​​Salesforce Data Migration Best Practices

CRMs rely on organized, up-to-date, high-quality data to deliver the benefits they are meant to, meaning that at one point or another, you will need to perform a Salesforce data migration. This might be to improve or maintain the accessibility of your existing data, as part of a system upgrade, to maintain accuracy after process changes, or a variety of other reasons. 

In this article, we discuss the steps involved in a migration, some best practices to abide by, and provide some guidance on maintaining accuracy, integrity, and accessibility during the migration process.

Why You Might Need to Migrate Data in Salesforce?

Implementing upgrades: You may be upgrading to a new system or platform and need to migrate your info. Coming from another CRM tool to Salesforce, for example, or upgrading to a new Salesforce product. 

Changes in some business workflows: There may be some changes in your business processes and the way your data is organized. You may have to implement a migration in order to adapt to the new changes.

Integrating different systems: In some cases, you may want to combine different solutions in your setup, like software systems, in order to consolidate your infrastructure into one streamlined solution.

Mergers and acquisitions: Migration is often needed when changes like mergers or acquisitions happen. Data from the previously separate entities has to be consolidated and integrated into a unified system.

Data clean-up: Organizations may also want to improve quality by fixing issues with the quality of their existing data – problems like inconsistent, inaccurate, duplicated, or incomplete data.

Compliance reasons: Organizations may need to migrate data to avoid falling foul of regulatory requirements whenever new or updated laws affect storage, processing, and other management practices.

​​Salesforce Data Migration Plan

A detailed migration plan is a crucial part of the migration process. It sets out the path to success and is your guarantee that the migration aligns with the organization’s objectives, and is understood by all stakeholders.

The experience of your migration partner will play a crucial role here as they can draw from prior experience to help you maximize the use of your resources, get better results, and set realistic expectations.

Planning and Preparation

This is the first stage and will set the stage for the success of the migration. Here, you will identify potential challenges, determine what resources you will need for the project, and ensure that the migration project is adequately understood in terms of its scope, from start to finish.

Understanding your data

Here, you examine the existing data, its structure, quality and the relationships between objects. Make assessments for gaps or inconsistencies, and work out the structure in the new Salesforce environment.

Identifying the scope and objectives

Clearly set out what will be involved in the migration, and what the expected outcome will be. Specifically which objects, records, and relationships need to be moved? What should take priority and be done first? Also define the main aims that should be addressed during the process. If you’re setting up for regulatory compliance, for example, clearly state what the criteria to be fulfilled are.  

Creating a migration plan

At this stage, you will want to set timelines, identify the milestones that will show progress, earmark resources that the project will require, and assign responsibilities for different tasks to establish accountability. 

Preparing for potential roadblocks

While a good, comprehensive plan will help to insulate you from problems while your migration is under way, it is still a good idea to plan for possible unforeseen challenges. Think about things like the possible need for cleansing should it turn out that your data quality isn’t up to scratch. Plan for the possibility of problems in user adoption of the new system, technical issues like hardware incompatibility, and scope creep – when the project needs grow until they start to exceed planned resources. 

Making a backup

To be prepared for the possible event of data loss, make a complete backup before beginning the migration.

Data Mapping and Cleaning

Your original records need to find their place in the new system. this will not happen automatically. You need a well organized plan for how you will map your old data onto new fields in the new system. During that process you can take some steps to ensure that the data that’s being placed in your new environment is clean and accurate. 

Mapping the source and destination fields

This is a process of correctly linking the source data being moved to the correct fields in the destination. For example,  a field named “CustomerID”   in the source system might be mapped to the “AccountID” field in Salesforce. Create a mapping document that serves as a guide for defining these connections.

Cleaning the source data

Before the transfer, any inconsistencies, inaccuracies, or duplicates must be identified and resolved. Look for duplicate entries, misspelled, absent, or inconsistent data, and other quality issues.

Standardizing data formats

Here, you want to ensure that formats such as dates are consistent in both the source and destination fields. Your date formats for example, might wreak havoc if in one system you use “MM/DD/YYYY” and in another “DD/MM/YYYY”.

Data Extraction and Loading

This is the process of pulling data from a source system, converting it to a compatible format, and loading it into the destination Salesforce environment without loss or corruption in the process. 

The extraction phase of the process typically involves converting the source data into a Salesforce-compatible format. You then define the period for which you need to export, based on the scope and goals of the migration.

You may have to make adjustments like modifying formats, converting date formats, or adjusting field lengths to ensure compatibility.