My company has 2 Salesforce instances. We built our own instance, and then acquired a company that had a completely different set of nomenclature, routing rules, etc. Both have years’ worth of data in them. We have all the normal issues – duplicative license fees and routing costs, lack of sharing of leads and automation across instances, etc. In addition, both have different workflow with other third party systems (billing, custom scripts, etc.)
What steps should I take to avoid problems when conducting this merge?
Best Answer
One of the critical things that you need to do is go through a thorough data mapping exercise. You don't simply want to add all of their custom fields to your objects because you may already have appropriate fields for their data. Keep your database as consolidated and tidy as possible.
I would NOT simply migrate code and workflows over to your org. You run the risk of implementing incompatibilities that are hard to debug. Instead, map out their logic, see how it aligns with yours, then implement the deltas in stages using a sandbox. Push small changes to production over time.
Make sure you come up with some regression testing plans for your current org so you can continually verify that these new changes are not breaking your existing functionality.
Oh, and also, be patient and take your time. :)