Mistakes don’t come cheap and hinder the company to venture further. While the same holds true for aspect of IT related management, there are a few course of action which can be easily avoided. Migration mistake cost time and money. An effort to avoid common mistakes while migrating to Cloud CRM from On-Premise increases agility. Mistakes in migration are expected since cloud and IT are two unique spheres with no point of overlap.  By being independent management tools, implementation and execution of IT and cloud is unique. Migration is time consuming not because the procedure is complicated; understanding the behavior of cloud CRM software takes getting used to especially when such a move is a first for a business.

Cloud CRM migration

During the first stages of migration, it is best to leave out mission critical data stores, apps and services. Jumping on the cloud CRM bandwagon must be through measured steps: first the application with least liability transitions, followed by important services. A safe course of action is to start off small and maintain a steady pace. Migration should not be rushed. At the same time, many companies reach limbo at planning stages. Analysis paralysis is a big setback in cloud CRM migration.

A successful cloud CRM migration is executed by the right people. Candidates who are best suited to supervise a migration are the ones who are willing to adapt to changing roles. Only those IT employees who are capable of handling redefined roles determine success of the transition. Those professionals who play traditional roles in the company are retained, reskilled or repurposed.

3 Don’ts of Cloud CRM Migration From On-Premise

1. Don’t failing to analyze apps and business before migration

An elementary mistake most businesses make when the transition is made from on premise to cloud CRM is to overlook analysis of apps and business. Mistakes cost dearly when a company attempts to move all at once. Migration is successful when pursued on a small scale involving a finite number of applications, at a time. Mistakes are avoided when the first step of action is running a portfolio analysis. Through this exercise, which can either be done in-house or outsourced, applications which can withstand change are identified. Before migrating, ideally, the company must categorize all prevalent applications into two: one containing the apps to migrate and second, apps which can be replaced. A typical example of a replaceable app is on-premises email which can be substituted by cloud based Microsoft Office 365.

Another situation to highlight the importance of app analysis is when CRM software of the company is cloud based but is supported by on-premises ECM system. When the chosen cloud service does not offer enterprise content management system, the organisation will be coerced to include customer information in ECM workflows. Such problems are dissolved when application services are offered by the same vendor. Oracle’s cloud based CRM software is built to permit data exchange between on premises Oracle ERP.

The importance of commencing a through business analysis before embarking on a significant shift is essential to main productivity and smooth operations. When a company decides to migrate to Cloud CRM without understanding the benefits of doing so, there are high chances of loss in place of profit. A sense of reasoning and intent driving the migration must be in place. Through a simple business analysis, those applications which hold promise of increased productivity on cloud are identified. Also, apps run at a lower cost and faster on cloud. Post identifying migration worthy apps, tools to facilitate the transition are identified. Cloud CRM is not just a tactic but a strategy to fulfill business objectives like innovation and agility.

1. Don’t underestimate migration cost

An attractive trait of Cloud CRM is cost saving. When apps run on cloud, companies are exempted from paying IT workers to manage elements like email, interact with expensive data centers, and maintain operations, and purchase of supportive hardware. Migrating to cloud costs a certain amount required to move data. Although, cloud providers do not charge data moving, time taken to relocate storage data is extended when data size is magnanimous. Estimating time taken for migration is essential.

There is an upfront cost for cloud migration. While the sum is not as high as on-premises data storage, training cost for data personal must be included. Many responsibilities are rendered unnecessary when data is moved to cloud, forgetting to relocate persons involved, adds to company expenses. At the same time, IT professionals working on different projects are interrupted by migration leading to project delays. It is important to note that such delays are transient and on successful cloud implementation, the same are relieved from mundane tasks.

Cost of switching is less related to technology and more towards business process. Switching cost is influenced by applications which are in current use. Business processes are dependent on the applications they operate. Familiarity sets in with long term usage of a process to set a work flow. When applications are shifted, they are interruptions. Change could also mean rewriting applications to increase cloud compatibility.  Coding needs to be as efficient on multiple networks. A developer must be proficient to deploy apps as efficiently on cloud as on-premises.

1. Don’t reuse or repurpose old hardware

Bring in old hardware on a new cloud is detrimental to network integrity and functionality. When cloud CRM was starting off, there were many early adopters who carried forward old hardware to new private cloud. Efficiency dips when old hardware is used to operate cloud network. Instead, businesses which are gearing up to transition to cloud CRM software must allocate funds to build reliable components.

When a business is attempting its first cloud migration, there are high chances that the IT personnel on the pay roll are unaware or rusty with cloud operations. Migration period is stretched when IT department is inexperienced. There is a high possibility that on successful migration, problems from on-premises are moved to the cloud. Training IT staff on cloud operations is a critical factor which determines success of the exercise. Taking advantage of cloud services will remain unfulfilled when there is lack of training and understanding on modernising applications.

In selected situations when direct upgrade is not feasible, starting in batches or fractions is the right way forward. Before making the transition, it is considered good practice to clean up data. Consider a situation when CRM 4.0 was used but was configured to handle contracts in a different way. In such cases, bringing forward a legacy contact is counterproductive if it doesn’t fit the new approach.