Moving to a new CRM system is exciting — but the data migration is where projects tend to succeed or quietly fall apart. Get it right, and your team starts day one with clean, trustworthy records. Get it wrong, and you spend the next six months firefighting duplicate contacts and missing history.
- Migration succeeds or fails long before go-live — in the planning, cleansing and mapping stages.
- Cleansing data before it moves is far cheaper than fixing it once it’s live in a new system.
- Field mapping needs a named owner and a documented decision for every field, not just the obvious ones.
- A test migration with real users checking real records catches issues a spreadsheet review never will.
- Go-live isn’t the finish line — plan for a settling-in period where data quality is actively monitored.
Why Migration Matters
A CRM is only as useful as the data inside it. If historic customer records, deal history, and contact details don’t make the journey cleanly, your new system starts life with the same problems as the old one — just in a shinier wrapper. Treating migration as a proper project, rather than a quick export/import, is what separates a smooth transition from a painful one.
- Identify every data source you currently rely on — CRM, spreadsheets, inboxes, accounting software.
- Agree what “good” data looks like — mandatory fields, naming conventions, duplicate rules.
- Decide how far back your historical data needs to go. Not everything from 2009 needs to travel.
- Assign an owner for the migration who has authority to make data decisions.
- Set a realistic timeline — rushed migrations are where mistakes happen.
Let us take you on a tour
Talk to us about your existing data set-up before you migrate — we can help you plan the move properly.
Find out more →Cleanse Your Data
It’s tempting to just move everything across and tidy it up later. In practice, “later” rarely happens. Cleansing data before migration is dramatically cheaper and easier than doing it once thousands of records are live in a new system.
- Remove duplicate contacts and companies.
- Standardise formats — phone numbers, postcodes, job titles, industry types.
- Archive or delete records that are no longer relevant (closed businesses, opted-out contacts).
- Fill gaps in mandatory fields where you reasonably can.
- Flag any records you’re not confident about, rather than guessing.
A smaller, cleaner data set will always outperform a larger, messier one.
Field Mapping
Every field in your old system needs a decision: does it map directly to a field in the new CRM, does it need reshaping, or does it not make the journey at all? This is where a lot of migrations lose momentum, because it’s detailed, unglamorous work.
- List every field from your source system, not just the obvious ones.
- Match each field to its new home — or document why it’s being retired.
- Agree how picklist values translate (e.g. “Warm Lead” vs “Qualified”).
- Decide how relationships between records (contacts to companies, deals to contacts) will be preserved.
- Get sign-off from whoever owns each data set — sales, support, finance.
Do we have what it takes?
We don’t restrict which features you have access to in OpenCRM based on how many users you have. You get everything right out of the box.
Find out more →Test, Then Test Again
Never migrate live data straight into production without a test run first. A test migration lets you catch mapping errors, formatting issues, and missing relationships while they’re still cheap to fix.
- Run a full test migration into a sandbox or trial environment.
- Have real users — not just IT — check that their records look right.
- Spot-check a sample across every record type, not just the largest data set.
- Confirm reports and dashboards still work with the migrated data.
- Document any issues found and re-test after fixes.
Go-Live and Beyond
Go-live isn’t the finish line — it’s the start of a settling-in period. Keep monitoring data quality closely for the first few weeks, and make it easy for your team to flag anything that looks wrong.
- Communicate the cutover date clearly to everyone affected.
- Freeze changes to the old system in the run-up to go-live to avoid a mismatch.
- Keep the old system accessible (read-only) for a period, just in case.
- Monitor for data issues in the first few weeks and fix promptly.
- Capture lessons learned for the next time you migrate data.
A CRM migration doesn’t have to be painful. With a clear checklist, a named owner, and time set aside for cleansing and testing, you give your new system the best possible start — and your team the confidence to trust what’s in front of them from day one.
Planning a migration?
Talk to our team about moving your data across safely and cleanly.
Start your free trial