How much historical data should be migrated to a new CRM?

The question comes up early, and the answer “everything” is almost always wrong. Migrating historical data is costly, delays the project, and rarely delivers the value people expect.

Bring over what is in use

Active customers and contacts, open sales opportunities, open cases, and ongoing agreements. This is what the organization actually works with, and without it, the system is unusable.

Evaluate closed items critically

Won and lost sales opportunities from the past couple of years are useful for analysis. Activities and emails from 2016 are rarely opened again, but they take up space, prolong the migration, and carry data quality issues into a new system.

The alternative to migration

Leave the old system in read-only mode for a while, or export the data to an archive. That way, you retain the history in case anyone needs it, without carrying it over into the new system.

One thing should always be included

If you are subject to statutory retention requirements, clarify what applies before deciding on the scope. This is a separate consideration from what is useful in practice.