Steps to Migrate Salesforce Classic to Lightning

Maybe not now, but yes, at some time in the future, Salesforce will deprecate Salesforce Classic. Are you devising to switch from Salesforce Classic to Lightning for better productivity and faster performance? That’s good to know, as it’s the right time to level up your game by upgrading your experience.

Per the latest reports, adopting Salesforce Lightning leads to 41% boosted productivity, 21% increased win rates, 41% elevated conversion rates, and more.

No doubt, Salesforce Classic to Lightning migration will surely make sense to you, but the migration job is not as easy as it seems. On top of it, you need to be knowledgeable to carry out the things that meet the expected objectives. Besides, before you kickstart, you should know that a few challenges hinder this migration process, and to avoid this, you need to be set with solutions.

Not to fret. This post will help you with everything, from Salesforce Classic to Lightning migration steps, reasons to migrate, and much more.

So, stay tuned!

Why It’s Necessary to Migrate Salesforce Classic to Lightning

First, let’s discover why one should migrate Salesforce Classic to Lightning.

1. Salesforce Classic Will End One Day

Obviously, with the arrival of something new, we must drop the old one. The same goes here; you should migrate to Salesforce Lightning. However, Salesforce hasn’t announced any official date for its soon to avoid any clogs.

2. Investing in Outdated Products

Obviously, a new product, an improved version, always arrives with enhanced features and functionalities. As you are still paying for Classic services, your organization lags from reaping the benefits of the advanced products.

3. Migrating to Salesforce Lightning Needs a Minimum of Six Weeks

On average, the Salesforce Lightning transition takes not less than six weeks. You need to plan things accordingly, adding a few more weeks for post-launch activities for performance analysis, gathering feedback, and adoption.

4. Cost-saving On Custom Development and App Support

Salesforce Lightning is the best option for one looking to custom apps and objects without the help of a Salesforce developer. Even using Lightning App Builder, you can customize your page’s look and feel with drag and drop.

5. Reap the Benefits of Improved Products

Salesforce Lightning is widely chosen for its modern interface, activity timeline, custom branding, all Einstein features, integrated email and templates, and sales data you can’t find in Salesforce Classic.

Salesforce Classic To Lightning Migration – Challenges

As we already know, every new thing surfaces with some challenges that we should overcome to use it best. Let’s put forth some common Salesforce Classic to Lightning migration challenges with solutions to witness a seamless process.

1. Complex Customization

Salesforce Classic allows high customization from custom homepage components to custom objects. While switching to the Lightning platform, this appears to be a challenge, resulting in certain complications, like feature redundancy, performance issues, and more.

Solution

You can analyze and understand the Salesforce Classic customizations before kickstarting migration. List all your customizations in Salesforce Classic and verify which are valuable per your business needs.

2. Performance Health

As Salesforce Lightning emerged with advanced and improved features and functionalities compared to Classic, obviously, the latter will encounter performance issues.

Solution

Connect with a Salesforce migration expert who can provide a Salesforce audit to find out your business’s potential health and productivity issues at the best price.

3. Overloading of Features

Businesses may find Salesforce Lightning’s wide range of features and functionalities overwhelming. They may find it tough to decide which capability they need. Various firms using Lightning have bombarded their UI with less useful features.

Solution

Here, the simple rule is to scan every customization and retain only those that can improve your CRM functioning.

4. Wrong Timing for Migration

Yes, you are excited to explore Salesforce Lightning’s new features and capabilities, but wait, don’t rush. First, decide the best time to transition from Salesforce Classic to Lightning, considering project delays, ongoing projects, and any process-associated risks. Mostly, the wrong timing of migration has an adverse impact on your business’s functionality.

Solution

Pick when your business will witness little to no impact from the transition. You can regularly go on weekends or any specific time when your business activity is less.

5. Lack of Team Readiness

Well, it takes time and required training to adopt something new. Also, post-migration, your team members should be ready to reap the advantages of the all-new and improved Salesforce product. Otherwise, it may affect your business’s productivity.

Solution

Provide your team and every user of Salesforce Lightning in your organization with the required training and improve their skills to let them be knowledgeable. This way, your team can harness the power of this Salesforce product for improved productivity and performance.

6. Delay in Implementation

We have talked about hurdles that emerge during the migration process. But, you will be surprised to know that you can expect similar issues after successfully completing the transition.

As Salesforce Lightning brings numerous features for the users, this slows down the implementation process, making it take more time to accomplish.

Solution

Choose to move ahead with a bit-by-bit, gradual implementation; this way, you can beat the implementation delays. Repetitive enhancements take enough time, and that’s the reason for such a setback. So, start prioritizing the features and launch them for specific users. Ahead, you can roll out the rest with no gap.

Steps To Migrate Salesforce Classic To Lightning

After putting forth every relevant understanding of migration from Salesforce Classic to Lightning, let’s kickstart the process.

Pre-Migration Preparation

First, we will talk about the preparation we should do before starting the migration.

