Data migration software vendors sometimes portray their CRM migration software as a simple, point and click, drag and drop solution.
While a packaged software approach may be fairly smooth for more straightforward cases of CRM data and database structure, the reality is that many data migration situations have complexities that make them difficult to manage using a GUI mapping tool.
For example, there can be a need for transforming data in a non-formulaic way — how data from a specific field is transformed can depend on the data itself. Also, micro decisions may need to be made throughout the data migration process and these decision points can translate into numerous, iterative data loads. Next, unanticipated instances of data cleansing may need to be performed part way through the process, which means hitting the brakes in order to take care of data quality issues.
For these and other reasons, certain CRM data migration scenarios may require manual intervention that’s beyond the capabilities of what a packaged tool can deliver. Sometimes, it just takes good, old fashioned elbow grease to get the job done properly.
