Changing validation platform is more than a software project. You are moving a live process with documents in flight, executed records that must stay readable for years, and an audit history you cannot lose. Whether you are leaving Kneat, ValGenesis, Veeva or a home-grown system, the same issues come up.
Decide what moves and what stays
Not everything should migrate. A useful split:
- Live templates and master data such as requirement libraries, risk models and equipment lists. These usually move and get cleaned up on the way.
- Work in progress. Protocols drafted but not approved, or approved but not executed. Usually best finished in the old system, or restarted in the new one, rather than migrated half-done.
- Completed and executed records. Often best kept in the old system in read-only form, or exported to a long-term archive, rather than rebuilt in the new one.
Migrating executed records as if they were native to the new system is risky, because signatures, audit trails and context may not carry over faithfully.
Executed records must stay readable
GxP records must be available and readable for their full retention period. If the old platform will be switched off, you need those records, with signatures, audit trail and metadata, in a form that can be read without it. Agree the export format with the outgoing vendor early, test it, and verify a sample before the contract ends. Our guide to decommissioning a GxP system covers this in more detail.
Run in parallel for a defined period
Most teams run both platforms for a while: new projects start in the new system while in-flight work finishes in the old one. Set an end date, track what is left in the old system, and do not let it drift into a permanent second system.
Validate the migration and the new platform
The new platform needs validating like any GxP system, with vendor evidence used where it is good. Anything migrated needs verification: counts reconciled, a sample checked field by field, attachments opened and links preserved. Our guide to data migration validation covers the method.
Change the process, not just the tool
A platform change is the best chance you will get to fix the process. If your old templates had grown long, your risk assessments rated everything high, or your test scripts captured screenshots nobody read, do not copy them across. Moving bad habits to a new platform just makes them faster.
Our Kneat alternatives shortlist and our guide on how to choose a validation platform help with the selection, and Get in touch if you want help planning the move.
Where to go next
Explore GxP Copilot for AI-native validation, TraceDraft for source-traceable clinical documentation, or book a demo to see either on your own data.