A surprising number of facilities are still running their facilities on spreadsheets. Planned maintenance tracker, asset register, contractor log, compliance tracker, before you know it, you are working off dozens of spreadsheets and struggling to keep on track of what is up to date and what isn't.
The reluctance to migrate your data from spreadsheets might stem from someone high up who is stuck in their ways.
Or, and much more likely, it's because the thought of migrating all the data from the spreadsheets to the computer-aided facilities management software is overwhelming.
Let's go through the key steps for migrating your data to make the process as seamless as possible.
What Are the Benefits of CAFM?
3 Steps for Developing a Data Migration Strategy
4 Steps to Prepare for Migration
3 Steps for the Execution Phase
What Are the Benefits of CAFM?
CAFM stands for Computer-Aided Facilities Management, and it is a platform designed specifically for managing facilities.
It brings together key functions and maintenance tasks, such as asset management, asset tracking, planned and reactive maintenance, reactive works, data driven decisions, compliance tracking, contractor management, work order management, and reporting.
Unlike spreadsheets, a CAFM system is structured to make information searchable, auditable, and accessible by multiple users simultaneously. The facilities team see real-time data, so their information stays relevant whether they are in the office or on-site. A CAFM helps improve your operations' efficiency.
What Are the Advantages of Cloud-Based CAFM?
Cloud-based FM software allows your data to live securely online rather than on a single machine or local server. That means your team can access it on-site, in the office, or on the go. This is useful because:
- Real-time updates
- Scalability
- Lower IT overhead
- Better security.
Platforms like Expansive FM are built as cloud-based CAFM solutions, meaning you get all these advantages without the baggage of legacy infrastructure.
3 Steps for Developing a Data Migration Strategy
1. Do a Data and Spreadsheet Audit
Before you can move your data anywhere, you'll need to audit every spreadsheet currently in use across your facility operations. This can be time-consuming, but doing the groundwork in the early stages means you are less likely to encounter problems later.
Start by asking yourself:
- What data do we currently hold?
- Where does the data live?
- Who owns each spreadsheet, and who updates it?
- How often is it updated, and how reliable is the data?
- Are there duplicates or conflicting records across files?
This audit will feel tedious, but the clearer your understanding of your spreadsheets' current state, the smoother your migration will be.
You cannot migrate data if you haven't identified inconsistencies or ironed out the data sources before they go live.
2. Standardising Data Fields
Once you know what data you have, you need to make sure it is all standardised.
Standardising data fields means agreeing on consistent formats through all the spreadsheets before a single record is imported.
An example of this might be dates in a single format (DD/MM/YYYY), not a mix of styles across different files. Things to check for might include:
- Dates
- Asset categories
- Location names
- Contractor details
Making this consistent across files and data points will mean the migration proceeds correctly. If one spreadsheet calls it "Air Handling Unit" and another says "AHU," your new system will treat them as two different things.
Decide on your standards early, document them clearly, and apply them consistently across all data sources before migration begins.
3. Choosing the Right CAFM Solution
Different CAFMs offer different management systems, and some will fit your team and operations better than others. Making the right choice at the start will save time later. When evaluating your options, consider:
- Does it fit how your team actually works?
- Is it genuinely cloud-based?
- How strong is the support offering? Check platforms like Expansive FM's support hub to get a feel for the product documentation you can access at your fingertips
- What does the migration process look like?
Choosing the wrong CAFM can be an expensive mistake, both financially and operationally. So making the right choice is valuable.
4 Steps to Prepare for Migration
1. Data Backup Solutions
Back everything up.
Before you touch a single spreadsheet, regardless of how confident you feel, things can go wrong during a migration, so it's important to have a backup of everything.
Even if you have done all the earlier steps correctly and followed the instructions the CAFM support team have given you, files can become corrupted, data can be overwritten, and imports can fail in unexpected ways.
Think of your backups as insurance that you will almost certainly not need. But you will be glad you have them if you do.
2. Organising and Cleaning Your Data
Your spreadsheet data should already have gone through an audit. It's a good idea to check that nothing has changed before you migrate it.
Remove duplicates: Asset records, contacts, and locations.
Standardise formats: Dates, postcode formats, and asset categories. Inconsistencies cause import errors and reporting headaches later.
