Successful CRM Implementation Best Practices: Step 1 – Data Migration

Successful CRM Implementation Best Practices: Step 1 – Data Migration

Moving to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), or Salesforce CRM, can be a daunting and seemingly overwhelming experience.  However, with a few simple actions, you can make this a very digestible and successful process.

In this article, we discuss some of the actions or best practices Saberpoint has developed during our years as a Salesforce Partner to assist with making your CRM implementation as seamless as possible.

In a Salesforce CRM implementation, the series of actions that are needed include the following:

  1. Data migration
  2. Planning for people and teams 
  3. Your process defining the application, not the application defining your process
  4. One bite at a time
  5. Reporting 

Let’s start with data migration.

When embarking upon a Salesforce implementation, data clean-up and the transfer of data from legacy platforms is nearly always the first step. Preparing the data for migration before implementing the CRM will greatly reduce issues during the implementation, during the testing phase of the CRM, and during the live usage of your new CRM.

The following are the high-level steps Saberpoint recommends to prepare the data to be imported into Salesforce:

Data Preparation

  1. Identify Data Sources
    1. Microsoft Excel
    2. Databases
    3. Applications (e.g., Old CRM systems or old Sales Management Systems)
    4. Email (e.g., Outlook, Gmail)  
  2. Define Data Structure/Protocol
    1. Define all Abbreviations and Acronyms 
    2. Define all Naming Conventions (e.g., Street = St.)
    3. Define Date Range for Data to Retain (e.g., 1/1/2019 – Present, 2 years) 
  3. Export Data from All Legacy Platforms
    1. Best Practice: Export Legacy Data to a Microsoft Excel CSV file (if this is not available export to a text file)
  4. Cleanse Your Exported Data  
    1. Identify and Delete Duplicates 
    2. Reconcile Existing data 
      1. Delete Data Not Needed
      2. Define and Use a Standard Data Format for: 
        1. Abbreviations
        2. Acronyms
        3. Data conventions (Street Names) 
  5. Ask your Salesforce implementation partner for the Salesforce CSV template 
  6. Enter cleaned data to the Salesforce Template 
  7. Have Salesforce partner upload the Data
  8. Test the Data in Salesforce

Data preparation is the first step in making the Salesforce implementation faster and a more positive experience.  In our next blog, we will talk about planning within your CRM product, specifically for the people who are going to use the application.

We hope this gives you an understanding of the first step towards a successful Salesforce implementation.  

If you are considering or undertaking a CRM implementation for your company, we would love to hear from you to discuss how Salesforce could be a great fit for your needs.  Please contact the Saberpoint team for a complimentary consultation to discuss your plan, review the options available to you, and show what it takes to make a successful CRM implementation a reality.