CRM Data Migration: Technical Implementation Guide
Migrate CRM data successfully with comprehensive planning, cleansing, transformation, and validation protocols.
Migration Planning
Timeline: 3-12 months for enterprise migrations Phases: Discovery, Cleansing, Mapping, Testing, Execution, Validation Team: Project Manager, CRM Admin, Data Analyst, Developer, Business Analyst, End Users
Pre-Migration Assessment
Data Inventory:
- Primary CRM system records
- Spreadsheets and Access databases
- Email contacts and marketing platforms
- Support ticketing historical data
- Legacy systems being retired
Success Criteria:
- Zero data loss for critical records
- Data accuracy targets above 99%
- Defined downtime tolerance windows
- User acceptance signoff requirements
- Documented rollback procedures
Data Quality Audit
Common Issues (typical percentages):
- Duplicates in 10-30% of records
- Missing data in 15-40% of fields
- Format inconsistencies in addresses/phones
- Orphaned records with broken relationships
- Inactive data older than retention policies
- Invalid picklist values and deprecated options
Deduplication Strategy:
- Identify duplicates using fuzzy matching algorithms
- Merge using newest or most complete record
- Manual review for high-value accounts
- Automated processing for high-volume low-value records
Tools: Salesforce Duplicate Management, Cloudingo, RingLead, DemandTools, DupeCatcher
Data Cleansing
Standardization:
- Addresses via USPS validation
- Phone numbers to E.164 format
- Country codes to ISO standards
- Email verification services
- Append missing data from ZoomInfo, Clearbit
Archiving Strategy:
- Records inactive over 3 years move to archive
- Historical deleted records to separate archive table
- Large attachments to document storage (S3, Box)
Object and Field Mapping
Create comprehensive mapping spreadsheet:
- Source object to target object
- Source field to target field with data types
- Transformation rules documented
- Validation requirements specified
- Special handling notes included
Common Transformations:
- Picklist value mappings between systems
- Date/time format conversions and timezone adjustments
- Calculated field recreation in target system
- Relationship preservation via external IDs
- Multi-select to tags or junction objects
Migration Tools
Salesforce Options:
- Data Loader (free, bulk API, 5M records)
- Workbench (web-based, SOQL, REST API)
- Jitterbit (enterprise ETL, $5K+)
- MuleSoft (complex workflows, $20K+)
Cross-Platform:
- Talend Open Studio (free ETL)
- Pentaho Data Integration (visual mapping)
- Custom Python scripts with simple-salesforce library
Approach Selection:
- Under 10K records: Manual CSV export/import
- 10K to 1M records: ETL tools (Jitterbit, MuleSoft)
- Complex transformations: Custom scripts
- Ongoing sync: Enterprise integration platform
Migration Execution
Sandbox Migration
Steps:
- Setup target sandbox environment
- Run migration scripts on 10% data subset
- Validate record counts and field accuracy
- Test business processes and workflow triggers
- Measure performance metrics
- Document issues and iterate fixes
Success Criteria: 99%+ records migrated, all relationships intact, workflows functional
User Acceptance Testing
Participants: Power users per department, managers, admin team
Test Scenarios:
- Search and locate existing customers
- View complete interaction history
- Create new opportunities through full lifecycle
- Run critical reports (pipeline, forecasting)
- Test integrations (email, calling, data loaders)
- Execute day-in-the-life workflows
Feedback Loop: Daily standups, issue tracking, prioritized fixes (P0 blockers, P1 critical, P2 nice-to-have)
Production Migration
Pre-Migration Checklist:
- Executive signoff on go/no-go decision
- All P0/P1 issues resolved
- Full backup of source system completed
- Source system frozen to read-only mode
- Rollback plan documented and rehearsed
- War room staffed and communication sent
- Monitoring dashboards prepared
Typical Schedule:
- Friday 6 PM: Set source to read-only, begin data load
- Saturday 6 AM: Data load complete, begin validation
- Saturday 12 PM: Validation complete, UAT spot-checks
- Saturday 6 PM: Final signoff, enable target system
- Sunday: Monitoring and hot fix support
- Monday 6 AM: Users begin login, support war room active
Post-Migration Validation
Immediate Checks:
- Record count comparison to source
- Orphaned records verification (should be zero)
- Required field validation
- Relationship integrity checks
- Data format validation
Ongoing Monitoring (Week 1-4):
- Login rates (target 90% within 48 hours)
- Support ticket volume (expect 2-3x spike initially)
- Data quality reports daily
- Integration health checks
- Performance metrics monitoring
Rollback Planning
Scenario 1: Critical Defects (Day 1)
- Trigger: Over 10% data loss, broken integrations
- Action: Revert DNS, restore source to read-write
- Timeline: 2-4 hours execution
- Communication: Immediate email to all users
Scenario 2: Performance Issues (Week 1)
- Trigger: Page loads over 10 seconds, report timeouts
- Action: Database optimization, selective rollback
- Timeline: Iterative fixes over 1-2 weeks
Scenario 3: Adoption Failure (Month 1)
- Trigger: Under 50% login rate, persistent high support volume
- Action: Extended training, feature simplification, executive re-engagement
Common Pitfalls
Underestimating Cleansing: Dedicated 6-12 week cleansing phase BEFORE migration prevents errors
Insufficient Testing: Multiple sandbox iterations and 2-week UAT minimum required
Big Bang Approach: High risk; use phased migration (accounts, then contacts, then opportunities)
No Rollback Plan: Maintain source system read-only for 30 days minimum
Ignoring Integrations: Include email sync, calling, reporting systems in inventory and testing
Post-Migration Optimization
Month 1: Stabilization with daily metrics, support ticket trending, quick wins
Month 2-3: Feature adoption analytics, advanced training, continuous improvement
Month 4-6: Performance tuning, data enrichment automation, archived old data cleanup
Budget Planning
Small Migration (10K records): $25,000 total
- Planning $5K, Cleansing $10K, ETL $5K, Testing $5K
Medium Migration (100K records): $120,000 total
- Planning $15K, Cleansing $40K, ETL $20K, Development $30K, Testing $15K
Enterprise Migration (1M+ records): $650,000 total
- Planning $50K, Cleansing $150K, ETL $100K, Development $200K, Testing $50K, Consulting $100K
Best Practices
- Invest 70% time in planning, 20% execution, 10% cleanup
- Data cleansing upfront prevents migration issues
- Test exhaustively in sandbox environments
- Never skip User Acceptance Testing phase
- Always maintain documented rollback plan
- Include integrations in scope from day one
- Communicate frequently and transparently
- Train extensively before go-live
- Monitor closely for first 30 days
- Document lessons learned for future migrations
Bottom Line
Successful CRM migrations require meticulous planning, extensive data cleansing, comprehensive testing, and strong change management. Timeline reality is 3-12 months for enterprise migrations. Rushing causes costly errors and user frustration. Invest upfront in quality over speed.
