Workforce Case Study - Platform Migration Excellence

Introduction

Workforce is a leading company in the workforce management software space. The software helps companies with employee scheduling, time and attendance, and legal compliance.

The Sales Process Challenge for Workforce

Workforce first approached Plus Your Business (PYB) at the end of August 2022. The company had one Salesforce platform, shared between two country teams based in the UK and USA. The company had used Salesforce for five years, but the UK team felt they were not “getting the most out of it.”

On top of this, a recent attempt to integrate Zapier into Salesforce had failed to work. These frustrating situations pushed Workforce to consider using HubSpot as an alternative platform. Workforce wanted to improve their existing business processes, particularly their sales process.

The Migration Solution from PYB

The main challenge was to migrate all associated entities from SalesForce to HubSpot using filter criteria. PYB needed to use APIs to transfer the data, as Workforce wanted all historic email exchanges displayed on the records.

PYB had to migrate core objects (Contacts, Leads, and Accounts) with all activities and associated Objects and Custom objects (Implementations and Churns) - but only from ‘part of the Salesforce’ database.

The data structure was fine on the Salesforce side. However, the migration involved more than 800 custom properties on Activities, Standard, and Custom objects. Before starting the work, there needed to be a deep understanding of the current CRM to minimise problems during the migration.

First, Workforce selected the Contacts and Leads that they wanted to migrate. The company also chose the Accounts (Companies) for migration with all their associated accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, notes, tasks, calls, meetings, emails, and attachments.

Below, you can find a sample of the timeline view of the project.

Also, there was a requirement to import data from Active Campaign, but all contacts in Active Campaign were also in Salesforce. As such, the only action taken was for the unsubscribe list (from Active Campaign) to be imported as an ‘opt-out list’ in HubSpot.

The migration process had three phases: preparation, testing with two PoCs, and the final migration. In each step, we had an internal Q&A session where we checked the migrated data and relations (associations) objects for each standard or custom object.

The client also had two separate points where they could check the data: 1) a spreadsheet with URLs of the object, and 2) the other teams in the company, besides the main stakeholders, were asked to check the data. Elisa Shervington carried out the team training. The training covered their bespoke set-up and processes and areas such as filtered views, sequences, and notifications.

The overall control for PYB was in Logs inside the Migration App. In this area, we could see all API calls made to HubSpot. This system helped us to monitor migration in a real team and immediately see all the API responses from HubSpot. You can see this in the screenshot below.

Additionally, PYB is ISO 9001 and 27001 certified. These certifications help us ensure broad quality and risk management systems are in place and adhered to during the migration. PYB also has an ISO compliance officer, Brian Taylor, as part of the PYB team. You can see the risk assessment for the Workforce migration below:

During the mapping process between Salesforce and Hubspot, the aim was to have a clear view of all fields/properties for migration. Also, together with property Name, Internal value, Group, Property Type and Description if available on the source system. You can see an example below:

While recreating the custom properties in HubSpot, we connected Google spreadsheet using iPaaS to make POST API requests on HubSpot API. By doing it this way, we had more flexibility to open or edit properties on HubSpot. Also, once the spreadsheet was complete for each phase (Testing, PoC I., PoC II., Master migration), we implemented the process.

This implementation was done by exporting the Source System Internal Values and Target (HubSpot) Internal Values and uploading them into the Migration Application. Here’s an example from a migration application where we uploaded the .csv/.xls file for mapping:

The plan was to upgrade the App with a mapping import feature for Line Items (together with PK for matching them with Products), Products, Notes, Calls, Meetings, Tasks, Attachments, and By request/Custom. The Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is below

We attached their Data Object Scheme in Salesforce, which was enough for us and the client to understand what we needed to collect from Salesforce and migrate to HubSpot. Here is an example below of the Object Mapping process:

While migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot, relationships (associations), Data Mapping, SOQL knowledge and a deep understanding of how the client uses the system were critical. Data Consistency and integrity were high on the list of priorities during the migration.

PYB created many workflows to use the migrated data in HubSpot effectively. Here are some examples of workflows during the migration:

1. Allocate contact based on form submission 
2. Update Lifecycle based on the creation of a Custom Object 
3. Put the custom object in the correct stages 
4. Put migrated deals to the correct stage 
5. Assign HubSpot owners from Salesforce owners 
6. Copy a contact property to associated deals 
7. Copy the deal owner to the associated custom object Implementation Owner 
8. Copy Salesforce Owner to HubSpot Company Owner.

Finally, to ensure everything worked as smoothly as possible for the migration, PYB used a six-stage testing process. The different stages of testing were: 1) Functional Testing, 2) Regression Testing, 3) User Testing, 4) Integration Testing, 5) Data Migration Testing, and 6) Usability Testing.

When actioning the final cross-over between the two systems, PYB did a team training on Friday and then migrated the data over the weekend. Workforce started using HubSpot at 9 a.m. on Monday, as planned. Post-migration, PYB set up a dedicated Slack channel for the core Workforce team so they had quick support.

The Phenomenal Results

The 3-month project included a complete data migration - with two custom objects and activities such as emails. There was also a reshaping of the Workforce sales process once the data was ‘in’ HubSpot. The entire migration was completed within seven weeks, as planned.

Throughout the process, PYB and Workforce used Zoom calls alongside Google Docs to discuss any questions, concerns, issues or points of clarification. This system also helped PYB quickly pick up on any minor issues/questions post-migration queries and create a phenomenal result for Workforce.

The Impact of the Solution

Since migrating to HubSpot, Workforce now has a clearer picture of its business. The data the company can now access via a fully functional CRM has helped it improve business and sales processes. The deep relationship between Workforce and PYB created during the migration has followed on from the project.

PYB still gives bespoke support and custom coaching tips to the Workforce team. For example, PYB has recently trained team members to increase email ‘open rate’. As Workforce continues to enhance its use of HubSpot, in conjunction with the business growth, more training sessions will occur.