Migration is where software projects go wrong. Ask about it during evaluation, not after you sign. Here are the questions worth asking, in order.
Who actually does the work? Vendor, your staff, or a third party? Get a name and a role, not a department. If it is your team, ask how many hours they estimate.
What comes across, and what does not? Push for specifics. Current member records usually migrate cleanly. The things often dropped are historical event attendance, committee service history, past transactions beyond a certain date, and uploaded documents. Ask about each one.
How far back does history go? Some migrations bring two years. Some bring everything. If you need ten years of certification records, confirm that now.
Who cleans the data? Your database has duplicates and inconsistencies. Ask whether cleanup is included, offered as a service, or entirely on you.
What does it cost? Ask whether migration is included in implementation or billed separately. Ask what triggers additional charges. Data volume and custom field mapping are common ones.
How long does it take? Then ask what has caused delays on similar migrations. The second question gets a more useful answer than the first.
Can we validate before cutover? You want a test migration you can check against your own records. Ask whether that is standard.
Who owns the data? Ask directly. Then ask how you would export everything if you left in three years, what format it comes in, and whether there is a fee.
That last question tells you a lot about a vendor. A confident answer is a good sign.
Bring this list to every demo and write the answers down. Comparing them side by side is more revealing than any feature chart.
At GrowthZone, we answer these questions before anyone asks, because a migration nobody planned for is a bad start to a relationship.
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