The Important Steps for ACT to MS Migration

Since the platforms for both ACT to MS CRM are diverse, one needs to take necessary steps for a smooth migration, and needs to be performed by experts only.

In order to manage a company’s interactions with its current and future customers, systems such as the customer relationship management play a vital role. CRM helps to organize, automate and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service and technical support. Modern CRM systems possess a variety of characteristics including relationship management, sales force automation, data warehousing and opportunity management.

Sage ACT! CRM is a CRM system that is used to keep track of present and prospective clients and has the ability to integrate with applications that help to generate and track communications with contacts maintained in the database. However, ACT! CRM lacks certain functions like modern integration capabilities, lack of automation, detailed reporting and poor management of marketing campaigns. Due to this, a lot of enterprises today are looking to migrate their systems from ACT! to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses proprietary .Net based framework that can be customized to suit the varying needs of customers. Dynamics CRM is an IIS-based web application that focuses mainly on sales, marketing and service.

Often a CRM system like Microsoft Dynamics CRM has to be customized before data can be migrated. Customization not only ensures smooth migration of data but also ensures business processes are matched. Migrating from ACT! to Microsoft Dynamics CRM needs Microsoft SQL skills to ensure smooth transition of data to the latter. While opting for a migration from ACT! to Dynamics CRM, it is very important to consider a few aspects to guarantee seamless movement:

• Whether all the data from the old system needs to be moved to the new system or if the new system needs to be implemented on a clean slate.
• A good study of the current reports that are being generated and a plan to improve the quality and efficiency of those reports
• Whether the new system kick off instantly or if both systems need to run in parallel for a specified period of time
• A plan to overcome any challenges that were being faced by users using the older system in order to enhance the overall experience

Once the above aspects are looked into, the CRM is ready to be migrated. It is imperative for developers to make sure all ACT! users have been created as Microsoft Dynamic CRM users. A local SQL database creation will provide more control and integration and avoid any data issues. Specific tools can be used to automate the migration of ACT! to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Software companies today have the necessary experience and expertise to support end users of CRM for a quick and successful migration. While organizations can focus all their attention on running their business, CRM migration companies can take care of the complexities around data conversion. All data from ACT! CRM is transformed and mapped to the right entities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The migration process starts by installation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM on the same system as ACT! Before starting to import data from ACT!, users and custom fields need to be created. Once that is done, a proper analysis of what data needs to be migrated needs to be carried out. The next step is to create connectors to the ACT database and Microsoft Dynamics CRM that helps in mapping users between both the systems. Along with users, companies and contacts are also imported in order to ensure all relevant data is migrated and the new system is ready to be used.