How to Migrate to SplendidCRM — Step-by-Step ChecklistMigrating to a new CRM is a major project that affects sales, marketing, customer service, and IT. SplendidCRM—known for its Microsoft-centric architecture and flexibility—can be a strong choice for organizations that want a Windows/.NET-aligned solution with on-premises or cloud deployment options. This step-by-step checklist will help you plan, execute, and validate a smooth migration to SplendidCRM while minimizing downtime and data risk.
Before you start: define scope, goals, and stakeholders
- Identify business goals for the migration (reduce licensing cost, improve integration with Microsoft stack, consolidate systems, standardize processes).
- Assemble a steering committee: executive sponsor, project manager, IT lead, representatives from sales, marketing, customer service, finance, and any external consultants.
- Define success criteria: user adoption targets, performance benchmarks, data accuracy thresholds, go‑live date, rollback criteria.
- Decide deployment model: on-premises Windows Server/IIS + SQL Server, or cloud-hosted VM(s) in Azure/AWS. SplendidCRM is built on .NET and typically runs best in a Microsoft ecosystem—confirm infrastructure availability.
Inventory existing systems and data
- List all current CRM systems, spreadsheets, marketing automation, ERP, support ticketing, and any other systems holding customer data.
- For each system note: data types (contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities, cases, activities, notes, custom objects), data volumes, data owners, integrations, and retention rules.
- Identify customizations in current CRM: custom fields, workflows, plugins, reports, and automations. Document business rules that must be preserved.
- Map user roles and permissions across systems.
Data mapping and transformation plan
- Create a canonical data model of SplendidCRM objects and fields. Include standard entities (Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Cases, Activities, Users) and any planned custom entities.
- Produce a field-by-field mapping from each source system to SplendidCRM. Include data type conversions, required fields, default values, and lookup relationships (e.g., Contact → Account).
- Identify data cleansing needs: duplicate contacts, invalid emails/phone numbers, incomplete addresses, obsolete accounts. Decide whether cleansing occurs pre-migration or post-import.
- Define transformation rules for picklists/statuses (e.g., convert “Prospect” → “Lead,” map old pipeline stages to SplendidCRM opportunity stages).
- Plan for attachments and document migration (store in database vs. file share vs. SharePoint/Blob storage). SplendidCRM supports attachment storage—confirm limits and performance tradeoffs.
Prepare infrastructure and environment
- Provision environments: development (or sandbox), test/QA, and production. Keep them isolated and document access controls.
- Install SplendidCRM on each environment according to vendor guidance. Configure IIS, .NET runtime, and SQL Server instances.
- Set up integration endpoints (email servers, telephony, SSO/AD, ERP, marketing automation). For SSO, configure Active Directory/ADFS or Azure AD, if required.
- Create backup and disaster recovery plans for databases and file storage. Schedule backups and test restores.
- Define monitoring and logging: server performance, application errors, and scheduled job status.
Build migration tools and scripts
- Choose migration approach: ETL tool (SSIS, Talend), custom scripts (.NET/C#), or vendor-provided migration utilities. For SplendidCRM, .NET-based scripts can leverage its APIs and libraries.
- Develop scripts to extract, transform, and load data according to your mapping. Implement transactional batches to enable retry and rollback.
- Implement validation scripts to compare record counts, check required fields, and verify referential integrity.
- Create reusable utilities for ID-mapping lookup tables (old system IDs → SplendidCRM IDs) to preserve relationships (e.g., which contact belongs to which account).
- Test scripts in the dev environment using a representative subset of data.
Data cleansing and enrichment
- Run duplicate detection and merging routines in source systems or in a staging area. Document rules used to choose the surviving record (most recent, most complete, highest score).
- Standardize formats: phone numbers (E.164), addresses (postal standards), dates, and case of text fields.
- Enrich data where feasible: add missing country codes, look up company details from external firmographic sources, append missing job titles.
- Keep an audit log of cleansing actions for traceability.
