enable auto approval of budgets or disable the workflow when importing baselined budget versions as part of data migration.

3. Projects Forecast

What to Migrate

Not every organisation needs to migrate project forecast; however, if you do then here are your options –

Migrate one or multiple forecast versions to capture different forecasts created during the life of a project.
Determine approved versions you need to create and further mark a version as Original and Current (if needed)
Depending on the business need you can migrate cost and revenue forecast in a single version or have a different version for each or just have cost or revenue forecast migrated to the PPM cloud.

Prerequisites

Before beginning to migrate budgets from the Legacy application, make sure the following holds.

Application Configuration stands completed.
Projects and tasks migrated.
If migrating revenue forecast, ensure customer contract has already been migrated or created and linked to the project.

How to Migrate?

Use the predefined FBDI (File Based Data Import) template to import project forecast.
Oracle also provides an option of a ‘Visual Builder’ add-in for Microsoft Excel that can be used to update projects through Rest APIs.
Best Practice/Considerations
Enable auto approval of forecast or disable the workflow when importing baselined budget version as part of data migration.

4. Project Cost Lines/Balances

What to Migrate

Determine the cost to be migrated by performing the following steps.

Decide whether to import the cost for ‘Active’ projects only or ‘Active and Closed’ Projects.
Identify the source system for all Project Costs that need to be migrated.
Segregate cost by the type of transaction such as Labor, Non-Labor, Supplier, Expenses, Inventory and Miscellaneous.

Prerequisites

Before beginning to migrate budgets from the Legacy application, make sure the following holds.

Application Configuration stands completed.
Impacted Projects have already been migrated and are in the status that allows new charges.
Impacted tasks are active and allow new charges.
In case transaction controls are enabled, they need to allow charges to projects and tasks.
If importing Labor Costs – ensure the person exists and has the necessary costing rules configured.
If importing supplier invoice transactions – supplier and supplier sites are defined.
The Accounting Period in which the cost to be migrated has been defined and allowed charges.

How to Migrate?

Use predefined FBDI (File Based Data Import) templates for different transaction types such as

Import Payroll Costs
Import Project Expense Costs
Import Project Inventory Costs
Import Project Labor Costs
Import Project Miscellaneous Costs
Import Project Nonlabor Costs
Import Project Supplier Costs

Best Practice/Considerations

Aggregate the cost lines to be migrated by project, task, expenditure type, etc. This will not only reduce the volume of transactions to be migrated but will also substantially reduce the reconciliation effort.
Upload the transactions as Costed and Accounted to avoid double accounting.
Enable/upload transaction controls only after project cost migration is completed.
For billable projects especially where billing is cost based, mark the cost lines corresponding to the already billed amount as non-billable.
For capital projects, mark the cost lines as Capitalizable or non-capitalizable based on whether they have already been capitalised in the legacy application or not.

5. Customer Contracts

What to Migrate

Migrate the active billing contracts.
Optionally migrate master/related contracts (if any)

Prerequisites

Before beginning to migrate contracts from the Legacy application, make sure the following hold.

Related Application Configuration stands completed.
Customer data is migrated with the bill-to and ship-to sites created in the business units in which the contract needs to be set up.

How to Migrate?

Use the predefined templates available as part of the Standard Import process.
Best Practice/Considerations
Enable the ‘Migration in Progress’ checkbox until all legacy invoices and revenue lines have been processed in PPM Cloud.

6. Project Invoices and Revenue

What to Migrate

Invoices generated in the legacy system.
Revenue Balances from the legacy application.

Prerequisites

Related Application Configuration stands completed.
Applicable customer contracts imported in oracle cloud and in active status to support the generation of invoices and revenue.
Related Projects and Tasks are imported into the PPM cloud and allow transactions against them.

How to Migrate?

Import invoice and revenue events using the FBDI (file-based data import) templates provided by Oracle.
Oracle also provides an option of a ‘Visual Builder’ add-in for Microsoft Excel that can be used to update migrated events through Rest APIs.
Best Practice/Considerations
On the associated contract, enable the ‘Migration in Progress’ checkbox until all legacy invoices and revenue events have been processed in PPM Cloud.
Advisable to have separate even types created for migrated invoices and revenue. Enable the migration flag on these event types so that no one modifies them after import.
Unless there is a genuine business need to do otherwise, create summary events for revenue and invoices, this will make import, processing, and reconciliation easier. Create revenue and invoice event(s) for each unique combination of contract, contract line, project, task, and currency.

7. Project Assets Lines

What to Migrate

Asset lines to reflect CIP costs that have been capitalised and transferred to Fixed Assets.

Prerequisites

Related Application Configuration stands completed.
Related Projects and Tasks are imported into the PPM cloud and allow transactions against them.
Project Assets and Assignment exist in PPM Cloud. Project assets have been associated with existing assets in the FA module.

How to Migrate?

Import unassigned asset lines using FBDI (File-Based Data Import). Use the available spreadsheet template to mark these asset lines as transferred without having to transfer them to Fixed Assets modules in the Oracle cloud.
Oracle also provides an option of a ‘Visual Builder’ add-in for Microsoft Excel that can be used to update migrated data through Rest APIs.

Best Practice/Considerations

By providing the FA period name in the FBDI file, you can reconcile the capitalised cost at the project level to the period in which the corresponding Asset was added to the Fixed Assets module.

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About Projects Expert Projects Expert is the first-of-its-kind Oracle partner that specialises in Project Centric Enterprise Solutions. We aim to deliver sustainable, robust, and business-friendly Oracle solutions for Projects driven organisations. To know more about what we can do for you, visit our website at www.projectsexpert.com. Reach out to us on +44 330 330 5154 or drop a note at info@projectsexpert.com