CRM data migration, moving your information from one system to another, seems simple on the surface. It’s just a technical exercise of mapping and moving data from old fields to new fields, right? Not quite. In order for a new customer relationship management (CRM) to provide long-term business value, your IT team needs to handle a data migration with caution.
One of the initial considerations for your team will be determining which pieces of data to migrate. It’s essential to avoid populating a new system with outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate contact and account records that may have been neglected over time. A thoughtful approach ensures the new system is not burdened by historical inefficiencies.
Data decay presents a significant challenge, with over 70% of CRM records becoming inaccurate within a year. As a result, it’s important to determine a clear strategy not only to manage what data is retained during migration, but also how to incorporate automation for ongoing data maintenance and cleansing to ensure long-term accuracy and reliability.
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By following the six best practices outlined below, your IT leaders can take control of the migration process, ensuring your organization’s data is not only prepared for CRM migration, but also optimized to serve as an accurate and reliable foundation to support revenue growth.
1. Get your scope, budget in order
The biggest oversight we see most often in CRM migration is underestimating the cost and time required for optimal integration. Organizations typically want to migrate everything. It’s the “better safe than sorry” mindset. However, migrating everything isn’t ideal for two main reasons: complexity and cost.
The cost of migration is tied to the volume of data and, in many cases, migration costs can exceed the cost of the CRM itself. One of the contributing factors is the cost of additional data storage when moving to a cloud-based CRM.
The goal is to migrate the right amount of data needed to ensure optimal client experience management, as well as ensuring your marketing and business development teams have the insights they need to accelerate sales and revenue. Simply put, legacy data should only be imported if it supports future business objectives—something you’ll need to align with senior management and key internal stakeholders.
2. Analyze legacy contacts
A critical step in preparing for CRM data migration is evaluating legacy contacts and the associated data. Data hygiene is key, as clean and accurate data serves as the foundation for all revenue generating activities. Work with primary users and stakeholders to review records for duplicates, new contact information, and errors.
The other area of focus should be evaluating how the information contained in the contact records supports business goals. Input from all stakeholders is key at this juncture. Some specific data fields to consider including:
- Client groups: If your legacy CRM includes client groups, are they used? Is it worth the effort of migrating these groups? Does the data have clean industry fields mapped for segmentation?
- Custom fields: Some custom fields may have long-term value, while others may have been created for a campaign or a short-lived business objective. This is the time to figure out which content lives on.
- Redundant fields: Does your legacy data include repetitive groupings of fields? If the information is still relevant, take time to normalize the data. It takes time but it is worth it in the long-run.
- Notes: This field can often be a catch-all for everything; however, how much of this information is valuable? Should it be migrated?
Through this process, you’ll be able to identify what content is relevant to your data migration strategy. Document your full list of fields that are mission critical. You will also likely identify areas for improvement to implement in the new CRM.
“We launched Introhive before we launched [our new CRM] to get better quality information upfront before we migrated from our old CRM system. For our 400 partners, the primary users, we were able to start with much cleaner, more accurate data that they could rely on.”
Global CRM Systems Manager, International Law Firm
3. Establish a cut-off date for data, records
Beyond evaluating the specific data fields for CRM migration, it’s important to understand if all contacts and the associated data are still relevant.
Again, your colleagues across the organization should be able to provide valuable input to this process. Key factors to evaluate:
- Stale contacts: How long should a former client or contact be kept in the system? At what point does it make sense to abandon an open lead? If a specific contact has been dormant in your CRM for over a year, you may want to evaluate the validity of that data record.
- Interaction history: What level of engagement detail does your company track for accounts and contacts? You’ll want to capture all activities including, meetings, tasks, emails, phone calls, transactions, web visits, mail merges, and marketing emails to measure engagement, but it is also important for data privacy management.
Different companies have different needs for historical data. However, anything more than five years is likely excessive.
4. Preparing legacy data for CRM migration
OOnce you’ve finalized the data you will migrate, it’s time to prepare for the actual migration process. Before your organization starts diving into the refinement process, these are a few overarching adjustments that should be made to the data fields prior to importing it into the new CRM.
5. Start small
Unexpected things can happen in a CRM data migration. As a result, it can be helpful to start small and import a small subset of CRM data to test your import. A more cautious approach can save a lot of headaches in the clean-up process. And, as long as you set up a legacy ID, you’ll be able to easily add content skipped on the first import.
It is also advised to keep the old CRM system running in the short-term—usually about 6 months—in the event that there is a business need for legacy data omitted in the initial data migration.
6. Verify and improve CRM data after migration
After the data is migrated, make sure to conduct a final purge of the database to remove anything that’s old, inaccurate, duplicated, or irrelevant. CRM migration is also a prime opportunity to streamline CRM data for improved business performance, including implementing process changes to ensure that all your hard work is not undone by inevitable data decay.
Thankfully, automated data cleansing and enrichment tools like Introhive’s Cleanse and Smart Update for Cleanse can make maintaining complete and accurate records seamless. By pulling in data from over a dozen touchpoints, Introhive automatically adds missing data and flags duplicates for removal, freeing up time for CRM users.
Future-proofing your data and ensuring scalability
Clean, accurate data is the foundation of revenue-generating activities, enabling your organization to confidently pursue growth and expansion strategies, such as developing new service lines or entering new markets. By maintaining data integrity, you create a reliable framework that supports strategic decision-making and positions your business for sustainable success.
Equally important is ensuring your tools adapt to the evolving landscape of technology, shifting client expectations, and your organization’s changing requirements. Make sure that your existing technology stack meets your current needs and that you have access to advanced features and capabilities to support scalability and drive innovation as your business grows.
Tying CRM migration to ongoing relationship success
Successful CRM migration lays the groundwork for strengthening client relationships and driving long-term engagement. Advanced tools such as relationship mapping, automated activity capture, and AI-driven insights ensure that the migrated data transforms into a dynamic, user-friendly CRM that staff actively want to use.
Clean, accurate CRM data is at the heart of strong client and prospect relationships. It provides the foundation for uncovering valuable relationship insights, enabling teams to understand client needs more deeply, engage meaningfully, and build lasting trust. By ensuring that data is continuously refined and leveraged effectively, organizations can drive higher CRM adoption and foster stronger client relationships.
“The CRM is the hub that we want everyone to be working with, and Introhive transforms our CRM from a system of record to a system of intelligence.”
National marketing director, Advisory, Assurance, and Tax Firm
A seamless CRM migration with Introhive
We work alongside you throughout the entire journey, ensuring your CRM data migration not only transitions smoothly, but also delivers immediate value through a CRM enriched with actionable insights. Designed for seamless integration with leading CRM platforms and essential business tools, our solutions combine efficiency and automation with top-tier security features. Built to scale with your organization, they provide a robust foundation for long-term growth and peace of mind.
“Now we have 2,750 active users on the system, including all our lawyer partners.”
Global CRM Systems Manager, International Law Firm
For organizations that choose to maintain multiple CRMs, it’s essential to establish a cohesive strategy for data maintenance. Introhive makes maintaining data quality seamless, creating a single source of truth for contact data across multiple systems of record.
To learn how Introhive’s AI-powered data enrichment software can make your CRM migration a success, request a demo.
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