CRM implementation and migration
CRM implementation and migration that moves your customer data across cleanly and builds pipelines around how your team sells. Contacts, deals, bookings, conversations and invoices end up on one record everyone trusts.
- Contacts in sheets
- Deals in an old CRM
- Bookings elsewhere
- Chats in many inboxes
- Invoices apart
- One record each
- Live pipelines
- Bookings attached
- One thread each
- Invoices attached
- The old CRM
- Spreadsheets
- Shared inboxes
- Form tools
- Booking tools
- Invoicing software
- Email platform
- Phone system
- Portal leads
- Ad lead forms
- Notes apps
- Someone's head
Your CRM is a record nobody trusts
Growth has stalled, and nobody can say exactly why, because the data lives in a CRM that is half updated, three spreadsheets and several inboxes. A CRM implementation that sticks starts with your process, not with the software, and ends with one record the whole team works from.
When the pipeline is accurate, stalled deals are visible, owners are clear and the weekly report needs no clean-up. Leadership decides from numbers instead of from whoever spoke last, and every automation built afterwards has a reliable record to act on.
A CRM nobody updates
Deals are tracked in people's heads and spreadsheets, so the pipeline report is fiction.
Migration feels too risky
Years of contacts and history sit in the old system, and nobody wants to be the one who loses them.
Duplicates and missing sources
The same client appears three times and no record says where the deal came from.
Reports built by hand
Someone spends Friday exporting and pasting so leadership has a number on Monday.
Audit, plan, build, run
Most CRM projects fail on adoption, not on software. These four steps are the roadmap that keeps the system matched to how your team actually sells.
Audit
We look at where your customer data lives today, how deals really move and which reports leadership needs. The gaps and duplicates show up in your own records.
Plan
You get a written CRM migration plan: pipeline stages, fields, what moves across and what is left behind, the order of work, the cost and the go-live date.
Build
Pipelines, automations and integrations are set up with you around your process. Your data is cleaned, mapped and moved, then checked against the source before anyone switches.
Run
Your team works in it from the first day, trained on real deals. A check-in follows 30 days after launch, and later changes are scoped and priced first.
A pipeline that stays clean as a side effect of the work
After go-live the CRM keeps itself accurate: values in step, duplicates merged, stalled deals flagged and the report sent every week.
Pipeline hygiene and reporting
- Trigger
Deal changed
Stage, value or owner
- Trigger
Contact changed
New, merged or imported
Values kept in step
Deal value, source and referral partner are copied onto the contact automatically.
InstantDuplicates and imports cleaned
Imported or duplicate records are merged or removed by rule, not by hand.
Daily- Deal movingActivity this week
Source to revenue tracked
Every won deal traces back to the channel and campaign that produced it.
OngoingWeekly report delivered
Leadership gets the same numbers every week, without anyone building a spreadsheet.
Weekly- Done
- No activity 14 daysDeal has stalled
Stalled deals flagged
Deals with no activity for too long are flagged to their owner with a task.
DailyOwner asked for the next step
Reply updates the deal
- End
- Deal movingActivity this week
The real cost of moving CRM
External hours are easy to quote. The internal hours for training, clean-up and running two systems are the part most quotes leave out.
Based on the figures you entered
This is your own arithmetic on the figures you entered, not a result levelpartner.ai has produced for anyone.
How this is calculated
external = (build hours − 30 included) × €85
internal = (users × training hours + clean-up hours) × your internal rate
overlap = months of both systems × current monthly cost
total = external + internal + overlap
A typical full build lands at 30 to 60 hours, and any hour beyond the 30 included is scoped and approved before it is billed. Internal hours are your own estimate.
Worked example. 15 users with four hours of training each, 20 hours of data clean-up at 35 an hour and one month of overlap at 800: external 0 to 2,550, internal 2,800, overlap 800, so 3,600 to 6,150 one-off, separate from the annual licence.
CRM implementation steps, from data to adoption
The CRM sits on the same record as your calendar, inbox, automation and payments, so the setup covers the whole customer, not only sales.
