Large-Scale Data Migration? “What could possibly go wrong?”

Losing hundreds of thousands of hours’ worth of work. An immense hit on their reputation. Staggering financial costs just to rebuild their records from scratch.

These were the risks that a law firm* in Chicago had to consider when they wanted to switch from their old CRM system to a new one. They kept asking themselves: Would all of their old data end up in one piece on the new system? Would it be immediately usable, without having to rectify any corruption or mistakes?

They were faced with two options:

1. Do the migration themselves, spending precious time and effort that they could have used to continue growing their business and risk losing some or even all of their data due to inexperience with the new system.
2. Have a dedicated product expert with years of experience do it for them.

Of course, they chose the latter.

A Big Client Win

“It looked a bit daunting at first, all those years’ worth of old cases and records, but the import went without a hitch,” says WORKetc Head of Support, Steve Westrop, who assisted the law firm throughout the QuickStart Onboarding Program.

The undertaking started with a call where Steve asked the client exactly what kind of data they needed to bring over to WORKetc and for what they needed that data. Among the important considerations were several custom fields that they absolutely needed to have in WORKetc.

“We can easily add custom fields for every import we do,” Steve explains further. “So for this client, we first built the custom fields on our projects module. We put those in a project so they got all the data and the custom fields that they needed to map to.

“They just added the custom field columns to their import file then added the data in there so they can import into those specific custom fields in WORKetc.

“I then sent the client’s data to my colleague, Justine, who went ahead and ran tests on the actual data migration. We made sure every piece of data in that file would end up exactly where it was supposed to go.”

With both the firm’s data and their WORKetc account itself properly prepared and the migration process fully tested, it barely took two days for the actual import to finish.

“That was a big win for the client, getting all that data into WORKetc. They needed to have those old projects inside the system so they could refer back to them whenever a new, similar project came along.”

Custom Invoices and More

Having the client’s data within the system is just one part of the onboarding process. Steve then proceeded to focus on the client’s current project workflow to figure out a process that would make the most sense for them using WORKetc’s project management software.

Mapping out a streamlined and efficient WORKetc workflow went pretty smoothly since Steve was using their actual data. It was data they were familiar with, plus they knew exactly what they needed.

Steve then moved on to the client’s other requirements: custom invoices, integrations setups, and some general tips and best practices.

“Integration setups are actually among the the most common things we do in QuickStart,” he explains. “For almost every client, we either set up QuickBooks, or Xero, or G Suite, or walk them through the Outlook plugin. For this particular client, the QuickBooks integration was what they needed help with.

A custom invoice based on a sample the client had sent was also created. The client also wanted to show their own clients what was already paid for in a previous month, so Steve came up with a workaround that involved adding a credit to the current invoice to show that a part of it had already been paid in advance.

Steve also helped them add a custom field with a project picker to their invoice template so they could quickly and easily tie an invoice back to the proper project.

Easy Data Migration

“Usually when I start with a QuickStart client I like to be up front,” Steve says. “I ask what systems they are currently using and what data they need to bring over to WORKetc. Do they need to bring in projects, support tickets, contacts?”

According to Steve, contacts are generally the easiest type of data to import into WORKetc. They’re the most common type of data import that the team handles. Coming in at a close second are project imports.

A data import, no matter how complex it is, is just one of the things we regularly take care of for our QuickStart clients. Other companies charge a fortune for doing this kind of work; in QuickStart it’s just all part of the package.

“If the client has a really easy CSV file to work with and they have clean data, I’ll usually just do it using the contact import tool,” Steve says.

“This is the quickest way to do it. I’ve actually created a sample CSV file that has all the required columns in it as part of QuickStart. Client data imports done using that file usually go fast because the data they send over is in the perfect format.

“For more complex imports, which would be pretty much anything aside from contacts and products, I send those over to Justine. He can import the client’s data by mapping each of the client’s required data fields.”

Project imports are much more complex compared to contact imports due to the larger amounts of data associated with a given project. Be that as it may, moving project data from one system into WORKetc is just part of the “heavy lifting” that WORKetc product specialists do in QuickStart.

“We can basically import entire projects,” says Steve. “The assignee, the start and end dates, what type of billing, and more. When you add in tasks, for example, they’ll show up on the Gantt chart and everything. We can really import anything. It’s very flexible that way.

“A data import, no matter how complex it is, is just one of the things we regularly take care of for our QuickStart clients. Other companies charge a fortune for doing this kind of work; in QuickStart it’s just all part of the package.”

Processes Tailored to YOUR Needs

A CRM will live or die by the data it contains. With the data import services included in the WORKetc QuickStart Onboarding program, you can be sure that your data is brought into WORKetc by experienced product specialists.

Not only that, you also get workflows and processes custom-built to be as efficient and streamlined as possible according to your business’ unique needs. WORKetc product specialists actually take the time to get to know your business instead of just passing out generic, industry-agnostic “best practice” solutions.

That’s what Ivan Collins, P.E., and his team found when Accident Reconstruction Analysis signed up for the QuickStart Onboarding Program:

The response time and the attention that we get from WORKetc staff, especially Steve, is outstanding. WORKetc does what was sold to us and, importantly, what we need.

Finally, all of these personalized services cost you practically $0; 100 percent of the program’s cost is offset against future WORKetc subscriptions.

Register here to find out how QuickStart is made for you.

*Client name and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy.