Let’s be honest – if you’ve spent 10+ years using a certain CRM (or worse – spreadsheets!), chances are, you are in possession of a pretty significant set of data. And with over 73% of companies moving towards using some kind of recruiting acquisition software, it’s pretty clear that sooner or later, they will need all that data moved.
There’s rarely a standard as to how long your data migration should take, as it depends on a variety of factors – from the process you’re using to the amount of data you want to transfer. With that being said, a lot of agency owners hesitate before making the move. We’re here to tell you that data migration can be painless – if done right!
Find a CRM that manages your migration in-house
One of the most basic things to do is making sure the software you’re changing into offers in-house data migration management instead of outsourcing it. Cost can be a major factor in putting people off moving, but data migrations don’t need to be expensive – as long as the CRM you are moving to manages the migration in-house. This is often the most coft-effective way of transferring your data, whilst outsourcing the data migration can be painful for both yourself as the agency owner and the CRM provider if the communication channels don’t work well (and many things can get lost in translation!). Considering that this is one of the first things you do after purchasing the new CRM, it’s important to get it right – and make the transition as smooth as possible.
Make sure you have a choice in migration types
One of the main advantages of data migration is the data clean-up that’s involved in it – so it’s only logical you might not want to migrate all your data from the past 20 years! Make sure your chosen provider offers different types of data migration that will allow you to choose what you want to keep. I hear so many recruitment agency owners saying: ‘I’m going to clean up my data before I move to a new system’, whilst moving to a new system is the perfect time to just that! Your new provider should be looking to do this with you as part of the migration, so always ask about the types he offers and the process behind each one.
Search for hands-on service
The worst thing that can happen is getting stuck in the middle of your migration because of lack of communication or misunderstandings – which often happens if your provider doesn’t keep you in the loop at all times (which is more often than you’d think!). Let's be honest, you’re probably not a data expert, and your new provider shouldn’t think that you are. Instead, they should have those experts in-house, ready to help you and guide you through the entire process. Trust me, taking the advice of somebody who’s been involved in hundreds of migrations will make the whole thing a lot smoother and stress-free. However, if your chosen provider doesn’t have that kind of experience, you might want to have a look elsewhere!
Check the cross-object dependencies
With big sets of data, especially in recruitment, it’s normal that some data sets depend on others. Make sure you double-check all the links, so you don’t omit some important data sets in the process! Your new provider should be asking you for screenshots of the data that already exists in your current system – just to check how it’s stored and what’s the logic behind it, as well as to make sure if there are documents stored in your system that should be linked to specific objects, and so on. They will go through all the data sets and ask you about your preferences for the new ways of storing it – so make sure you know what it looks like now and what you expect from the new system!
Create a plan
This one might seem obvious, but a lot of agency owners treat data migrations lightly and fail to prepare a plan. A good provider will help you with that, but it’s important you have all the steps set ahead and a clear view of what will be happening. Ask your new provider if they have a plan for moving your data, who is responsible for certain tasks, will you be able to see on the plan how the project is progressing, and what lines of communication you have. If you have a clear plan, a fixed timescale, and both parties are agreed on the actions required, you should find that moving the data is not as scary as you might think.
To know all there is about storing and managing your data – and all the benefits that come from it – make sure you read our eBook below!
