Data Governance and Migration
Salesforce data governance is the framework that keeps your CRM data accurate, secure, and usable. CCC provides data quality assessments, deduplication, field standardization, and ongoing governance rules to prevent costly reporting errors.
The problem nobody addresses until it's expensive
A client migrated 70,000 records from their legacy system. They skipped deduplication because "we'll clean it up after." They skipped field mapping validation because "the fields are the same."
12,000 duplicate Accounts. 8,000 orphaned Contacts. A dashboard that showed $4.2M in pipeline when the actual number was $42,000. Cents loaded as dollars. Two decimal places.
The cleanup cost more than the original migration: $25,000 and 6 weeks of consultant time.
At a different client, 23% of Accounts had no owner, 31% of Opportunities had no close date, and leadership had stopped checking Salesforce dashboards. The VP of Sales maintained a parallel spreadsheet. The finance team pulled data directly from the accounting system. Three separate teams had abandoned the platform because they didn't trust the numbers.
CCC didn't rebuild their reports. CCC cleaned their data. The existing reports started working. $8,500 for data cleanup instead of $22,000 for a reporting rebuild that wouldn't have fixed anything.
Data governance services
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Data quality assessment
CCC's 10-metric assessment measures the metrics that matter: owner population, field completeness, duplicate rate, data freshness, picklist hygiene, and format consistency. Each metric includes a pre-written SOQL query, a benchmark target, and a score. The assessment takes 4-6 hours and tells you more about your org's health than any dashboard.
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Deduplication
Duplicate identification using Salesforce native matching rules and third-party tools for fuzzy matching. Merge strategy that preserves the most complete record. Post-merge validation to confirm data integrity. Prevention rules (Duplicate Rules and Matching Rules) configured to stop new duplicates from being created.
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Field standardization
AP Style conventions applied to text fields. Phone number, address, and company name formatting standardized. Picklist values consolidated (variants like "Question," "question," "QUESTION," and "Other" cleaned to meaningful, consistent values). Validation rules configured to prevent non-standard data entry going forward.
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Ongoing governance
Monthly data quality dashboard review. Quarterly deduplication check. Ownership reassignment workflow (automatic notification when a user is deactivated). Validation rules on stage progression (required fields at each Opportunity stage). Documentation of all governance rules in a format non-technical stakeholders can read.
Data migration services
Pre-migration assessment. Source data profiled for quality, format, and deduplication needs before any records are loaded. Field mapping documented with transformation rules (data types, units, formats). External ID fields created for lookup resolution.
Migration execution. Test loads with 100 records reviewed by business users (not just the admin). Batch processing in increments of 5,000-10,000 records. Automations disabled during load and re-enabled after validation. Error logs reviewed after every batch.
Post-migration validation. Record count validation (source count = target count). Sample records spot-checked by business users. Lookup relationships verified. Currency and date fields confirmed. Business user sign-off received before legacy system is decommissioned.
Legacy system transition. Legacy system kept accessible in read-only mode for 90 days after migration. Discrepancies investigated and resolved during this window. Full decommission only after sign-off from all stakeholder teams.
Proof
CCC holds a Data Architect certification. Data governance has been the focus of every CCC engagement since founding at Environmental Defense Fund in 2012, where donor record management across 70,000+ records was the daily work.
Published in Salesforce Ben: "How Salesforce Admins Can Apply Data Governance to Einstein."
Free data governance guides available on the CCC blog: duplicate management, validation rules, AI readiness assessment, data quality assessment templates, and migration pre-flight checklists.
Timeline and investment
| Service | Timeline | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Data quality assessment | 1-2 weeks | $5,000-$8,000 |
| Deduplication project | 2-4 weeks | $8,000-$15,000 |
| Data migration (under 50K records) | 2-4 weeks | $10,000-$20,000 |
| Data migration (50K-500K records) | 4-8 weeks | $20,000-$40,000 |
| Ongoing governance (monthly retainer) | Continuous | $1,500-$3,000/month |
FAQs
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Many clients see immediate improvements after our initial data cleansing phase, typically within 2-4 weeks. The full implementation of governance processes usually takes 1-3 months, depending on your data complexity. We focus on quick wins first to demonstrate value while building toward long-term data quality.
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It's never too late. In fact, some of our most successful projects started with severely compromised data. We've helped organizations recover from years of poor data practices, turning chaotic Salesforce instances into reliable, actionable systems. Our phased approach makes even the most daunting data cleanup manageable.
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No. Our approach is designed to work alongside your ongoing operations. We implement changes incrementally, with careful testing at each stage to ensure business continuity. We schedule any potential disruptions during off-hours and provide clear communication throughout the process.
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Sustainability is built into our approach. We establish clearly documented processes, train your team thoroughly, and implement automated quality checks. We also offer flexible ongoing support options, from regular audits to on-call assistance, ensuring your data governance strategy evolves with your business needs.