The most common mistake is migrating 'everything we have'. The result is a brand-new system cluttered with duplicates and obsolete contacts, causing your team to lose trust in the tool within the first week.
A professional migration plan explicitly defines what will not be moved and where that information will be stored, preventing future requests for data recovery while keeping the production environment lean.
In short
- Formally document what to migrate versus what to archive.
- Clean data within the source file using documented rules.
- Deduplicate using stable identifiers (e.g., VAT number or unique ID).
- Run a test import on a sample set before the full migration.
- Perform post-import audits on control figures: account counts and total values.
What is worth migrating in most cases
Use this reference list to filter your legacy data:
- Accounts with activity within the last 2-3 years.
- Contact persons with valid, verified email addresses.
- Open sales opportunities and active pipelines.
- Aggregated order history for commercial context.
- Key documents: valid contracts and active SLAs.
Post-import verification
Compare control figures: the total number of accounts, number of contacts, and the total value of open opportunities. Manually audit a random sample of ten complete account records. Only after full validation should access to the legacy system be revoked.
Frequently asked questions
See how it works in CRMconnect
Native modules for sales, quoting and reporting, integrated with the ERP you already run.
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