Direct answer
Before scoping a CRM Migration, two things are worth checking honestly: whether migration is actually the right call versus a cleanup of what you have, and — if it is — what a real migration needs to cover so nothing gets lost in the move.
Is migration actually the right call?
- The current platform structurally can't do what the business needs — no multi-currency, no real API, a plan ceiling genuinely outgrown
- The team has stopped trusting the data enough that people keep a shadow spreadsheet
- A merger or acquisition means two CRMs need to become one
- The current vendor is being sunset, or the contract genuinely doesn't work commercially anymore
When it's not — check this first
If the real problem is pipeline stages nobody follows, no ownership rules, or forms and email not connected, that's a CRM & Sales Workflow Implementation fix — cheaper, less disruptive, and usually what actually solves it.
A pre-migration data audit, before scoping
- Roughly how many active records, and how many are genuinely stale
- Which custom objects or fields exist that don't have an obvious equivalent in the new platform
- How many pipelines or business units are involved
- What historical data (closed deals, notes, attachments) actually needs to survive the move, versus what can be archived
- Whether a parallel-run period is needed, or a single clean cutover date works
What a real migration covers
- Field and object mapping from the old CRM to the new one
- Deduplication and cleanup applied during the move, not carried across
- A decision, made with you, on what historical data actually needs to migrate
- Pipeline, fields and ownership rebuilt in the destination system
- Validation — spot-checking migrated records against the source before cutover
- A defined cutover point and a written rollback understanding
Questions
Do we need to migrate all our historical data?+
No — deciding what genuinely needs to move is part of the checklist, not an automatic default. Closed deals and old attachments are often archived rather than migrated.
Can both systems run at once during the move?+
Not indefinitely — a defined cutover point is part of any real migration scope, agreed in writing before work starts.
What if we're not sure whether we need migration or cleanup?+
That's exactly what the first check on this page is for — most CRM problems turn out to be configuration problems, not platform problems.