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Trailblazing a Seamless Transition: A First-of-Its-Kind Salesforce to HubSpot Migration

Overview

SmartBug Media spearheaded a remarkable migration for a leading software business, transitioning its fragmented operations from Salesforce to HubSpot's Service Hub. Our team helped the company enjoy streamlined communications and truly enabled its teams to be on the same page—setting a new benchmark for efficiency and collaboration.

Metrics

  • Improved interdepartmental communication by nearly 70%
  • Automated migration of more than 1,000 knowledge base articles
  • Significantly reduced system management costs

Background

The client, a leading software business, developed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system specifically for niche sectors such as pool services and spas. Initially built on Salesforce by an external consultant, the system was developed without a deep understanding of the company's intrinsic processes and needs.

This oversight resulted in a platform that lacked usability, communication capabilities, and adaptability to the team's dynamic workflow. As time progressed, individual departments began creating their own processes, leading to underutilized components, escalating tech debt, and widespread dissatisfaction.
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The Problem

Systemic ERP Limitations, Constant Communication Challenges, and Inherent Team Friction

The primary challenge the client encountered was a lack of consistent communication between teams. As each department began to devise its own processes, they selectively used or disregarded specific parts of Salesforce based on their individual needs, rather than what was optimal for the company as a whole. The absence of a documented system, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and central communication led to friction—especially during handoffs between marketing, sales, and services. 

Compounding the problem further was the fact that the client didn’t have the tech experience to manage and maintain its Salesforce-based ERP system. The company also knew moving to a better platform wouldn’t be a simple migration. The client needed to de-duplicate and clean up its data, along with setting up a new, more strategic, more manageable ERP system. 
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Our Solution

Harnessing HubSpot, Building Intuitive (and Standard) Processes, and Boosting Collaboration Potential

HubSpot’s Service Hub has undergone significant change in the last few years; it’s coming into its own as a full-fledged enterprise solution. Yet migrations from alternatives to Service Hub haven’t happened frequently. Our team leveraged its extensive experience to ensure a seamless migration while forging considerable new ground. 

We conducted extensive discovery using SmartBug processes to better understand the client’s current work streams and to see where we could optimize processes as they transitioned to their new HubSpot Service Hub instance. We then used custom mapping documentation to validate all files and data sets were going to be moved to their final location with accuracy.  Additionally, our team supported: 

  • Migration to HubSpot's upgraded Service Hub
  • Automated migration of content, including 1,000+ knowledge base articles and images
  • Data cleanup and de-duplication
  • Integration with modern tools such as Slack
  • The creation of documentation for items were housed
  • Strategic consulting to determine best practices
  • Eight live trainings to teach each department how to use ticketing within Service Hub
  • The creation of written SOPs for each department 

The Results

A Tailored Transformation: From Fragmented Systems to Unified Efficiency

  • Now, all company teams operate within HubSpot—ensuring consistent communication, standardized processes, and much simpler collaboration.
  • The new ERP system was co-designed with direct input from the client's teams. The result? The new solution aligns perfectly with the client’s operational needs. 
  • Our team helped establish intuitive and consistent SOPs, making onboarding easier and helping everyone at the company operate on the same page.
  • The client's teams can now manage day-to-day administration in-house, saving both time and money.

Our team’s meticulous planning and methodical approach to this migration were critical in helping our client reach this successful result, but that wasn’t all we brought to the table. From the first discovery meeting through the conclusion of this project, we truly listened to the client, committed to understanding the unique challenges of this initiative, and provided support above and beyond our hands-on technical migration assistance. 

SmartBug Media’s consultative approach helped the client discover better, more efficient, and more valuable ways to engage with software solutions, even as the client achieved its sought-after goals of reduced costs and more team efficiency.

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