During several decades CRM technology delivers the facilitation of cumbersome processes, enhances employees heavy-manual routine with the automation option, and meets the personalization requirements of customers.
However, the change became a new constant of business and everyday life, and regular innovations appear along with growing customer requirements. The whole situation spurs vendors to consider about migration from their current CRM systems. Some businesses aim to implement a cloud solution, others want to reduce expenses on the outdated platform and improve their service quality. The primary objective of this white paper is to lead a business owner through the main stages of CRM migration process. It also supplies you with practical and useful tips about why, when and how to switch your data to another CRM platform.
Why to Perform the CRM Migration?
Every business owner wants to run a profitable and competitive company. In fact, the wish to be the best is the initial step in the list of the most success stories, as well as cases of vendors who failed.
DEFINE EFFECTIVENESS OF CRM SOLUTION
In the light of business running, each vendor states that CRM solution offered by them is workable and truly effective. It sounds quite promotional. So, before you start to enumerate reasons why you desperately need a new CRM, take a look at this checklist and figure out the level of your existing solution power.
System enables an easy-to-use UI and some configurations of the filters, access permissions and other business rules. (But it restricts deeper customization of the application what forces you to comply your strategy to the CRM platforms.)
Within the contact manager, you have contacts, companies and leads, and these modules are supposed to facilitate the process of data entry. (However, this brought the reverse effect and increased the number of duplications, inaccuracy and information inconsistency.)
Automation tools for marketing and sales performance enhance the process of email campaigns and follow-ups sending out, as well as offer the scheduling ability. (Yet, your solution has no customer segmentation option so it is challenging to find the right audience for your campaigns. And more than half of your emails and follow-ups get a wide berth from receivers.)
Reporting and analytics are vital for every stage of your business performance as long as these capabilities provide the basis for the data-driven decisions and justifying the budget. (Your CRM system offers a number of filters, but they usually fail at providing real-time reports. Besides, the notifications about records updates come with a delay. There is no sales pipeline so you can see what’s going on with the transactions at a glance.)
The solution allows integration with the back-office systems, mailboxes, social media and various third-party add-ons. (Thus, the option depends on the type of your plan. In fact, the higher licence price, the more abilities you get.)
If you find that your CRM suits the both parts of these descriptions, you should take it seriously and consider changing your solution for avoiding business collapse.
COMMON REASONS FOR CRM MIGRATION
There are 5 justified groups of reasons why companies came up with a decision to migrate their current CRM. Here they are:
Functionality This set of reasons includes such aspects as outdated functionality, lack of process automation, limited ability of integration with add-ons & office systems.
Information Management The main troubles are the quality and transparency of data within the company. Besides, there is the urgent need in the improvement of customer records accuracy and duplication eradication.
System Operations This area requires the Improvement of the system performance speed and flexibility of the processes. Also, data collection and updating require a single standard rules for maintenance the relevancy and consistency of information. The issue of system scalability and access permissions should be enabled.
Vendor The pricing policy is going to change and the vendor service support withdrawing. There are some hidden fees that increase the expenses on the licences.
Organizational This group includes such aspects as hardware change, restructuring of the company and appearance of new business units, as well as reducing of total costs of the ownership.
Having this list of troubles, you may specify the weak areas of your strategy and performance, as well as figure out what aspects require immediate renovation.
Determine Your Business Needs
Every business is distinct and has particular approaches to process management. In case your strategy, team and CRM system don’t align, it is high time to consider the critical goals and objectives, as well as tools and features necessary for successful accomplishment.
Obviously, the customer is in the center of your strategy, but you need to figure out what processes (marketing, sales or support service) demand more budgeting and tools.
Pay attention to your employees - how they use the CRM or do they use it? The way your team works with system influences the value of overall company performance. So, define which trainings are required and conduct them for advancing your staff qualification.
When to Perform Your CRM Migration?
Having come up with a list of reasons for CRM import, you still feel hesitant and question - when is the right time? Well, there are at least 5 signs that it is time to look for a new CRM.