• Take a quick recap of the Salesforce Classic about how it has been helping your business.
• Identify key stakeholders and include them in the migration process.
• Communicate with your team and users at your organization about the upcoming migration.
• Provide upskilling and training sessions to the users and team for the new Salesforce Lightning interface, features, functionalities, and more.

Migrate Salesforce Classic to Lightning Migration – Steps to Follow

After being well-prepared, it’s time to begin the migration process, following the steps below.

Conduct Salesforce Lightning Experience Readiness

The report will evaluate your organization to know how it currently employs Salesforce Classic, the effort needed to switch, predict potential code issues, and identify features currently in use that will not be available post-migration. Also, considering those features and functionalities that Lightning doesn’t support, you can perform a gap analysis to plan an action for filling the performance gap.

Steps:

• Login to Salesforce,
• Go to the setup page > click Lightning Experience (under the search bar),
• Evaluate if the Lightning Experience is apt for you,
• And, check your Lightning Experience Readiness

Data and Customization Assessment

Now, evaluate your business’s existing data, its structure, and cleanliness. Ahead, ensure that you review the customizations and integrations in the Classic. This way, you will identify potential areas demanding improvements that you can enhance in Lightning. For this, you can use the Salesforce Optimizer and remove inactive workflow rules and unused custom profiles.

Plan the Migration

Consider your timelines and milestones, and next, create a detailed migration plan.

Then, as you need resources to make the process seamless, allocate the necessary and useful resources here.

In case, if you catch up with any unpredicted issues during the migration, you should be ready with a rollback plan beforehand.

Execute Data Migration Process

In Salesforce Classic, backup your existing data to cover up any unexpected errors that may lead to data loss. From Classic to Lightning, map the data fields to ensure data hasn’t been compromised and transferred accurately and effectively. Now, with minimum interference from users, execute the data migration process.

Customization and Configuration in Lightning

Moving ahead, replicate customizations from Classic to Lightning, which will help sync data without manual intervention.

Next, configure Salesforce Lightning features and components to align with specific business processes.

Before deploying the product, test the customization to avoid any performance issues later.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Now, it’s time to conduct a user acceptance test involving the end users and gather feedback on the usability experience with the new Lightning interface.

Before the full deployment, mark the issues identified during the testing phase and resolve them. This way, your team will find the new interface easy to use to harness the complete potential of the product.

You can use the Lightning Migration Assistant to test the Salesforce Lightning Experience. This tool will stand as an ultimate assistant guiding you throughout the process of smoothly onboarding with Lightning. You will get a preview of how your company will work in Lightning mode, leaving it inoperable for your team and users.

This is the best opportunity to try Salesforce Lightning features and apps and experiment with the product if you missed it while checking the Lightning Experience Readiness. Besides, you can practically identify your team’s useful and essential features.

Steps:

• Go to Setup in Salesforce Classic > Click Get Started in the Lightning Experience Transition Assistant tile (you can find it at the top of the menu),
• Select Discover Phase > then click Evaluate Lightning Experience Benefits and Readiness > then click Preview (adjacent to Preview Lightning Experience).

Deployment and Post-Migration Support

As we have read earlier, a phased-wise launch of Lightning will pace the process with no delays. We will follow the same here, following the preference of the organization.

The Salesforce development company you hire for conducting migration from Salesforce Classic to Lightning will offer post-migration assistance in which they will train the users for the best use of the product and resolve the issues, if any. Also, the firm will monitor user adoption to ensure a seamless experience and beat the post-deployment challenges.

Continuous Improvement

Undoubtedly, to stay ahead of the curve, you need to be updated with the trends and dynamic market.

You can ask your Salesforce migration service provider to upgrade the product with new updates and features for ongoing enhancements. The company will also help your organization by analyzing user feedback post-migration and including necessary improvements.

Salesforce Classic And Salesforce Lightning Features Difference

While moving ahead, let’s differentiate between Salesforce Classic and Salesforce Lightning, highlighting their key features.

How Can Emizentech Help Migrate Salesforce Classic To Lightning?

Being a certified Salesforce partner, Emizentech helps clients worldwide who look for the best Salesforce consulting services, implementation, customization, development, migration, and more.

Yes, the company holds pride in having an engaging portfolio of successful projects.

Key Highlights of Emizentech

• 360-Degree Salesforce Services
• Certified Salesforce Partner
• Team of Certified Salesforce Developers
• Drive Seamless Transition Through Salesforce Services Across Varied Industry Verticals
• Extensive Service Portfolio

Conclusion

While wrapping up, we hope you have been well-versed on how beneficial it is to migrate from Salesforce Classic to Salesforce Lightning.

More and more organizations are choosing Lightning over Salesforce Classic because of its easy-to-use and modern UI, improved security, seamless integration, fast build times, complete customization, better reporting, and, above all, elevated productivity and increased conversion. What else is required to catch up with the limelight in this dynamic marketplace when the advancing trends and technologies are making it challenging to survive every moment?

Furthermore, sooner or later you have to choose this transitioning. Harnessing the comprehensive potential of Salesforce Lightning is essential, and to ease your journey from migration to usage, you can hire a Salesforce consulting company and get the required guidance.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)