If you are undertaking to revamp your CRM system, you have probably already thought about legacy data migration. The success of your ongoing customer relationship management is going to depend highly on the quality of the data that you are able to store and manage over a period of time. Retaining high quality data is the key to successful CRM.
A typical CRM data migration from legacy systems is going to incorporate an extensive technical exercise comprising mapping and efficient movement of data from all your old fields to new fields and a modern framework. The entire process typically requires a number of business level decisions. Switching from a traditional to a new CRM system is going to be a managerial decision that will impact your entire organization. However, the entire brand new framework of CRM deployment is going to be riddled with challenges.
Following Are A Few Challenges To A Successful CRM Data Migration That You Might Face
1. Legacy Data Migration Strategy / Planning
This is the most important step that you have to take with utmost care. Identifying all the stakeholders and setting the right KPIs for migration monitoring and tracking is very critical. You will also have to define your migration strategy and analyze all your sources and destinations before the process can begin. Decide upon the most appropriate ETL tools beforehand.
2. Taking Care Of Unwanted Data
All the client data and details are structured differently in your existing CRM system. They will appear differently in your new system. Before you make this transition, all the unwanted data that can hinder the transfer needs to be taken care of. Some of this data might not be suitable for the destined location. Therefore, deleting inactive and corrupt files is also an important aspect to look out for before you begin with this process.
3. Parallel Run Complexity
You need to ask yourself 3 simple questions:
- Is your master data collection stable enough for the entire duration of the parallel run?
- Are the business rules going to differ between the source and destination framework / system?
- Will these rules remain stable / static for the entire duration of the parallel run?
A parallel run migration strategy should be carefully designed. This is because there is a lot of extra effort that goes into maintaining two systems in parallel which can be extremely challenging from both the perspectives of the business and technology that you are implementing.
4. Data Cleansing
This will be a critical step because it is going to involve an extensive level of source data profiling. The entire migration is going to depend on how you are able to cleanse the unwanted data and maintain the quality of all your source files. While performing data cleansing do pay attention to the following parameters:
- The data volume being affected
- Time available for data cleansing
- The number of efforts and procedures required to carry out the cleansing process
In order to make this process a success you will have to prioritize your cleansing topics based on:
- Business critical
- Non business critical
- Mandatory data
- Non mandatory data
5. Different Source, Different Code
You also want to prevent the same data from getting replicated in different systems. However, in certain special cases, the same data may reside in multiple systems with different coding. These two data sets might not have any link between them and in such a case, important stakeholders need to be contacted to understand the available options which are:
- The data can be grouped into a single master data file
- Clear the data in different systems and do not migrate it
- Keep both the master data and the replica of it and create a hierarchy group for the purpose of efficient reporting
6. Validation & Test Migration
Before you begin with the migration, remember to test the destination systems in both user acceptance test and integration environments.
Final Thoughts
Legacy data migration is going to improve your data integrity for a long period of time. It is going to eliminate any incorrect reporting and also address any underlying errors that might not be apparent initially. In any case, data migration requires extensive planning and preparation. It is a complicated maneuver and only a reputable project outsourcing firm can perform this migration flawlessly. To get more information regarding the same connect with Linking Logics today.
