A Complete Guide for Seamless Migration from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM

Publish Date - March 15, 2023
Author by Smackcoders

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A Complete Guide for Seamless Migration from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM

Are you looking for a way to migrate from Vtiger to Zoho CRM for your business needs? With Zoho CRM’s robust feature set and intuitive UI, you can quickly and easily transition from Vtiger to Zoho CRM, with the assurance that all your data will be securely migrated. With Zoho CRM, you can access the latest features and tools that will enable your business to stay competitive in the ever-changing business landscape. Make the switch to Zoho CRM today and take advantage of all the features and benefits it offers.

Begin with the plan: Pre-Migration Process

There should always be a plan before implementing any tedious process to make it successful. Migrating customer records from one CRM to another is not an easy task.

Follow the pre-migration steps given below for safe data migration.

Analyze Your Data

Before beginning the migration process, carefully analyze your current Vtiger data. Make sure all data is up-to-date and organized in an easy-to-understand format. Pay special attention to customer data, as this is the most critical piece of information that needs to be migrated.

Clean up outdated and error records

You should check all the records once or twice for outdated or error records. Be sure not even a single record is outdated or incorrect and delete it before migrating it to your new CRM. Deleting unwanted records will save most of your precious time while on migration. For example, if there are records owned by staff who are no longer employed with the organization, you can either assign those records to active employees or update the .csv with the current employees’ email addresses. Additionally, if you want to attach notes to the Contact records and the parent ID is not the same as in Zoho, you can take advantage of vLookup in Excel to supply the correct parent ID. These changes should be made beforehand to ensure a successful migration. In some cases, it may not be necessary to rework the data and you can simply migrate after you have exported it from your system.

Create a Backup of Your Data

Before making any changes to your Vtiger system, be sure to create a backup of your data. In case something goes wrong during the migration process, this will guarantee that you have a copy of all of your data.

Choose the Migration Tool

Once you have analyzed your data and created a backup, it is time to choose a migration tool. There are several options available, so it is important to plan how you migrate your CRM record from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM.

There are two methods for data migration.

Import/Export(.CSV files)- Time Consuming. Saves Money
Third-party integration- Saves Time and Effort

Map your CRM data

The process of data mapping is crucial when switching between CRM platforms.

Knowing where your data should reside once it has been migrated is crucial, and the pre-migration process is the ideal time to assess your present data library and make any necessary changes so that you can use your data more effectively.

Simplifying the Complexity of Migration with Checklists

Don’t miss a thing. Check all the checklists to ensure that you are ready to go for the safe data migration from Vtiger to Zoho CRM.

File Format: Only the file in .csv format will be imported into the Zoho CRM.
File Size: The file size of your imported files can be a maximum of 8 GB. You can migrate up to 200 records at one time.
Structure of your Zip file: On opening your .zip file there should only be your .csv file. There should not be any folders there. If any folders exist it will show an error while inserting the file.
Restricted characters for import: The exported files with the following characters are not allowed for importing records in Zoho CRM.Vertical bar (|)Angle brackets (<>)Double quotation marks (“)
Field Names: Ensure that the first row of data in the source file contains the column headings, also known as field names, instead of the actual data values. This will help to identify the data when mapping it to the existing fields in Zoho CRM. The column names and the field names should be the same.
User’s Data: When transferring user information to Zoho CRM, you need to ensure the Owner ID field from the file is matched with the corresponding field in the CRM. For instance, when migrating leads, the Lead Owner ID should be mapped to the related field in Zoho CRM.
Update Mandatory fields: You must ensure that your lead import file includes data for all the mandatory fields in Zoho CRM. For example, the “Last Name” field is mandatory, so you must make sure the “Last Name” column in the import file has values, even if the data is “not provided” or “none”. If there are any records that lack values for the mandatory fields, they will be ignored when imported. You will have the option to fill in the missing mandatory values during the migration process.
Multi-select fields in picklists: The values of the import files should be separated by the semi-colons.
Checkbox type fields: The checkbox type field has two values: enable or disable. It could be converted in Zoho as below:If the checkbox is selected, then it is True or 1. If the checkbox is not selected then it is False or 0.
Drop-down lists: There must be a match between the dropdown lists’ presented data values and the associated Zoho CRM fields. For example, if you want to import account information that includes a value for the Industry Type drop-down list, be sure that the drop-down list already has all the industry values from the source file before importing the account information. If the values are missing, you must either change the values in the source file to correspond to the values already present in Zoho CRM or request your administrator to add the missing values. Even if the values are missing, they still can be added.
Blank rows in the imported files: If there are more than ten blank rows in the file, the file may have reached its conclusion. Data after the empty rows will not be imported. Make sure there are no empty rows between the data rows.
Migrating Users: The user with a separate Zoho CRM account cannot be migrated. The user will be added to the company’s account only when he closes the separate account.
Migrating Tags: Only 10 tags of the imported records will be migrated to the Zoho CRM. If there exist more than 10 tags, then it will migrate the first ten tags of the imported record files. The tags in the imported files should be in .csv format.
Data duplicates: It is hard to check for data duplicates while on migration. So you can skip or overwrite records in CRM. And the record will be migrated as it is.
Map the Mandatory fields: The table below lists the modules and the Zoho-defined required fields for each. When you import, please make sure you map these fields. Each module might have more mandatory fields, yet, you can always alter and mark the fields as optional if necessary.

Modules	Mandatory Fields
Leads	Last Name
Contacts	Last Name
Accounts	Account Name
Events	Title
Tasks	Subject
Deals	Deal Name Closing date Stage
Invoices, Quotes, Sales Order	Subject
Purchase Order	Subject Vendor name
Price books	Price book name
Vendor	Vendor Name
Campaigns	Campaign Name
Calls	Subject Call type
Products	Products name
Cases	Case origin Subject Status
Solutions	Solution title

Step by Step instructions to Migrate your records from Vtiger to Zoho CRM

Smoothly transition your data and migrate records from Vtiger to Zoho CRM in just a few simple steps.

