Salesforce data migration: best practices for a smooth transition

Salesforce data migration is one of the most challenging projects and depends on the size, format and accuracy of the source data. Data migration is the process of transferring data from one system to another, but the work leading up to the actual transfer is the most complex part.

There are three general stages to follow to make your data migration a success: preparation, migration and quality assurance.

Step 1: the preparation

When taking care of a data migration, we like to emphasize the preparation. In our view, the most important phase, from which you can benefit throughout the process. But what does good planning look like? The migration plan looks like a traditional project plan, with timelines, dependencies and milestones.

The migration plan is created with a project manager who is responsible for adhering to the schedule and keeping track of progress.

When do you start coding the migration of a particular object:

• The Salesforce build for that object is complete.
• You have received the data from your stakeholders.
• It has been deployed to your target environment.
• You have sufficient time to analyze and code all transformations.
• For quality assurance, user acceptance testing and production migration runs, you need to make sure the data falls on days when you can devote the time needed to complete the tasks.

Data selection

Determine which data should be migrated and the source of truth of that data. The processes you have built in Salesforce affect the selection. You may realize when analyzing the data you need to migrate to Salesforce that additional objects and processes need to be built.

The source of truth is usually the backend, where customer transactions are stored, but not all business data is backend. For example, communication during the sales process can take place through phone calls, emails, and so on.

Therefore, focus on identifying what data is collected by which team and what is relevant to store in Salesforce:

• Sales:
  As mentioned above, communication during the sales process can take place through phone calls, emails, etc.
• Service:
  If sales and service teams do not work on the same system, you should link accounts to so-called service cases.
• Marketing:
  Marketing teams often use multiple data sources. It’s important to know how leads are captured. Is that in Salesforce? And at what stage of a customer’s lifecycle is that? Do they also use customer data (for example, for upsells and campaigns)?
• Finance:
  How does invoicing and revenue recognition work?

Data mapping

Ensure that all records from the different sources have a unique ID.

If one of the data categories in a source system is related to another data point in another system, the ID of the related data point is required. For example, if you plan to migrate backend customer data and also import past contract information from the previous CRM, each contract record must have a customer ID (from the backend).

Retrieve metadata samples from the source systems to see how the data is structured.
Map tables, fields and values in the source systems to Salesforce objects, fields and values. The more the data structures of the Salesforce data model differ from the source systems, the more complex the data mapping process will be.

Data cleansing

If there are no IDs, you need to clean data, for example, duplicates and outdated accounts from the dataset. Help from users is needed here, as they need to be able to fill in missing IDs and indicate which data they want to keep. Determine who is responsible, when this is done and in which system.

Phase 2: migration

The method you choose to transfer data from the source system to Salesforce depends on:

• The project team members you are working with (for example: developer, administrator).
• The amount of records you need to import into Salesforce.
• The complexity of the source data and how different the source data model and the Salesforce data model are.

Phase 3: Quality Assurance

After the data has been migrated to Salesforce, you must ensure that all data has been transferred correctly: the correct format and that relationships are accurately represented in Salesforce. To make sure that the migration is successful and the quality of the data is guaranteed, it is important to test this thoroughly.

So-called user tests are used to test the migration of data to Salesforce. It is important here that users test with the business intent in mind. What goal does the company have and how does migrating data contribute to this? It may be that the data migration meets technically specified requirements, but the total does not align with the business intent.

If testing is unsuccessful, find out which phase caused the errors. If the errors were a result of the preparation phase, then you need to iterate the entire process. Unfortunately, this is a time-consuming process that you would rather avoid. So prepare the whole process of migration well and give users enough time to test.

Our sharepoint integration offers the solution!

Migrating files in the Salesforce environment is a laborious process that, as you have read, involves a lot. To make this process easier we have a solution: with our Sharepoint integration this challenge is solved immediately, even in existing environments. Want to read more about how our Sharepoint integration can take a lot of work off your hands? Take a look at the Sharepoint integration page.

Sharepoint integration