Why Companies Leave Salesforce
Salesforce is powerful. It's also expensive, complex, and requires dedicated admins. For companies under 200 employees, it's often overkill.
Top Reasons for Migration
- Cost — Enterprise licenses $165/user/mo + implementation consultants
- Complexity — Average Salesforce implementation takes 3-6 months
- Admin burden — Need a certified Salesforce admin ($80-120K/year)
- Feature bloat — Using 20% of features, paying for 100%
- Integration tax — Connecting Salesforce to ERP, helpdesk, marketing = more cost
Migration Plan
| Phase | Week | Activities |
|-------|------|-----------|
| Discovery | 1-2 | Audit objects, fields, automations, reports |
| Data Prep | 2-3 | Clean data, resolve duplicates |
| Export | 3-4 | Data Loader export of all objects |
| Import | 4-5 | Staged import with validation |
| Automation Rebuild | 5-6 | Recreate workflows in Automo |
| Testing | 6-7 | Parallel operation, user acceptance |
| Go Live | 7-8 | Cut over, train team |
Salesforce Object → Automo Mapping
| Salesforce | Automo | Notes |
|-----------|--------|-------|
| Lead / Contact | Contact | Unified (no lead-to-contact conversion needed) |
| Account | Organization | With enriched data |
| Opportunity | Deal | Simpler pipeline management |
| Case | Support Ticket | With AI routing |
| Campaign | Marketing Campaign | With native email + automation |
| Report | Dashboard Widget | AI-generated insights |
Cost Comparison
| Line Item | Salesforce | Automo |
|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CRM licenses (20 users) | $3,300/mo | $380/mo |
| Admin salary | $8,000/mo | $0 (self-service) |
| Integration tools | $500/mo | $0 |
| Consultant hours | $2,000/mo | $0 |
| Total Monthly | $13,800 | $380 |
