Salesforce Is Getting Pricier - How to Plan Migration Without Risk

Salesforce raised prices 9% across Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited in 2024. Previous hikes: Einstein AI (2023), storage (2022), sandbox (2021). Trend is clear — company must grow and does it via existing customer prices (vendor lock-in works).

30-person company on Salesforce Professional: 75 EUR × 30 × 12 = 27,000 EUR/year (licences). Plus Einstein 50 EUR/user (18,000 EUR). Plus storage 5 EUR/user/mo (1,800 EUR). Total ~46,800 EUR/year. 3 years = 140,400 EUR + hikes = ~155k EUR.

Open alternative: Open Mercato 3-year TCO for 30 users ≈ EUR 35-50k. Savings: EUR 100-120k over 3 years. That's 2 FTEs.

Before migrating — check what you actually use. Typically a company uses 30-50% of Salesforce features. Ignore the rest in migration. Export: standard objects (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities), custom objects, automations, integrations, reports.

Open source CRM for 20-100 person companies: Open Mercato (CRM + ERP + B2B in one), Odoo (larger ecosystem, Community vs Enterprise split), ERPNext (manufacturing focus). Choice based on: scale, industry, compliance, partner availability.

Salesforce has Data Loader and Bulk API — export full DB in CSV/JSON. Critical data: Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Custom Objects, Notes, Attachments, History. Often-missed: files/documents, email messages, audit log. Export time: 1-3 days for mid-sized company.

Each Salesforce field maps to a field in the new system. Often requires transformation — Salesforce has 'Stage' with 5 values, your new CRM has 6 pipeline stages. List of all fields + transformation rules = 'mapping spec' document. Without it — migration produces chaos.

Most important risk management step. Both systems run in parallel — reps use new one, but Salesforce still updates via integrations. Validation: every deal in new CRM has Salesforce counterpart, reports agree. After 2-4 weeks — if OK, switch off Salesforce.

Salesforce shutdown + intensive 30-day monitoring. Daily standup first week, weekly review for a month. Every issue escalated in 4h. After 30 days without critical issues — migration successful.

Salesforce contracts are typically annual. Don't renew. If mid-contract — contact Salesforce for user reduction (usually can't cancel, but can shrink). Data export is yours — do it anytime before licence shutdown.

Risk: data loss. Mitigation: 3 export copies (local, cloud, agency), post-import validation. Risk: team resistance. Mitigation: 2-week training, parallel access to both systems in week 1. Risk: missing old system integrations. Mitigation: map all integrations before start, re-implementation plan.