I’ve had the joy of migrating 6(!!) acquired companies into our Salesforce org and am working on/planning for 5(!!!) more concurrently.
Integrating an acquired company into your Salesforce org is one of the biggest projects any Salesforce Admin, Business Analyst, Program Manager, or Developer can take on.
It almost has to be seen as a “full implementation” in terms of gathering business requirements, setting up users, making system configuration changes, training, etc. – so a MASSIVE undertaking.
I’m going to publish a series of blog posts on M&A to share what I’ve learned. So here is step 1: have a crystal clear set of guiding principles. Here is mine.
1. COORDINATION across the lead to cash tech stack to ensure a smooth transition. Each step is a link in the lead to cash chain and if one is broken it all falls apart.
2. TRANSPARENCY on what is happening when and why. You are moving a lot of people’s cheese. They deserve to understand what is changing (a new CRM!) when (keep them informed of migration dates) and why (one view of the customer).
3. ACCOUNTABILITY that you will follow through on what you tell them. Employees are a company’s biggest assets and the work we do during a CRM migration impacts the way people work each and every day, and their opportunity to close deals and provide for their family. Treat them with respect and honor your word.
4. STOP things from becoming “THINGS.” This is my personal favorite. It’s so easy to let something fester and blow up, especially with the intense stress of an acquisition and migration. By being TRANSPARENT, COORDINATED, and ACCOUNTABLE everyone can work together more efficiently.
So that is step 1 – your guiding principles. My hope is that these capture the basics to help you develop your framework. Future blog posts will look at the phases of a migration, the project components, and key tools to help plan and prepare for the migration.
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