Move your CRM without losing your history
Migration to Salesforce with complete data — without a period when no one knows where to log their work.
The decision to move to Salesforce is rarely held back by features. It is stopped by three fears: that history will be lost, that the team will spend a month working in two systems, and that in the end everyone will go back to spreadsheets anyway. Here is how we remove all three.
The old system isn't shut down the day the new one goes live
The biggest fear before a migration is not technical but psychological: the moment you've let go of the old system and haven't yet verified the new one. That is why the cutover is not a switch but an overlap: the old system stays frozen and available for an agreed period, so every record can be checked against its source.
It becomes read-only on the day Salesforce goes live. That is the one hard edge, and it is deliberate: two open systems are the surest way to end up using neither.
What moves and what stays
Migration isn't copying a database. What we don't move is as important as what we do. That is why it is agreed up front, not discovered afterwards.
What moves
- contacts, companies and the relationships between them
- opportunities with their full history, including lost ones
- activities: calls, meetings, notes and correspondence
- attachments and documents, linked to the record they belong to
- custom fields that someone actually uses
- record ownership and access rights
- open tasks and scheduled next steps
What we deliberately leave behind
- duplicates — merged before the move, not after
- fields that have been empty for three years
- records with no owner and no activity at all
- processes that existed only because the old system could not handle them any other way
- reports nobody has ever opened
- automations that were being switched off by hand anyway
Five steps, each with a clear finish
Every step has a result you can see and approve. There is no phase where you wait without knowing how far things have gotten.
-
01
Inventory and estimate 1–2 weeks
We open your existing system and count: how many records, how many fields, how many are actually filled in, where the duplicates are and what depends on integrations. The result is a document with scope and price — no ranges.
-
02
Mapping and cleanup 1–2 weeks
Every field gets its place in Salesforce, or a reason why it doesn't have one. Duplicates are merged in the old system, while the people who know them are still around. The result is a map you approve before anything moves.
-
03
Trial migration 1 week
We move everything into a test environment and hand it to you to break. You look up your own records and check that they look right. The result is a list of fixes, and the trial run repeats until the list is empty.
-
04
Cutover one weekend
The main migration runs outside business hours, with the old system frozen so nothing gets lost in the meantime. On Monday morning the team works in Salesforce. The result is one system, not two.
-
05
The first weeks 2–4 weeks
We stay with the team until the habit changes: quick fixes, report additions and training on real cases instead of demo data. The result is adoption, not just delivery.
Which system are you moving from?
Every source has its own spot where migrations usually break. Here is what we watch for with the ones we see most often.
Microsoft Dynamics
Lots of custom fields and processes that rely on Dynamics logic. Most of the time goes into deciding what is worth moving and what was just a workaround for a limitation.
HubSpot
Marketing and sales share a single record, so the difference between a contact and a lead is easily lost. We separate them before the move, so segmentation in Salesforce doesn't start from zero.
Pipedrive
Opportunities are usually tidy, but activity history and attachments are often not linked to the right record. That is where cleanup before the migration pays off most.
Zoho CRM
Modules are easy to add, so there are almost always more of them than are actually used. The inventory shows that half can be left out, which shortens both the work and the training.
SugarCRM and legacy platforms
Exporting is technically simple, but the data is old and the formats are inconsistent. More of the work goes into normalization than into the transfer itself.
Excel and in-house solutions
There is no schema to map — it has to be built. The slowest start, but also a chance to set up processes right the first time.
What can go wrong and how we cover it
These are the things that make companies postpone migrations for years. None of them is made up, and none has a magic fix — each has a procedure.
Data gets lost in transfer
The old system is not shut down at the end — it stays frozen and available for an agreed period. Every migration comes with a report on the number of records transferred and rejected, with the reason for each rejection.
The team keeps working the old way
The old system is switched to read-only on the same day Salesforce goes live. Two open systems are the surest way to end up using neither.
Integrations break
The inventory also covers everything that calls the CRM from outside — the website, ERP, telephony, invoicing. Each one is tested in the trial migration, not on cutover day.
Scope grows along the way
Scope is locked after mapping, which you approve. Anything that comes up after that is a separate agreement, with its own price and its own deadline.
The cutover puts the quarter at risk
You choose the date, based on your own calendar. The main migration runs over a weekend and has a defined point up to which you can still roll back to the old system.
Frequently asked questions about migrating to Salesforce
How much does a migration to Salesforce cost?
It depends on the number of records, attachments, sources and integrations. After the inventory, which takes one to two weeks, you get a document with the scope and a single price, with no ranges.
How long does a migration take?
From inventory to cutover, usually three to five weeks: inventory, mapping and cleanup, a trial migration, then cutover over a single weekend. After that, we stay with the team for another two to four weeks.
Will we lose our history?
No. Opportunities are moved with their full history, along with activities, correspondence and attachments. Every migration comes with a report on the number of records transferred and rejected, and the old system stays frozen and available for verification for an agreed period.
Will the team have to work in two systems for a while?
No. The old system is switched to read-only on the same day Salesforce goes live, because two open systems are the surest way to end up using neither.
Can we combine the migration with the Salesforce implementation?
Yes. EQS Start covers the system setup, and the migration comes as a separate package, before or after it, depending on what is more urgent for you.
Tell us what you're moving from
The first step is an inventory: we open your system, count what's inside and tell you how long it takes and what it costs. One conversation is enough for that.