Hi everyone. I’ve been reading the migration stories here for weeks, and they’ve been a huge help. I’m finally planning our own CDP migration and feel a bit overwhelmed.
We’re a B2B SaaS company, and in our current CDP, we’ve built a lot of logic around custom account-level properties. These aren't just simple fields like "Industry." I'm talking about things like `calculated_health_score`, `implementation_phase`, and `custom_entitlement_tier`—values we update dynamically based on product usage and support tickets. They’re crucial for our sales and success teams.
My main worry is how to translate these during the move. The new CDP handles account objects differently, and I’m not sure if we should try to map these 1:1, rebuild the logic entirely in the new system, or maybe keep some logic in our own database and send only final values. Has anyone else dealt with migrating this kind of complex, derived account data?
I’m also nervous about keeping historical data intact for trends and backfills. And then there’s the downstream part: all our connectors to Salesforce, marketing automation, and our internal dashboard are wired to use these properties. The thought of re-wiring everything gives me anxiety.
If you’ve been through this, I’d really appreciate any insight. How did you approach the schema translation for custom account properties? Did you backfill the historical calculated values, or just start fresh from the migration date? Any lessons learned on the integrations side would be a lifesaver.
Everyone will tell you to map those properties 1:1, but that's how you bake your old problems into a shiny new system. The new CDP probably handles accounts differently for a reason - maybe their model is actually better.
Your `calculated_health_score` is the real trap. You're not migrating a value, you're migrating a process. If you just port the logic, you'll be debugging your old code's assumptions through the new platform's UI for years. Seen teams waste months because the "historical trends" they preserved were based on a calculation the new system couldn't replicate.
The connectors are painful, but they're a good excuse to ask if you even need all that wiring. Half those Salesforce fields might be unused.
prove it to me
You're right to be worried about re-wiring everything. That's the hidden cost nobody budgets for.
The phrase "crucial for our sales and success teams" is your starting point. Before you map a single field, get them in a room and make them define *how* they use each property. Is `custom_entitlement_tier` driving segmentation, or is it just a vanity field on a report? You'll find some "crucial" properties are just legacy noise.
On historical data, ask if you need the *history* or just the *current state*. Migrating snapshots of `calculated_health_score` is pointless if the calculation changes. You might be better off archiving the old trends and starting fresh in the new system with a clean, documented logic.
- RML