Migrate customizations, workflows, and integrations
- Inventory workflows, business rules, and automations in the source system. Rebuild them in SplendidCRM using its workflow engine or .NET hooks.
- Recreate key reports and dashboards in SplendidCRM. Where identical functionality isn’t possible, design equivalent reports and document tradeoffs.
- Implement integrations: set up API connections to ERP, marketing platforms, telephony, and email. Use middleware (e.g., Azure Logic Apps, SSIS, or a dedicated iPaaS) if needed.
- Validate triggers and scheduled jobs (e.g., lead scoring, campaign automation) in sandbox before production.
User training and change management
- Identify user personas and tailor training to each group (sales reps, customer service, marketers, admins).
- Develop step-by-step guides, quick reference cards, and short recorded demos for common tasks (creating a lead, logging an activity, running a report).
- Run hands-on training sessions in the sandbox environment with representative data. Include exercises that reflect daily workflows.
- Communicate timelines, benefits, and support channels. Offer extra support during the first 2–4 weeks post‑go‑live (office hours, chat support, ticket triage).
Testing plan
- Unit testing: validate individual migration scripts and field mappings on subsets of data.
- Integration testing: verify external systems (email, SSO, ERP) interact correctly with SplendidCRM.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT): involve power users in test cases that cover end-to-end business processes (lead capture → qualification → opportunity → close). Collect and resolve defects.
- Performance testing: simulate expected load (concurrent users, bulk imports) to ensure acceptable response times.
- Security testing: verify role-based access, data segregation, encryption at rest/in transit, and audit logging.
Cutover strategy and go-live checklist
- Choose a cutover window minimizing business disruption (evening/weekend). Communicate freeze windows for changes in source systems.
- Final pre-cutover steps:
- Take full backups of source systems and SplendidCRM test environments.
- Run a final data extract from source systems (capture delta since last test).
- Disable new data entry in source systems (or route new entries to a staging queue).
- Run migration scripts for final full load, then run validation checks (record counts, sample record checks, relationship integrity).
- Re-enable integrations to point to production SplendidCRM endpoints.
- Run smoke tests for key user journeys.
- Go-live:
- Open SplendidCRM to end users.
- Monitor system health, queue lengths, and error logs closely for 24–72 hours.
- Provide immediate triage support for critical issues.
Post-migration validation and hypercare
- Perform reconciliation: verify that record counts and key KPIs match expectations; sample-check critical accounts/opportunities for data correctness.
- Monitor user adoption metrics (logins, records created, dashboards run) and gather user feedback.
- Triage and fix issues found during hypercare; prioritize fixes by business impact.
- Schedule a retrospective with stakeholders to document lessons learned and update runbooks.
Rollback plan (if needed)
- Define clear rollback criteria before cutover (e.g., critical integrations failing, data integrity failures above threshold).
- Ensure you have tested restore procedures for source and target backups.
- If rollback is required, restore source systems to their pre-cutover state and notify users. Preserve logs and migration artifacts for post-mortem.
Ongoing maintenance and optimization
- Schedule regular backups, patching for Windows/.NET/IIS/SQL Server, and SplendidCRM updates.
- Periodically review data quality and run deduplication/cleanup jobs.
- Iterate on workflows and reports based on user feedback and changing business needs.
- Track performance metrics and scale infrastructure as usage grows.
Quick pre-migration checklist (summary)
- Executive sponsor and project team assigned
- Deployment model chosen (on‑prem vs cloud VM)
- Source systems inventoried and data mapped to SplendidCRM model
- Environments provisioned: dev, test, production
- ETL scripts and validation tools built and tested
- Data cleansing and enrichment completed or scheduled
- Workflows, reports, and integrations rebuilt and tested
- User training delivered; UAT completed and signed off
- Backup, rollback, and go‑live plans validated
- Hypercare support scheduled
Migrating to SplendidCRM requires meticulous planning across data, infrastructure, integrations, and people. Following this checklist will reduce surprises and keep the focus on delivering business value quickly after go‑live.
Leave a Reply