There are a variety of coding environments, CRM tools, and other business applications that companies use to track and manage their data. Salesforce has quickly become a major name when it comes to addressing these needs, leading people to make the jump from one platform to the other.
But what happens to all your system information when you move from one environment to another?
Another possibility is that your data is spread throughout a variety of orgs or environments. This makes it difficult to maintain a reliable and useful set of data that can be used to gain insights and improve company performance.
A singular repository of system and company data enables your team to make the most of the available information. And a Salesforce data migration tool is an essential process to achieve this.
But how do you approach this daunting task? There could be thousands of pieces of data that need to be transferred to maintain functionality. Metadata relationships are important to preserve. Sensitive customer data might be subject to government regulations to ensure proper handling.
Salesforce data migration tools can be an incredibly helpful process, but only if it’s done correctly. We’ll explore the specifics of what goes into this process, what you can expect, as well as some tips to get the most from it:
What Is Salesforce Data Migration?
As we mentioned above, it might become necessary to move system data from one platform to another. Salesforce is a powerful cloud-based environment that offers many inherent benefits such as reliable security, customization, and the potential for fast application development.
Data migration is the process of moving your company’s data from one platform or system to another.
There are many factors that can influence the difficulty of performing this task. Larger sets of data are going to take more time and make it more difficult to ensure the validity of the transferred data. An incomplete transfer can lead to lost information that impacts the functionality of the new platform or compromise the integrity of the resulting data repository.
The type of data will also impact the complexity of the Salesforce data migration tool. Simple attributes and other straightforward pieces of information will be less complex as they might not have relationships that need to be maintained. Metadata and other parent-child relationships are more complex in nature, and therefore will be more complex to transfer.
The source repository will need to be verified for accuracy in order to perform a successful data transfer.
The goal of the entire process is to be able to work with the same data sets in a new location. This could be due to the data previously residing in multiple orgs or environments, or maybe you’re simply upgrading to a quality platform like Salesforce.
Whatever the reason for pursuing data migration, a reliable and singular data repository makes it much easier to store, backup, and utilize the data for insights and functionality.
Benefits of Data Migration
Data Integrity
Accurate and consistent data ensures nothing falls between the cracks within your business.
Salesforce data migration tools aim to verify your data once it is compiled into a singular location to guarantee comprehensive data integrity.
Understanding and trusting your data is an important part of knowing how to use it. Your system data needs to be cared—especially if the information contained is sensitive. This is dictated not only by government regulations, but simple best practices for businesses.
Proper Storage
You need to be mindful of the way you store your data. Improper storage can create data security risks, make it more difficult for people to get the information they need, and even lead to losing the data altogether.
Migrating your data to a singular location streamlines the process of finding and using the information your team needs.
Backing up your system data is an essential aspect of a complete data security plan. This effort will be made much easier—and cheaper—if all your system data is located within a singular platform.
Data Governance
Moving your data into a singular location is a great start to ensuring you maintain a quality pool of data. However, that isn’t the only step.
Data governance is aimed at ensuring your Salesforce data is accurate and reliable. Data migration is the first step in this effort.
Tracking and arranging your system data is much more difficult when your team has to hop between multiple environments. Migrating this data into a singular location streamlines this essential process.
Insights
The quality of your data has a huge impact on your ability to make informed decisions as a business. And much how data governance works to improve the quality of your data, data migration makes it easier to access your data.
System data can be easily located when it is in a singular location and used to inform future decisions.
Salesforce data migration makes it easier to locate and interpret system data, essentially increasing the value of this information.
Best Practices for Salesforce Data Migration
1. Take Your Time with Setup
Proper preparation is a major deciding factor between successful and less-than-successful data migrations. Meticulously define the data that you would like to migrate to a new location. Those working with multiple original sources will need to go through and tag the various sources and types of data.
2. Clearly Map Data Routes
Tagging the data in multiple sources will help to map them toward the correct area within your destination environment. For instance, if you would like to combine customer contact information that is currently spread throughout various platforms, assign them a unique identifier that can be compiled once migrated.
3. Use a Reliable Data Migration Tool
Like any other DevOps process, there are a variety of choices for the tool that will perform the function. Salesforce even has their own data migration tool. However, the most useful data migration tools will be able to address various types of data, verify data integrity, and offer scheduled migrations.
4. Verify Proper Transfer
Go through the newly compiled data repository and verify the data relationships and file types have been maintained. Improperly migrated data can become corrupted, and improper data will not provide the benefits you hope to see.