IN THIS GUIDE

  1. 01Treat migration as a business project
  2. 02Decide what should move
  3. 03Clean and map before importing

Treat migration as a business project

A CRM migration changes the information people rely on to sell, deliver and support work. It needs an owner, a defined scope and agreement about what a successful move means. The technical import is only one part of the job.

Decide what should move

List the source systems and decide which contacts, companies, activities, documents and historical records belong in the new platform. Moving every old field can reproduce clutter. Excluding useful history can leave teams without the context they need.

Clean and map before importing

Standardise formats, identify duplicates and document how every source field maps to the destination. Record any transformation rules, default values and relationships between records so the result can be checked and repeated.

Test with a representative sample

Run a trial import that includes ordinary records and difficult cases. Check ownership, dates, notes, relationships, attachments and reporting. Ask the people who use the information to confirm that the data makes sense in their workflow.

Plan the cutover and the old system

Set a final extraction time, explain what users should do during the change and keep a rollback path. Decide how the old system will be retained, secured or retired, including any obligations that affect historical records.

Reconcile the result

Compare source and destination counts, totals and representative reports. Keep an exception log for records that were rejected, merged or transformed, and have the business owner sign off on the result before the old system becomes read-only or is retired.

USE THIS IN PRACTICE

CRM migration control list

  1. 01

    Name an owner and define success.

  2. 02

    Inventory sources, record types and attachments.

  3. 03

    Remove obsolete data and resolve duplicates.

  4. 04

    Document field, relationship and ownership mapping.

  5. 05

    Run and review a representative trial import.

  6. 06

    Reconcile counts, reports and rejected records.

  7. 07

    Plan cutover, rollback and old-system retention.

Common questions

Should every historical record be migrated?

Not automatically. Decide what users need, what must be retained and whether some history can remain in a controlled archive.

Who should validate the imported data?

Technical checks and business checks are both required. People who understand the source records and the destination workflow should review representative results.

EXPLORE THE SOURCE

EXPLORE THE RELATED CAPABILITY

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