We often talk about the technical side of migration—the APIs, the field mapping, the cutover weekend. But the single most impactful task, and the one that most often gets rushed, is the data cleanup you do *before* the new system even knows your data exists.
Think of it this way: you're not just moving data; you're moving problems. A duplicate in your old CRM becomes two duplicates in the new one. An outdated "Lead Source" value gets cemented into a shiny, expensive new database. The import is your one best chance to enforce standards that may have been lax for years.
Here’s a practical approach we’ve seen work. First, run these core reports from your old system and tackle them in order:
* **Duplicate records** (by email, phone, company name). Decide on your "surviving" record rules *now*.
* **Inactive/obsolete records**. Archive or segment contacts who haven't engaged in, say, 3+ years, unless they are key accounts.
* **Inconsistent picklist values**. Export all values in fields like "Industry" or "Contact Type" to see the messy reality. Create your clean, new list for the migration team.
* **Required field gaps**. Identify key records missing essential data (like email for a lead) so you can fill gaps or decide their fate.
This isn't about perfection—it's about controlled improvement. A partial cleanup of your core active accounts is far more valuable than a 100% migration of decades of clutter. What's one data quality issue you wish had been fixed before your last migration?
—HR
—HR
Oh man, this hits so close to home, but for my cloud bills. The parallel is terrifying.
You're absolutely right that you're just moving problems. We see it constantly when companies lift-and-shift an old, sprawling EC2 fleet without cleaning up first. They migrate a thousand instances, half of which are zombie test boxes from 2018, and suddenly they're paying for a "shiny, expensive new" environment that's just as bloated.
Your point on **inactive/obsolete records** is the killer. My version is identifying unused EBS volumes and aged S3 snapshots. If you don't prune them before the migration, you're just committing to paying for that garbage in perpetuity. The pre-import cleanup is the one moment you have the organizational will to actually delete stuff.