Salesforce to Dynamics CRM Migration

What is CRM?

Before we start with Salesforce to Dynamics CRM Migration, you must know what is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which refers to practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle to optimize customer service relationships, assist customer retention, and drive sales growth. The market is overflowing with CRM solutions/software, but it is very important to make the right choice to grow your business. Both Dynamics CRM and Salesforce are CRM solutions/software.

Why Should you migrate from Salesforce to Dynamics CRM?

If you are considering a Customer Engagement solution for your organization, you will mainly come across two choices: Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Salesforce. These solutions are recognized market and feature leaders. Having helped a lot of clients make the migration from Salesforce to Dynamics 365 CRM, De Facto team understands well why the switch from Salesforce to Dynamics CRM is a must.  So, here we are with some reasons pointing to the conclusion that Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM is the superior choice over Salesforce in CRM solutions:

• Matchless integration with other technologies– This is the main reason that makes Dynamics CRM the leading choice. People invest in Dynamics CRM because of its seamless integration with other familiar Microsoft technologies. This solution works smoothly with apps, including SharePoint, Yammer, Outlook, and Office.
• Costing: If you study the market, Salesforce is the most expensive CRM solution out there. The cost per user for Dynamics 365 CRM is nearly half as compared to Salesforce CRM. In fact, Dynamics CRM offers more features at a more reasonable price- a better value. Also, Salesforce has a reputation for hidden costs
• Easy to use: Dynamics CRM is easy to use due in part to its similarity and compatibility of many well-known and well-used programs. Having something easy to use in your organization can be a distinct advantage.
• Data Ownership: Your data is yours to keep, but that’s not something you will find mentioned in the Salesforce policies. Salesforce charges extra for API access or data backups, whereas, backups of your Microsoft CRM data are available upon request and API access to your data is taken care of in your subscription.

These are the key reasons that make Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM the clear choice in CRM solutions.

Process

Dynamics CRM Data Migration is just five easy steps away:

• Design/Plan: Find out the data sources and determine what needs to be migrated. This step is significant to find out how many records will need to be migrated for each entity, which will further be helpful in determining the most suitable migration tool, and each parties’ responsibilities. Once done, map fields from the source system to the corresponding target fields/entities in CRM.
• Extract: Next, extract the data from the source system(s).
• Transform: Transform the data so that it is compliant with the target system (Dynamics CRM) and ready to be imported. This process may include changing data types, modifying formats, and at times, data cleansing and de-duplication.
• Load: Import the data into the target system. This can be done through automated scripts, tools such as Scribe or SSIS, or manually.
• Verify: The last and the most important part of the data migration process is to verify if the data is migrated successfully. You can do this by comparing record counts, spot checking records, or by developing validation routines. To avoid the risks related to go-live, we highly recommend a test migration as a part of UAT. A client must do data validation/verification.

Choose the right Migration Tool/Approach

Before you initiate the data migration, you must select how the data will be transferred. To move data, you need a way to connect the two systems. For best data migration results, you must use one of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM data migration tools/approaches:

Scribe

Scribe should be considered for complex migrations and integrations, including scheduled jobs and data transformation. This Microsoft supported tool is a SAS tool that offers different packages to suit different levels of service needs. This is a superb tool if you want to integrate with other databases that might not have an adapter built. The file format that is preferred if flat is .csv. For Scribe, all you need to know is the tool and SQL scripting. It is a highly used approach as it is easy to use because of a user-friendly UI.

Visit the link below for Case Study: Salesforce to Dynamics CRM Migration Using Scribe

https://www.defactoinfotech.com/salesforce-ms-dynamics-crm-migration-using-scribe/ 

Manual

This is a manual approach towards migration, using CSV file exports from Salesforce to import into Dynamics CRM. This requires field name translation in the CSV file and likely sorting out/deleting unwanted data to build the files. This approach is recommended only for very simple migration environments where the data is limited to 2-3 major entities, and need minimal customization. Many people initially consider this approach but then finds it rarely practical once they decide that they want a wider view of their customers with sales and service information.

SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services)

SQL Server Integration Services is a component of the Microsoft SQL Server database software that can be used to perform a broad range of data migration tasks. SSIS is a platform for data integration and workflow applications.

This approach uses SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and the CRM Software Development Kit (SDK) to send data from multiple data sources to CRM through the CRM web service API. This approach requires a skilled .Net Development and a SQL Server database administrator. As the data goes through the CRM web service API, this option is fully supported.

SSIS has a very intuitive workflow designer that can bring multiple endpoint data together and send it on to the destination data points such as CRM.

An SSIS package is recommended when there is a tremendous amount of data to be moved, millions of records. SSIS performs the same functionality as Scribe but it is a package being coded instead of the use of a UI. SSIS packages are powerful and transfer huge amounts of data faster but could take more time to develop then building a Scribe job.

Most customers have an installation of Microsoft SQL Server and can use SSIS without spending any extra money, so the toolset cost becomes one of these adapters.

One such commonly used SSIS solution is:

KingswaySoft: KingswaySoft is an integration toolkit built on SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). It is an on-premise solution, but can be cloud if installed on a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS). This tool can be intimidating if the user is not a developer since you have to develop within Visual Studio or SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Conclusion:

The unique needs of your organization decide the tool you need. If you want to import only accounts and contacts, the Import Wizard is the choice. In case, you have huge data to move or a lot of records linked together, then Scribe is all that you need. Whereas, if you have more than one integrations to complete, you have to develop an expertise in Scribe or SSIS. If you have a technical person who can do SSIS, then that is the way. Scribe is the most widely used solution because of its easy-to-use UI.

How can De Facto Infotech help you?

De Facto Infotech is a Microsoft-Certified Gold Partner, offering best in class services for the implementation, migration, and upgrade of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Office 365. Over the years, we have helped numerous business streamline sales, optimize resources, mitigate risks, boost ROI and improve overall business performance by implementing or migrating to Dynamics 365 and Office 365.