Export all the records in the essential modules of Vtiger CRM

Step 1:Login to your Vtiger account

Step 2: Navigate to the module you want to migrate those records. You can select any number of records or select all records based on your business needs.

Step 3: First I have selected the contact module.

Step 4: On the List view click on the More option.

Step 5: Select the Export option from the drop-down.

Step 6: Choose any one of the below options based on your business needs

Export Selected records
Export data on the current page
Export all data

Step 7: Finally click on Export Contacts.

Now all your Vtiger contacts have been exported in a .csv format. Follow the steps explained above to export all the records from all the modules in Vtiger CRM.

Once done with exporting all the required modules, we now move on to the migration process.

Note:

If you are exporting a record in which organization and deals are related then it will be prefixed as accounts in the exported .csv file. For example, all my contacts are related to the organization name. In the exported .csv of my contacts module, the organization name is prefixed with the term Accounts.

Here the term Accounts refers to the Organisation whereas the term Deals refers to the Potentials.

Let’s Import all the exported Vtiger records into your Zoho CRM

In Vtiger CRM you need to export each module one by one. But in the Zoho CRM, we have a migration wizard where we can import all the modules at once.

Step 1: Sign in your Zoho account

Step 2: Migration Wizard

Navigate to Settings and select Import on the Data Administration.

You will be landed on the Zoho Migration Wizard.
As Vtiger CRM is not listed, select “Other CRM”.

Now enter the name of your source as Vtiger. And Click on Continue

Step 3: Now it’s time to upload all the exported files from Vtiger

You can drag and drop or browse the exported Vtiger files.
Here only .csv files are supported.

Browse all the CSV exported files of all the Vtiger modules one by one.
Once finish uploading files of all the modules, click on Next.

Now Zoho CRM will process your data. The processing time will depend on the file size /number of files.

Step 4: Module- File Mapping

After processing all the files, it will lead to the tab Module- File Mapping. Here all the mapped files and unmapped files are displayed.

Based on the file names in Zoho CRM, the majority of Standard modules will automatically become associated with the system.

You can map all the unmapped fields with their related Zoho fields in the module widget. (For example, the Organization Module in Vtiger CRM is referred to as Accounts in Zoho CRM. And Project Tasks are referred to as Tasks).

Once you map all the fields, click on Next.

Note:

Creating Custom Modules: In case you are having files that are unmapped, then create a folder by clicking on the Create New Module button and add the appropriate files to that module.

If you have to map your custom modules then you are provided with two options:

Your file will move to the unmapped section and ask for the suggestion. When you click OK, your custom module will be created.
Based on your custom file, you can also create a custom module from unmapped.

Now click on Next.

Step 5: Field Mapping

Map all the fields of mapped modules one by one with the related Zoho Fields.

Refer to the table above for the mandatory fields of all the modules. All the mandatory
fields should be mapped for the succeeding action.

Once you mapped all the fields of all the mapped modules click on the Save and Next button.

You can also add new fields for your essential modules or custom module by clicking on Create New Fields.

Now you can select the fields for which you want to create the custom fields.
Map all the fields and choose the appropriate Field type from the drop-down corresponding to the desired field.
Once selected all the field types, click on Create.

Step 6: Review your files

The Review tab displays all the modules that are going to migrate, the Number of Mapped fields, number of unmapped fields. You can easily review from here whether all the modules are included properly, the number of files, mapped fields, and unmapped fields.
If you find anything went wrong, then move back to the process, make the changes you need, and come back to the migration.
When you are done with all the data provided click on Start Migration.

Step 7: Finish Migration

The Data Migration Process will start. It will display all the module names, the Status of migration related to the particular module, the number of records added and skipped, and the total records of each module.

That’s it. Your records are safely migrated to the Zoho CRM. Now you can get started with your business activities with the new Zoho CRM.

Post-Migration- Double-check the migrated records

After you’ve taken the time and effort to migrate your data, make sure to take the extra step of verifying that everything went as expected. Going through the process of examining the data for any irregularities or inconsistencies helps you ensure a smooth transition and can save you from headaches down the road. Don’t trust the migration process blindly, double-check it! Make sure the data looks exactly as it should, that all addresses, names, and dates are correct, and that there are no formatting issues. With this extra bit of diligence, you can rest assured that your data has been successfully transferred.

Summing Up

Migrating from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right tools, support, and guidance, you can easily and quickly transition your data from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM. Not only will you enjoy Zoho’s advanced features and integrations, but you’ll also be able to stay organized and up-to-date with the latest technologies.

Though you can manually migrate all records from Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM, it takes a lot more time, effort and resources to plan, manage, review, and follow up the migration process. It is ok to migrate manually if you have limited files. But in the case of migrating huge files, it is hard to analyze and review “Whether all the records have migrated safely”. There’s room for confusion here.

If you’re looking to migrate from Vtiger to Zoho CRM without losing data? Look no further! We offer a safe and secure migration service that ensures no data loss during the transition. Our team of experts will help you make the switch quickly and easily, so you can focus on what matters most – growing your business. We understand that data loss is a major concern for businesses, so we have developed a secure and reliable migration process that guarantees no data will be lost during the transition.

If you need the best customization and migration of Zoho CRM? You can contact us at [email protected] We provide efficient technical support for migrating your bulk data. We are responsible for the efficient data transfer from your Vtiger CRM to Zoho CRM.

Don’t wait any longer – make the switch to Zoho CRM today with our no-data-loss migration service!