CRM data migration
Contacts and deals are imported together from clean files, with the choice to create new records, update existing ones or both. Existing contacts are matched on email, then phone, and a downloadable error file shows exactly which rows failed and why. From some CRMs, a direct connection brings contacts, deals, pipelines, notes and tasks across without a file.
Pipelines built to your process
Stages match how deals really move in your business, with values, owners and tasks at each step. A contact can carry more than one deal, and each pipeline reports on its own.
Fields, objects and structure
Custom fields hold what your business tracks, companies group the people who buy together, and custom objects hold things such as properties or cases, linked to the right contacts and deals.
Automations from day one
Follow-up, reminders, assignment and stage changes run on rules, so the record updates as a side effect of the work. Imported contacts can be tagged and placed into a workflow as they arrive.
Integrations and lead sources
Forms, ads, portals, calendars and payments write straight to the contact, and duplicate rules decide whether a new submission updates an existing record. Every deal keeps its source.
Adoption and reporting
Your team learns the CRM on real deals, with each role shown only what it needs and a saved list for its daily work. Pipeline, source and revenue reports come from the same record, without an export. Adoption is where most CRM implementation challenges come from.
- Keep contacts, open deals, notes, sources
- Merge duplicates by email and phone
- Leave dead records and unused fields
- Map old stages to the new pipeline
- Check counts and totals against the old system
The migration, step by step
Migrating data from one CRM to another is where most of the risk sits. Four steps keep it boring, which is what you want.
Export and freeze
Export every object from the old system: contacts, companies, deals, notes, tasks. Agree a cut-over date, after which the old system is read-only.
Map and clean
Map each column to a field, decide which old fields die, fix phone formats and dates, and remove duplicates inside the files before anything is imported.
Import and link
Contacts and deals go in together so they stay linked, owners are matched to real users, and blank cells are set not to overwrite good data.
Check, then switch
Record counts, open deal totals and a sample of histories are checked against the source. The team switches only after sign-off.
New deals arrive qualified and owned
A clean CRM also depends on what goes into it. This journey makes sure every enquiry arrives with its answers, a value and an owner.
Qualification and routing
- Trigger
Enquiry captured
Intent read by the AI agent
- Trigger
Deal created
In the new business pipeline
Questions answered
The AI agent asks the two or three questions that decide fit, in plain conversation.
MinutesIntent and value scored
Answers are scored for intent and likely deal value and written to the contact record.
SecondsRouted to the right person
Higher-value deals go to a senior owner, the rest to the team, by rules you set.
Instant- High valueScore above your threshold
Senior owner assigned
Unassigned deals only
Owner notified
The assigned person gets the answers and the suggested next step, not just a name.
InstantCall-back booked
Within 5 minutes, on the owner's calendar
- Done
- StandardGood fit, normal value
Round robin across the team
Shared evenly, unassigned only
Team member notified
With the answers attached
- End
- Poor fitOutside what you sell
Poor fits handled politely
Enquiries that do not fit get a useful reply and move to a nurture list, not silence.
Same day- End
- High valueScore above your threshold
How to choose the right CRM for your business
Choosing on features
- A feature list compared line by line
- Per-seat prices that grow with the team
- Separate tools added for email, booking and calls
- Setup left to whoever has time
Choosing on fit
- Your process mapped first, software second
- A price that does not change as you hire
- One record for sales, marketing and service
- A written implementation plan before you commit
If you are weighing named CRMs side by side, the CRM comparison sets out the differences with sources.
Where CRM implementation connects
A clean CRM is the base for automation and AI. These are the pages that build on it.
Built for four kinds of business, equally
The same CRM, with pipelines and fields in each industry's own terms.
Agencies
Agencies track pitches, retainers and renewals on one pipeline, with every client and project on one record.
Consultants
Consultants see proposals, engagements and referrals in one place, with each deal tied to its source.
Mortgage brokers
Brokers track every case from enquiry to completion, with documents, dates and product expiry recorded.
