Managing customer data in an efficient manner is one of the most difficult challenges faced by business enterprises today. There are several businesses which have to deal with thousands of customers on a daily basis and managing all the complicated data pertaining to these customers has made it mandatory for small, medium and large scale enterprises in switching to automated CRM software platforms in helping them out.
Salesforce is one such platform that helps you in managing your customer database in the most effective way. It has several highly automated and enhanced features and tools that help you handle important data and also provide you with productive feedback, helping you take necessary actions in favour of your business organisation.
One of the most important features of Salesforce CRM is that it helps in undertaking efficient third party integrations by collaborating with suitable applications and service providers, helping the users in availing the best mix of services from both the platforms. This also helps Salesforce in expanding their customer base as such integrations help the platform in increasing its consistency and provide better services to their clients through their platform. However, such integrations also require efficient data migration, failing which there are be long term implications.
What is Data Migration?
In simple words, data migration is a process through which important data is moved from one system or platform to another. It is an important process that is carried out the most in two important scenarios pertaining to Salesforce CRM.
- When Salesforce or any of its features/tools is being implemented in a business organisation.
- When Salesforce decides to integrate with a third-party application and the users choose to operate on the integrated platform.
The process of data migration is a critical one and you need to carry it out with utmost precision in order to prevent the transfer of incorrect/insufficient data as well as to ensure the safety of your valuable data. It is always advisable to ascertain which data migration tools you should use in order to carry out efficient migration. Here are some of the key things you need to know about Salesforce data migration before you choose to undertake the same for your business enterprise.
Ascertain The Data You Want To Migrate
You can never hope for smooth data migration if you haven’t clearly defined what data you need to migrate across systems. Especially if you are moving to a new CRM software platform or are upgrading to a new version of an existing one, you need to clearly ascertain the data you need to migrate from the older system to the newer one. In this case, it is also important to state the data you need to import from external platforms (Gmail, Outlook etc) onto a common platform in order to facilitate smooth data migration.
Never make the mistake of transferring everything you have on the older system onto the new one. It is important to clear the system of all the unwanted data and filter out only the most important sets to be moved. Close all the accounts that are way too old for the system and erase all the files that are no longer relevant.
Keep Realistic Estimate of Time
Data migration in Salesforce might seem to be a simple and rapid process that can be carried out in a jiffy, but it is never the case, no matter how simple and uncomplicated your database is. There are always certain subtle challenges and hassles you are likely to face and it is always advisable to take those into consideration. It is therefore important to time your data migration well. Make sure you are not rushing the process and that there are no other important commitments to be catered to during the process of data migration.
Always be sure you are bound to spend time in matters such as understanding the concerned field, mapping the source and the destination fields, designing and configuring relevant transformations, choosing the ideal data migration pattern, carrying out suitable tests as well as measuring the quality of data being transmitted. In short, no matter what tools you use and how accurate you are, you need to give sufficient time to the process of data migration and plan the same accordingly.
Assess Your Data Quality
It is always advisable to check the quality of the data you are supposed to migrate to another system. Scan all the available data thoroughly and make sure there is no duplication. Also, make sure the data you have finalised for migration is correct and complete. If you happen to migrate incorrect data to an integrated platform, the services provided by the platform will automatically get faulty as that system will consider the faulty data as the base of all its operations.
It is worse if you happen to migrate incorrect data at the time of implementing Salesforce in your business organisation as the entire foundation of your CRM software platform would be based on faulty data and the implementation would make no sense as the platform would provide you with all the faulty results in future.
Get Your Team Involved
You should never carry out the process of migrating data all by yourself. It is always beneficial to have more perspectives and more people engaged in the process. It is important to involve all your team members in the process as they are the ones who are going to use the platform you are implementing on a daily basis.
They should be aware of the tiniest details regarding the data being migrated, which would only help them in managing the same once the platform is deployed. It is also advisable to have a test batch run before complete data migration in order to allow your team to look at the data through the lens of the new interface. This will help them get a hang of the new platform and prepare them for what is coming their way.
Prepare For Long Data Loads
It is important to know that the platform of Salesforce CRM tends to lag in speed if you engage in moving large volumes of data to and fro using the cloud. It is therefore advisable to be readily prepared for long data loads due to slower transfer speed, network issues, custom Salesforce code that limits loads as well as processing and bottlenecks pertaining to Salesforce APIs. The only way of dealing with this issue is to efficiently bath the data loads in order to facilitate smooth migration.
Document All Your Processes
This is one of the most effective tips in order to facilitate data migration in Salesforce. As ironic as it may sound, it is beneficial to create more data that serves as a backup and guide in case you mess the migration up. In other words, create documents regarding all the important activities you carry out in the process of data migration so that you can refer to them in case any issue arises in the concerned integration or implementation. However, it is advisable not to document everything and carefully ascertain the information you think is instrumental enough to be documented.
Conlcusion
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