Salesforce Exits: 5 Horror Stories and What We Learned

Story 1: The Lost Audit Trail ($1.8M Fine)

What Happened

Healthcare SaaS company, 14 years on Salesforce. Decided to exit to HubSpot. Hired a migration firm, moved data over 3 months. Decommissioned Salesforce 60 days after cutover.

18 months later: compliance audit requested proof of patient consent documentation from 2019–2022. All consent records were in Salesforce Chatter posts and File attachments.

Export didn't include Chatter or Files. Original Salesforce org: deleted.

Outcome: $1.8M HIPAA violation fine. Legal fees: $240K. Emergency data recovery attempt (failed): $85K.

What Should Have Been Done

• Retention policy audit before export
• Full metadata inventory including ContentVersion, FeedItem, EmailMessage
• Archive all attachments/files to immutable storage (S3 Glacier, etc.)
• Retain Salesforce org read-only for 7 years (cost: ~$30K/year vs. $1.8M fine)

Story 2: The Integration Time Bomb ($3.2M Overrun)

What Happened

Manufacturing firm exiting to Microsoft Dynamics. Budget: $800K, 9 months. Finished data migration on schedule.

Week 2 post-cutover: 47 integrations failed. They had mapped the main integrations (ERP, billing, marketing automation) but missed:

• 12 legacy webhook endpoints still hitting Salesforce APIs
• Field service mobile app calling Salesforce for routing (undocumented)
• Quarterly financial close script pulling Opportunity data directly from SOQL
• Partner portal SSO configured via Salesforce Identity

Emergency rewiring + Dynamics customization + data backfill: 14 additional months, $3.2M over budget.

What Should Have Been Done

• API usage logs analysis (90 days minimum)
• Network traffic inspection to catch undocumented endpoints
• SSO/Identity audit (check every SP in SAML config)
• Parallel-run integration testing for 30 days before cutover

Story 3: The Relationship Black Hole (6-Month Revenue Gap)

What Happened

B2B SaaS company, exiting Salesforce for homegrown CRM. Migrated Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities. Forgot to map:

• OpportunityContactRole (which contacts influenced which deals)
• Account hierarchies (parent/child relationships)
• Campaign membership history

Sales team lost visibility into: buyer committees, account org charts, marketing attribution. Deals stalled. New CRM showed flat account lists with no context.

Outcome: Revenue dropped 34% for two quarters while sales rebuilt relationships manually. Estimated lost revenue: $8.4M.

What Should Have Been Done

• Schema dependency graph showing all parent/child and junction objects
• Migrate relationships first, validate referential integrity, then migrate dependent records
• User acceptance testing with actual sales reps before cutover

Story 4: The Compliance Lockout (Exit Cancelled After $600K)

What Happened

Global pharma company planning exit to Veeva. Six months in, Legal discovered:

• Salesforce org contained EU clinical trial data subject to GDPR
• Data Processing Agreement required Salesforce-certified storage for 10 years post-trial
• Veeva didn't have equivalent certification for that specific data type

Exit blocked by Legal/Compliance. Spent $600K on discovery and planning. Had to stay on Salesforce.

What Should Have Been Done

• Legal/compliance stakeholder involvement from day zero
• Data classification audit (PII, PHI, CUI, export-controlled, etc.)
• Certification matching between source and target platforms
• Regulatory review before vendor selection

Story 5: The Incremental Export Disaster (9TB of Duplicates)

What Happened

Retail company, 87M records. Decided to export incrementally over 4 months to avoid downtime.

Export script used LastModifiedDate to identify "new" records each week. Didn't account for:

• Automated nightly batch jobs updating LastModifiedDate on 40% of records weekly
• Trigger cascades re-touching parent records

Same records exported 8–12 times. Deduplication failed (no External_ID__c on some objects). Loaded 9TB of data; actual unique data: 1.2TB.

Cleanup: 11 weeks, $340K. New CRM performance degraded from duplicate index bloat.

What Should Have Been Done

• Use immutable audit field or create Export_Checkpoint__c timestamp
• Require External ID on every object before export starts
• Test incremental export on sandbox with real automation running
• Validate record counts per batch; halt if anomalies detected

Common Patterns

• Underestimating scope: "Just move Accounts and Opps" ignores 80% of the schema
• Trusting the tool: Migration vendors optimize for speed, not compliance or data fidelity
• Skipping parallel run: Cutover with no fallback = high-stakes gamble
• No retention strategy: Deleting source data before retention period expires
• Integration blindness: Only documenting the integrations you remember

Exit Readiness Checklist

1. Full schema export including all standard/custom objects, relationships, and junction tables
2. Compliance audit: retention policies, certifications, data residency, audit trail requirements
3. Integration inventory: API logs, webhooks, SSO, ETL jobs, mobile apps
4. Metadata archive: Chatter, Files, EmailMessage, Task history, Case comments
5. External ID strategy: every object must have a unique, immutable identifier
6. Parallel-run period: 30–90 days with both systems live
7. Rollback plan: can you revert if the new system fails?
8. Retention commitment: keep Salesforce read-only until legal/compliance clears deletion

What We Do Differently

Our Exit Assessment Service includes:

• Compliance review before vendor selection
• Schema dependency graph with relationship mapping
• Integration discovery via API logs + network trace
• Metadata inventory (not just "data")
• 3-scenario cost model: best case, realistic, disaster
• Retention strategy with annual cost projections

Goal: no surprises, no compliance violations, no lost revenue.