Real estate
Agents track buyers, sellers, viewings and valuations on one pipeline, with each portal lead attributed.
One licence, no tiers
Every feature is available on one licence, with no tiers to climb and no per-seat fees. Usage is billed as used, including WhatsApp, premium workflow steps, local listings sync and AI; implementation and custom work are priced separately and agreed before any work starts.
levelpartner.ai
€7,512
a year, the platform licence
- Every feature is available on one licence, with no tiers
- Unlimited users and unlimited contacts, no per-seat fee
- 30 hours of onboarding included, plus a 30-day check-in after launch
- Implementation beyond the included hours at €85 an hour, scoped and approved first
- Custom builds quoted to scope
- Usage billed as used: email, SMS, calls, WhatsApp, AI, premium workflow steps and local listings sync, at published rates
Guides worth reading first
CRM implementation process: how it works and how to set it up
Run the CRM implementation process as gated phases, from discovery to embed, with a pilot group first and the old system read-only once the import is checked.
CRM migration strategy for growing companies
Choose a CRM migration strategy before exporting anything: why a single cutover beats a parallel run, how much history to bring and what to rebuild instead.
How to set up a CRM
Here is how to set up a CRM your sales team adopts tomorrow: one pipeline, a few fields, a clean contact import and a rule against forgotten follow-ups.
Six things a clean CRM gets right
The structure you choose during CRM implementation decides how useful every report and automation will be later. These are the decisions that matter.
Contacts as the centre
One record per person, with several emails and phone numbers where needed, custom fields for what your business tracks, tags for state and every conversation, booking and payment attached.
Companies linked to people
Several contacts belong to one company, so a firm with three decision-makers shows as one account with one history.
Deals in pipelines
One contact can have several deals, each with a value, an owner, a stage and a source. Separate pipelines keep new business apart from renewals.
Custom objects for the rest
Properties, cases, projects or policies get their own records and fields, linked to the contacts and deals they belong to.
Duplicate rules set once
Choose whether new records match on email or phone first. Forms and imports then update the existing contact instead of creating a second one.
Saved views per role
Smart lists save the filters each role needs, such as my open deals or clients due for renewal, so nobody exports to find them.
Questions buyers ask
What is the CRM implementation process?
Audit how your data and deals move today, plan the pipelines, fields and migration, build and migrate, then train the team on real deals and check in after launch. For most companies it takes two to four weeks.
What are the biggest CRM implementation challenges?
Adoption, dirty data and a pipeline that does not match how the team sells. Each is solved before go-live: stages are drawn from your real process, data is cleaned during migration, and training happens on live deals.
How do we migrate from our current CRM without losing data?
Export everything, map each field to the new structure, clean and merge duplicates, import contacts and deals together, then check record counts and deal totals against the old system before anyone switches. The old system stays read-only until sign-off.
What usually goes wrong in a CRM data migration?
Column headers that do not match fields, phone numbers with letters or brackets, dates in mixed formats, deal owners who are not set up as users, and blank cells overwriting good data. Every one of these is checked in a test import before the real one.
Do we have to bring everything across?
No, and you should not. Contacts, open deals, recent notes and sources move. Dead records, fields nobody fills in and years of closed history with no value usually stay in an archive export, which keeps the new CRM fast to search and easy to trust.
How do I choose the right CRM for my business?
Map your process first, then check which system fits it, what it costs as you grow and how much of your other tooling it replaces. For named products side by side, see the CRM comparison.
What does CRM implementation cost?
The platform licence is €7,512 a year, with unlimited users and contacts and 30 hours of onboarding that usually cover setup and migration. Further work is €85 an hour, scoped and approved first, and custom builds are quoted to scope.
Get a CRM migration plan for your business
Bring the number from the calculator and a rough picture of where your data lives. On the call we sketch the migration and tell you honestly what it will take.
Book a strategy call
Thank you. Your request is in.
Someone will reply by email within one working day with a time for the call.