Data migration services

What data migration services actually involve

Exporting a CSV and importing it somewhere else is the easy 10 percent. The real work is everything around it: figuring out what each field means, deciding where it belongs in the new system, cleaning up years of inconsistent entries, and proving afterward that the numbers still add up.

A customer record in an old system might be spread across three tables, with phone numbers in four formats, a “notes” field that someone used to store order totals, and duplicates for every customer who ever changed their email. A good migration finds all of that before launch day, not after.

Where businesses usually migrate from

• Spreadsheets and shared drives, often dozens of files that each hold part of the picture.
• Desktop and on-premise software, including Access databases, FileMaker files and old SQL Server installs.
• SaaS tools you have outgrown or are leaving, such as a CRM, project tool or booking system, using their export files or API.
• Accounting systems, for customer lists, invoices and payment history that the new software needs to reference.
• Email inboxes and document folders, where attachments and correspondence need to be linked to the right client or job.

How we run a data migration

1. Inventory the sourcesWe list every place the data lives today, how to get it out, and who knows what each part means.
2. Map old fields to newEach field gets a destination, a rule for converting it, or a decision to leave it behind, agreed with you in writing.
3. Clean and de-duplicateWe fix formats, merge duplicates and flag records that need a human decision, rather than guessing.
4. Do a test runA full trial import goes into a copy of the new system so your team can look around and spot anything wrong.
5. Check the numbersWe compare record counts, totals and a sample of individual records between the old and new systems.
6. Cut overOn an agreed date we do the final import, freeze the old system as read-only, and your team starts working in the new one.

The problems we plan for

Most migrations that go wrong fail in predictable ways. We build the plan around them from the start:

• Lost relationships, where invoices end up separated from their customers or notes from their jobs.
• Dates and currencies that shift because the old system stored them in a different format or time zone.
• Attachments that are referenced by file path but never actually exported.
• Data entered after the export but before launch, which needs a final catch-up import.
• Fields nobody remembers the purpose of, which we flag and ask about rather than drop silently.

Migration tools vs. a migration done as part of the build

Some SaaS vendors offer import wizards, and services like Import2 can move data between popular CRMs. They work well when both systems are mainstream products with similar structures, for example moving contacts from one well-known CRM to another.

They struggle when the source is a custom database or a pile of spreadsheets, or when the destination is software built specifically for your business. In those cases the migration is really a small project of its own, and it goes best when the people building the new system also move the data into it, because they know exactly where every field should land.

What it costs

At Zoti, data migration is part of a custom software project rather than a separate line item. Custom projects start at $499/month, covering design, development, hosting and ongoing changes. How much effort the migration takes depends on the number of sources, how much cleanup the data needs and how far back the history goes, and all of that is set out in a written quote before work begins.