That client data migration that should have been a 2 day job

I took on a project to move a real estate agency in Austin from their old CRM to a new one. They said all their contacts and notes were in there, but it turned out they had 3,400 duplicates and a bunch of corrupted files. It took me 11 days instead of the 2 I budgeted for, and I had to build a custom filter just to clean the mess. Has anyone else run into a client saying their data is clean when it really isn't?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_cameron11d ago

Oh man, those "clean" datasets are ALWAYS a lie in my experience too.

sanchez.julia11d ago

Everyone says their data is clean until you actually look at it. Spent hours yesterday fixing someone's "ready to go" dataset. Never trust that label.

lee.cora11d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. I feel your pain on those "clean" data promises. Clients always think just because it's in a spreadsheet that means it's good to go. Have had my share of projects where I found duplicates from years ago that someone just kept copy-pasting. The custom filter you had to build sounds like a nightmare but smart move honestly. People really don't understand how much work goes into scrubbing data before a migration.

-1