Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to all this, so please go easy on me! I've been reading a ton of posts here while we plan our own CRM switch from a legacy system to a more modern platform.
I keep seeing migration plans that include moving *everything*—every contact, every note, every old email from 10+ years ago. The quotes for that are... shocking. It got me thinking: is that really necessary?
At my last job, we did a big migration and spent a fortune moving all historical data. But after the switch, the sales team almost never looked at records older than 2-3 years. All that archived data just sat there, making the new system slower and more cluttered from day one. We also had to spend weeks cleaning and mapping fields for data we never used.
So my (maybe unpopular) opinion is this: paying a huge premium to migrate 100% of historical data is often a waste. Wouldn't it be smarter to just migrate active accounts and recent interactions, and archive the rest in a read-only format (like a simple database or even CSV files) for legal/compliance needs?
Am I missing something? What are the real risks of not bringing *everything* over? I'm especially worried about breaking reporting or losing deal history, but maybe there are clever ways to handle that too.
Would love to hear from anyone who's done a selective migration or regrets paying for a full one. Thanks for any guidance—this community has already been a huge help! 🙏