Typical data exchange scenarios between systems

1. One-time data migration – useful when launching a new system; facilitates data continuity.
2. Data import – periodically retrieving data from one system and adding it to another.
3. Data synchronization – a continuous process where a mechanism tracks changes in the source system in real-time and transfers them to the destination system.
4. Data transformation – reading data from the source system, transforming it, and writing it to the destination system (e.g., reading data from a transaction system, grouping it, and saving it to a reporting system).

Issues arising during data transfer

1. The destination system requires information that is missing from the source system.
2. The source system does not provide a data export interface.
3. The source data is unstructured or disorganized (e.g., working Excel spreadsheets where data entered by different people follows different formats).
4. The destination system has stricter data validation rules.
5. Ambiguous data mapping; fields in the two systems may share similar names but store different data.
6. Technical documentation is incomplete or non-existent.