ACT to ZoHo Conversion - What Gets Converted

I've spent quite a bit of time this year doing ACT to ZoHo CRM conversions.  i.e. People with an existing database in ACT! that they want "moved" - migrated is a better term - to ZoHo. What I'd like to do is provide a short synopsis of what exactly gets converted/migrated, and what to expect in the new system.

For this post, let's assume that the company is using everything in ACT - Contacts, Companies, Groups, Notes, History, Attachments, extra custom fields, Activities, and Opportunities.  The version of ACT! does not matter, I can migrate all versions - from ACT 6 to the latest version 2011.

The migration process involves a middle step of exporting all data into Excel, so any data that might not migrate exactly can be "massaged" or edited to fit into ZoHo fields and records.  It is critical you get someone that has the correct tools and knowledge to do this.  I've done conversions/migrations for years to and from ACT!, and now ZoHo.  Contact me to find out how this can be done for your data.  Plenty of people can "export" ACT! data, not many can migrate it.  Very important difference.

First, the items that come "straight" across.  Contacts, and any custom fields, Companies (again, with any added fields) migrate cleanly.  Companies are called Accounts in ZoHo by default, but you can change the name if desired.  I've been an ACT! user for about 14 years, so I prefer Companies rather than Accounts.  Anyway, if you setup the fields in ZoHo to match the fields in ACT, then all your data will come across fine.  The only caveat here is that ZoHo does limit the number of custom fields you can add.  Their limit is 130, divided up by field type.  Generally not an issue, but I have run into limits if you've customized your ACT! database extensively.

Notes, History, and Opportunities (Potentials in ZoHo - again, I've renamed in ZoHo to be Opportunities) all come across with the information, it's just presented differently in ZoHo.  As long as the data is manipulated correctly in the middle step in Excel, it will be a clean conversion.  This is key to having someone know both the ACT! data structure and the ZoHo structure, otherwise you will lose data.

ACT is quite a bit more detailed in Activities - so recurrence, scheduling, alarms might not come over 100%.  You'll get the majority of the information - enough to keep working without interruption or losing data.  Dates will convert, you will have to edit some of the alarms and recurring schedules.

Groups is the one that has no match in ZoHo - there isn't even a grouping feature.  However, that does not mean you lose the data!  I have successfully converted Group information and kept it so that the users could still use the data they had in ACT!  ZoHo has a few features that allow this to happen - one is views, which are essentially saved queries.  By "moving" the group name to a field, you can create views in ZoHo that allow you to "group".  A second option is to use another entity in ZoHo, such as Companies or Vendors, as the "group" level.  This is too detailed to describe here, suffice to say that it can be done if you have someone that knows what they are doing, which, of course, is me.

One other thing I always tell people regarding a migration - ZoHo might not do everything *exactly* like ACT, but if you focus on your end result, and how to accomplish what you want to accomplish, you'll find a way to do it.  Contact me for more information...