Fill in the gaps: Mandatory fields in your new CAFM system must be populated before migration, not after.
Archive obsolete data: Old records that no longer reflect your current estate should be clearly identified. Migrate what's current; archive what's historical.
Agree on naming conventions: Agree on how assets, locations, and categories will be named in the new system.
This cleaning phase takes time, and rushing it is one of the most common reasons migrations go wrong.
3. Spreadsheet Alternatives During Transition
There is often a period between your old system going live and your new one, during which you still need to operate. However, updating the spreadsheets will cause problems later.
Rather than continuing to update your old spreadsheets, consider using a controlled transition document. This can be a temporary measure, but it needs to be tightly managed. Your CAFM provider should be able to offer you guidance on keeping operations running smoothly during the transition period.
4. Conduct a Pilot Migration
Before you commit to a full data import, run a pilot migration using a small, representative sample of your records.
Choose data that reflects the variety of your full dataset, such as different asset types, different locations, and different job categories.
Import it into your CAFM system and check everything carefully. Are fields populating correctly, and is the information correct?
A pilot surfaces problems on a smaller scale, so you can fix them before you move everything across at scale. It also gives your team confidence before the full migration begins that it will go smoothly.
3 Steps for the Execution Phase
1. Implementing Data Migration Techniques
With your data cleaned and backed up, you are ready to migrate.
Phased migration: Instead of moving across at once, move data in logical stages. Then, each phase can be validated before the next begins.
Use import templates: Expansive CAFM provides import templates to match our data structure exactly. There is no need to make your own. You can easily map your spreadsheet columns to the template fields.
Log everything: Keep a clear record of what was migrated, when, and by whom.
2. Data Validation Techniques
You need to verify that the data you entered matches the data that has been migrated. There are several ways you can check your data. We don't advise you to cross-reference every individual piece of information, but some other techniques include:
Record counts: Check if the number of assets in your new system matches the number you migrated.
Spot checks: Pick a random sample of records and manually verify them against your source data. Pay attention to garbled text, missing fields, and incorrect relationships.
Field-level validation: Check that data types, such as dates, numbers and text fields, are correct.
Relationship checks: Ensure assets are correctly linked to their locations, and that maintenance schedules are tied to the correct assets.
Reporting sense-checks: Run your standard reports and check that the results look right. If your asset count suddenly drops by 40%, something has gone wrong.
3. User Training and Support
A CAFM system requires some training to get the team used to it and to use it correctly. If the whole team is not invested in the software, your new CAFM is unlikely to be successful.
It's useful to keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for your team's training, as different departments will have different needs. Build the training into your strategy.
A good support hub, like Expansive FM's support, gives your team somewhere to turn when they hit a question mid-task, without having to wait for a response from the vendor.
"The setup has been so easy and simple to do. Our onboarding project manager has been fantastic to work with. Nothing has been too much effort, the team at Expansive have been a dream to work with!"
Kevin
Head of Facilities in the UK
After Data Migration
Verifying Data Integrity
Once your initial validation is complete, keep an eye on data integrity in the weeks that follow go-live. Your team will be using the system in real conditions for the first time, and they might encounter some problems that didn't surface during the testing.
Set up a simple process for reporting data issues. Then, review and address issues quickly. The longer a data problem sits unresolved, the more it compounds.
Improvement and Feedback
The real value of a CAFM system reveals itself over time. As your data matures and your team becomes more confident using it, you'll be able to expand your use of the system. Most teams use only a fraction of what their CAFM platform can do in the early stages. Identify the next capability to adopt, whether that's contractor portal access, mobile job management, or automated compliance scheduling.
Track your outcomes and measure their impact to demonstrate the ROI of the CAFM to Senior Leadership. The organisations that get the most from CAFM are the ones that treat it as a living system.
Are You Ready To Migrate To CAFM
Migrating from spreadsheets to CAFM is a significant change that takes time and effort. But it is a manageable change that offers significant cost savings and efficiency gains. The organisations that approach it with a clear plan and clean data come out the other side wondering why they waited so long.
If you're ready to explore what a CAFM solution looks like in practice, visit Expansive FM and see what's possible.
If you're already in the process of migrating and need practical guidance, the Expansive FM support hub is a great place to start.