A survey of challenges faced in data migration by companies quoted at the Nairobi Stock Exchange

Abstract

The study objective was to investigate the challenges faced in data migration by companies listed at Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). In order to achieve the objective, a survey design was used and data was collected using questionnaire administered using a drop and pick later method to the 54 firms listed at the NSE. The questionnaire had both open ended and closed ended questions. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using frequencies tables, percentages and charts. In addition, factor analysis was also used to analyze the data. Findings of the study revealed that, despite majority of the firms having been in operations for more than 30 years, they faced numerous challenges in data migration. These challenges were grouped into four main categories namely, software/tools related challenges, people related challenges, planning and/or policy related challenges and resource related challenges. Due to these challenges, majority of the respondents indicated that they experienced problems in data migration. These problems included unexpected application downtime, programs incompatibility, application performance problems, data corruption and loss. To overcome these challenges and problems organizations need to involve top management, data migration experts and users of information systems in data migration projects. Organizations require choosing appropriate data migration methodologies and tools. In addition, organizations need to properly plan for data migration projects and align data migration projects objectives with business needs.