The problem this solves
The structural symptoms are distinct from data hygiene ones: deals that model contracts in one pipeline and projects in another with no relation between them, companies and child companies associated inconsistently so account reporting is impossible, custom objects bolted on where a property would do, and properties abused where a custom object was needed. Teams build spreadsheet workarounds for questions the CRM should answer, which is the surest sign the model no longer fits the business.
How we work
We start from your business model, not your CRM: what entities matter in your world, how they relate, and what questions the business needs answered about them. Then we map your actual CRM structure against that: objects and their usage, association patterns, pipeline design, and lifecycle representation.
The interesting findings live in the mismatches: business concepts with no CRM representation, CRM structures representing nothing real anymore, and relationships your reporting needs that the model cannot express. We have restructured enough real-world models in migrations since 2021, including multi-year contract splits and multi-pipeline consolidations, to know which mismatches are cosmetic and which quietly block whole categories of reporting.
The deliverable is an architecture assessment with a target model recommendation: what to restructure, what to leave, and in what order, with the migration risk of each change stated honestly. It is the required groundwork before any data model redesign or platform re-implementation.
Deliverables
- Business entity map: what your business actually needs represented
- Current-state CRM model documentation covering objects, associations, and pipelines
- Mismatch analysis between business reality and CRM structure
- Reporting capability assessment: which needed questions the model cannot answer
- Target model recommendation with restructuring order and risk per change
What buyers ask before scoping.
How is this different from the Data Quality & Integrity Assessment?
Data quality measures the condition of the records; this assessment evaluates the structure they live in. Deduplicating contacts does not help if the object model cannot represent your account hierarchy. When both problems exist, architecture comes first, because cleaning data into a broken structure is work you will redo.
Our CRM was set up by a previous agency. Can you assess it without their documentation?
Yes, and it is the normal case; inherited portals rarely come with usable documentation. We reconstruct the model from the portal itself and from interviews with the people using it. Where the original design intent is unrecoverable, we document what the structure does today, which is what matters for the assessment anyway.
Will the recommendations require a migration?
Not necessarily. Many structural fixes are incremental: new association labels, pipeline restructuring, property consolidation done in place. Where a genuine restructuring migration is warranted, we say so with the risk and effort stated plainly, and that becomes a separately scoped project. The assessment gives you the decision basis, not a fait accompli.
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