Plan the data structure.
Most contemporary CRM's use
an Account/Contact and Lead model to categorize the contacts within
the database. Historically, ACT! has been contact-centric. While ACT!
did provide the ability to use Companies, most people didn't use this
function. If an ACT! contact is not assigned to a Company, the Exporter
software will create the Account. Accounts can be created using several
criterion, name, name+city, name+state and name+zip. How you create
the Accounts will depend on how your sales team works with the
Accounts. The
Salesforce for Dummies book defines an Account, Contacts and Leads as
... "the account record" is supported by other records (contacts, opportunities,
cases, activates etc.) that give you a complete view of your customer.
"the contact record" is a collection of data that consists of the information
on a person you do business with. "the lead" is a person or a company
that might be interested in your services. You can split your ACT! database
into Contacts and Leads by using groups and using the Group filter option
of the Exporter to first export the Accounts/Contacts and then the Leads.
While this two-step process may seem a bit tedious, doing it up-front
is far easier than attempting to do it after import.
Consider Leads.
Most contemporary CRM software like Salesforce.com and ZOHO have a Lead category. ACT doesn't
have this. It can be very helpful to declutter your database and keep the users focused on
only the important data. For import, you could separate the Contacts who have old edit dates and
import these as Leads.
Determine which data fields will be transferred.
ACT! has no restrictions on how many user fields you create.
Most CRM software packages do have limits. So, you need to set some
realistic design limits about which of the ACT! fields will migrate
and on which record they will reside. Many ACT! users have fields assigned
to contacts that really should be on the Account record. The Exporter
software will produce a report labeled Migration Summary. This will
show you all your user fields in ACT! and how they have been used. If
a field is only used on 1% of your records, it's unlikely that it will
be used more in the future. Since cloud base systems use browsers, you
do not have a graphical display and can't squeeze tons of fields into
a small space. So, don't confuse your users with tons of data. Pick
what is pertinent and shed the rest.
Limit your historical
data.
ACT! seems to be the perfect solution for hoarders.
We've seen databases where there were several GBs of data dating back
to the DOS days of ACT! Is this data really viable? By keeping outdated
data around, it clutters the data presented and the users loose the
true focus which should be the current stuff. The Exporter software
will allow you to filter out old records for each of the ACT! tables.
You also need to understand how the historical data will be used. Some
CRM software limits things like searches. For example, Salesforce will
archive data older than 1 year. So if you plan to search this data,
you need to make sure you have the archive parameters changed for your
database.
Determine how you're going to test your
data in the new environment.
We always recommend loading a
sample of your data. The Exporter software will allow you to use a
limited contact sample or you can select a group that you've set up in ACT!
By using the group, you can add your most important customers into the
group and verify that the new system will work with these contacts.
Determine which users will be moving from ACT!
Unlike
most cloud based CRMs, ACT! allows you to have inactive users
The users moving should be added to your new CRM for the testing process.
The Exporter software will allow you to reassign the inactive users
but will keep the Record Manager field which will allow you to trace
back the entries made by the inactive users.
Load and test the sample.
This is a critical part of the process. It's
imperative that users understand and participate in this test. We've
seen many cases where the data looked OK to the tech person. But after
loading a few GBs of data, a few users simply couldn't live with the new
solution. Backing out and redoing is a time consuming and costly process
that should be definitely avoided. Remember, most users will avoid new
things. They're comfortable using ACT! and trying the new software will
slow down their day. So make sure they've logged on and used the new
stuff. Most cloud-based software will have statistics on that.
Get some preliminary training done.
We like to
see the training done using the test load. This way users can see their
data in the new software. Training at this time can be the basic concepts
like how Accounts are defined. Each migrating user should try to complete
their normal daily ACT! tasks. Enter a new Lead, schedule a call with
an existing customer, generate their favorite report, create a new Opportunity
etc.
