Data migration is among the most important things which are needed for a successful CRM program implementation. Data is absolutely one of the major
factors for a successful CRM implementation. There are numerous activities related to it, like data strategy, data analytics, data management, and migration of legacy data. Let's start with "Data migration".
Data migration is considered to be one of the key as well as one of the very hard steps in any Salesforce project. When we have millions of records to shift from one environment to another environment, or manage millions of records and processes within the same environment things get difficult. But it has been observed that by following certain strategies and processes the deployment gets very successful. We are going to discuss those principles today.
So, the first question is why is data migration so hard? In most cases, it is because people don’t know how and where to start. You can find this specially in large organizations with multiple legacy systems. As a result, many organizations find data migration to be the toughest part. Let us look at a step-wise resolution to simplify this tough task:
Step 1: Know who the Stakeholders are:
First and foremost, you need to identify your stakeholders. I recommend starting at the top with the executives who are invested in your CRM program. For example, this might include the leaders of your sales, service or marketing organizations, or their designated representatives. It is a very essential thing before we start any such activity to ensure who are the stakeholders, as things are to be implemented as per the expectation and the strategy anticipated by them. Depending on the scope of your data migration effort, you might also need data analysts, ETL developers, and other technical resources from the IT organization. In other words, you are also looking for subject matter experts who will have that knowledge. Finally, if you operate in a regulated industry you’ll want to loop in your legal or compliance teams to bring in the right stakeholders and representatives.
2) Scope Defining:
Defining the problem in the right way ensures you will solve it sooner. And in the case of a data migration this means starting with a well-defined scope. You need to ask: From where is your data coming? What kind of data is that? What is the importance as well as impact of the data? Are you migrating data from one, two, or more legacy systems, or are you converting the data that already exists in your system? Does that data have any connection with spreadsheets and email contact lists to legacy ERP and CRM systems, or even the system to which you’re migrating? These questions will need to be addressed when we plan to deal with that very sensitive and very important entity in business domain – Data.
And due to this reason, many companies have specialized data management teams that put complete focus on this start-to-end data management as well migration, to ensure that the success rate will be 100%.
Next, you need to consider data volume. To do this, talk to your frontline business users. Depending on the volume, the planning can be done in a better way as well as various bulk data management mechanisms can be implemented. In Salesforce, while dealing with a large number of data, we have a few specific approaches to follow which ensure that irrespective of the data size, things are going to be smooth without any migration problems in the process.
Look into the quality of your data. Try to start afresh in your new system by only bringing in clean data which will save you trouble in later stages.
3) Front line users to be involved early:
Finally, you need to prepare for your migration by securing your team so that you can begin planning, executing, and testing.
When it comes to securing your team you obviously need to make sure you have the right technical resources as well as key stakeholders and representatives from compliance as discussed above. However, the most successful data migration efforts I’ve seen have always had an extremely engaged business user playing a lead role every step of the way. So these are some major points which can make your Data Migration process smooth and flawless. Every domain and company will have different data migration scenarios, but the above points will give them the much needed perfect start.
Good luck with your data migration!
