Salesforce Case Migration: Bring the Essentials, Leave the Clutter
Introduction
Migrating to Salesforce Service Cloud from a previous support platform like Zendesk or Freshdesk presents a critical question: What should you do with your historical support cases?
Think of it like moving to a new house. Do you carefully sort through your belongings, only packing what you truly need? Do you bring just the essentials and leave the rest in storage? Or do you pack everything, even that box of mystery cables you haven’t touched in years? Your approach to migrating support cases works the same way—some companies bring everything, some take only what’s necessary, and others land somewhere in between.
The approach you take can significantly impact your business operations, reporting, and customer support efficiency. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—some companies may need all historical data migrated, while others may benefit from a streamlined approach.
To help you navigate this decision, we’ll explore three common case migration strategies and the key factors to consider in selecting the right one for your business.
TL;DR: The 3 Support Case Migration Strategies
Before we dive into the details, here’s a quick summary of the three main migration strategies:
Migrate Only In-Flight Cases – Like packing only your essentials and leaving the rest behind. You take what you need and keep the old house accessible for reference.
Migrate Select Historical Cases – Like bringing your most valuable furniture and a few sentimental items, but leaving the junk in storage. You move what matters while keeping things organized.
Migrate All Historical Cases – Like packing every single item, including that junk drawer you haven’t cleaned in years. You’ll have everything, but unpacking (and organizing) will take more effort.
Now, let’s explore each approach in detail.
1. Migrating Only In-Flight Cases
If your customer support team primarily focuses on resolving current issues rather than referencing past cases, migrating only active or “in-flight” cases may be the most efficient strategy.
When to Consider This Approach
Your team rarely references historical cases in daily operations.
You already have a robust reporting system that captures past support trends.
You want to reduce migration costs and complexity while speeding up the transition.
How It Works
This approach involves choosing a cutover date—only cases that are still open as of that date will be transferred to Salesforce Service Cloud. The legacy system remains accessible for historical reference until eventually being archived or retired.
Example Scenario
A fast-growing SaaS company implemented Salesforce Service Cloud but realized their customer support team only referenced the last 30-60 days of case history. Rather than migrating years of old tickets, they chose to transfer only in-flight cases and maintain a read-only version of their old system for occasional lookups. This cut migration time in half and reduced storage costs.
Key Considerations
✅ Pros: Faster transition, reduced costs, fewer data integrity issues.
⚠️ Cons: Limited access to older cases, potential loss of historical context for ongoing customers.
This is the fastest way to “move in” to your new system with minimal hassle—think of it as a fresh start with only the essentials. But if you need a little more history without overwhelming your new space, a selective migration might be a better fit.
2. Migrating Select Historical Cases
Some businesses rely on past case data for compliance, auditing, or customer relationship tracking but don’t need everything. A middle-ground approach is to migrate a filtered set of historical cases based on specific criteria.
When to Consider This Approach
Your industry has compliance or regulatory requirements for retaining customer support data.
You need past interactions to track long-term customer issues or trends.
Your business relies on analyzing historical cases to improve support processes or build self-service knowledge bases.
How It Works
Instead of migrating everything, you set filters—for example:
Cases from the last 12-24 months
High-impact cases (e.g., priority escalations, legal disputes)
Cases from VIP or long-term customers
Example Scenario
A medical device company needed to retain customer support records for compliance but only required the last three years of data. Their migration strategy focused on moving cases with regulatory importance while leaving minor, outdated tickets behind.
Key Considerations
✅ Pros: Retains relevant history, reduces data volume, allows for selective filtering.
⚠️ Cons: Requires careful data filtering and mapping to ensure critical cases aren’t lost.
This approach balances efficiency with accessibility, like keeping a storage unit with just the important things instead of hauling everything into your new home. But what if you can’t risk leaving anything behind? Then it’s time to consider a full historical migration.
3. Migrating All Historical Cases
For businesses that rely heavily on historical customer interactions, long-term support trends, or compliance audits, migrating all past support cases may be necessary.
When to Consider This Approach
You need comprehensive historical reporting and analytics.
Customer service representatives frequently reference past cases to provide better support.
Your industry mandates long-term data retention for regulatory compliance.
How It Works
Migrating everything requires extensive data preparation, including:
Data cleansing to remove duplicates, resolve inconsistencies, and map fields.
Migration testing in a sandbox environment before executing the full transfer.
Handling attachments and notes, ensuring they are properly linked to cases.
Example Scenario
An enterprise software company migrated to Salesforce Service Cloud but had a 10-year backlog of cases. Rather than a direct import, they performed a phased migration: older cases were archived in an external database, while the last 5 years were fully imported. This balanced historical access with system performance.
Key Considerations
✅ Pros: Full historical access, long-term reporting, compliance support.
⚠️ Cons: High cost, increased complexity, potential performance slowdowns in Salesforce due to large data volumes.
Final Thoughts
Choosing your case migration strategy is a lot like moving into a new house—you want to bring what serves you best without creating unnecessary clutter. Whether you prefer a clean slate, a selective approach, or a full transfer, planning ahead will ensure a smooth transition.
No matter which option you choose, the key is organizing before you pack and ensuring you have access to what you need, when you need it. And if you need expert movers (or, in this case, migration specialists), our team is happy to help!