Your system is older than 5 years, and there are 2+ new versions
The solution works only on premise
It lacks the mobility function
You face the challenge with data reporting
CRM provides no segmentation option
Once you are sure that your organization calls for the changes, take care about the selection of a new CRM, strategy revising, and staff retraining as well.
Checklist of Required Tools
CRM industry continues to evolve and offers various innovations nearly on a daily basis. How to choose the vendor? What kind of tools or characteristics look for? For picking up the right CRM, you should draw up a list of features and options you will need for effective business management, as well as support of company growth.
Here is a sample set of features that will serve you as a basis for your list of demands. It can (and should) be added with your specific requirements.
Comprehensive UI with configuration options
Flexible CRM architecture that allows to make programming customization and ensures the system-strategy alignment (instead of strategy tailoring to CRM abilities)
Cloud version is more effective due to the mobility, easy access, low initial costs and excluding of the expenses on the hardware and IT team. Comprehensive contact and lead manager
Automation option for marketing, sales and workflows optimization
Customer segmentation feature for improving the quality of targeted and personalized campaigns
Access permissions, data-sharing options for informational transparency within a company
Extended analytics with various dashboards and pipelines for tracking every transaction stage
Open API for system integration with other standalone solutions and mobile apps support
Options for data cleansing, deduplication and backup feature for avoiding critical file loss or damage
Tips to a New CRM Selection
Another challenging aspect is how to select the right CRM. The following troubleshooting list will help you to choose your CRM vendor.
There is an option to test the system in action by acquiring a free demo account at least for 14 days
CRM provider doesn’t lock up your data, and there is no interruption in the uptime (if you want to implement a cloud CRM)
Solution updates are free of charge and require no hidden fees
Make sure that CRM vendor provides you with an open API and what limitation it has.
This feature guarantees the ability to integrate with third-party solutions for supporting your system with additional applications
Access permissions, data-sharing options for informational transparency within a company
Apart from customizable filters, CRM must have various reports, pipelines for enabling overall organization performance analysis
Find out what is the length of an average system implementation and whether your team will require extra training
Preparing for the CRM Migration
Every business activity requires planning and CRM rolling out project is no exception. After building your new strategy and selecting the appropriate CRM vendor, you should take care of your database.
The starting point of your preparation to the CRM migration should be data cleansing. This process includes copies detection and further merging (if it possible). Then you need to analyze the semantics and what signs and figures are used in the fields. Usually, these differences are the root of inaccurate and irrelevant records.
Next step is drawing up a list of requirement for the data entry and update processes. With the single rules, your employees will create fewer copies. To ensure the rules are obeyed, you may set up a penalty costs for the copies, incomplete contacts, and records without an owner.
Some businesses neglect the golden rule of constantly changed database - backup option. You should underestimate the value of this feature. It prevents records loss and critical documents damage.
Finishing with the database preparation, as well as knowing what is your desired CRM, it is high time to think about the mode of data migration.
The Advantages of Trujay.Migration
Automatically CRM Migration
automation assures your transfer to be swift and simple
Custom Fields Migration
custom transfer to meet the special company requirements
Free Demo Migration
test transition offers you to observe the service in action
100% Uptime of Both CRMs
no downtime and interruptions of the business processes
Modules and Users Mapping
fields and users mapping in accordance with the business needs
Data Security and Privacy
security regulations guarantee to treat the information privately
Drawing Up A Bottom Line
The successful business requires a lot of time, efforts and expenses. CRM technology facilitates the manual work, but it is always innovating. So, there is a set of various reasons why you should migrate such as lack of functionality, data transparency, and extra expenses. Besides, you need to rethink your strategy and define what tools and features are necessary for improvement. As well, you know what aspects to look for in the choice of CRM.
And, finally, you have a clear understanding about modes of data migration. So, you have covered all the missing points and already aware what does it take to advance your business by force of CRM migration
