How to Navigate Salesforce Data Migration Pitfalls with conemis

‍

Migrating to Salesforce is more than a technical task, it’s a high stakes business transformation. Too many companies dive into their enterprise migration without a clear roadmap only to find themselves lost in complexity, rework, and costly delays. Whether you're consolidating Salesforce orgs, replacing legacy systems, or managing data transfer during M&A activity, avoiding common data migration pitfalls can make or break the project.

In this guide, we explore the top Salesforce migration challenges and how to navigate them effectively with conemis. No more compromising of data integrity, project timelines, or stakeholder trust.

1. Insufficient Planning Leads to Delays and Cost Overruns

A rushed migration without a strategic foundation is a recipe for failure. Incomplete data assessments, unclear scope, and missing risk mitigation methods often result in disrupted go-lives and unforeseen costs.

How to Avoid It:
Start with a comprehensive application and data assessment. Clearly define your migration goals, success metrics, and risk factors. Migration solution providers like conemis offer automated assessment and scoping support across platforms like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft With this, you can build a realistic, data-backed roadmap from day one.

2. Inadequate Testing Risks Data Loss and Downtime

Skipping testing or treating it as a checkbox exercise is one of the biggest threats to data integrity. Without end-to-end test runs, corrupted records, broken relationships, and missed dependencies can slip through.

How to Avoid It:
Run full test migrations in a secure Salesforce sandbox to simulate real-world scenarios. Validate data mappings, field logic, and record relationships thoroughly. With conemis, tested mappings stay intact throughout the process, ensuring reliability while allowing agile adjustments as your needs evolve.

3. Security Oversights Create Hidden Compliance Risks

Data migrations often involve handling sensitive information such as customer data, financial records, healthcare information. Yet security is too often an afterthought.

How to Avoid It:
Build security and compliance into your migration framework from the start. Identify PII, establish role-based access, and ensure all data transfers are encrypted. conemis supports governance by design, offering audit trails and data traceability to meet regulatory requirements like GDPR and HIPAA.

4. Underestimating Data Transformation Complexity

Salesforce data models differ significantly from many legacy systems. Failing to plan for transformation logic (e.g. picklist mappings, date formats, object structures) can lead to misaligned processes, corrupted data, user confusion, and broken automation.

How to Avoid It:
Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to define transformation rules upfront. Use intelligent tooling to automate and test mappings. With conemis transition cloud, transformation logic is not only adaptable as business needs shift mid-project – even the most complex transformations can be tested and thereby become reliably repeatable.

5. Lack of Transparency and Reporting Slows Progress

Migration is not a one-and-done task, it’s a phased journey that requires ongoing visibility. Without clear reporting and performance tracking, teams lose momentum and issues go unresolved.

How to Avoid It:
Adopt platforms that offer real-time reporting, progress insights, and cross-team dashboards. The Project Performance module in conemis transition cloud enables proactive communication, rapid issue resolution, and full transparency across all phases of your migration.

Final Thoughts: Migrating with Confidence, Not Chaos

Salesforce data migration doesn’t need to be risky or painful. With proper planning, automated tooling, and transparent execution, your migration can become a launchpad for innovation.

At conemis, we’ve helped global enterprises manage seamless Salesforce migrations fast, secure, and aligned with business strategy. Our automation-first approach is designed to reduce risk, enhance collaboration, and keep your project on track, from scoping to go-live and beyond.  

👉 Ready to simplify your next Salesforce migration? Book a Demo

👉 Want to see real results? Read our Success Stories

‍