Migrate from Cision to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Discovery and sub-product audit

We audit the customer's Cision environment to identify which sub-products are active (CisionOne, PR Newswire, PRWeb, Brandwatch). For each sub-product, we catalog the object types in use, approximate record counts, data freshness (last modified dates), and any known export limitations. We also identify the current Cision contract end date and any early-exit fees, since these affect the migration timeline and budget. The discovery output is a written migration scope document with record counts per object, a sub-product dependency map, and a recommendation on whether to migrate dormant records or archive them.

Assisted export coordination and API supplementation

We submit assisted export requests to Cision support on the customer's behalf at kickoff, covering media contacts, campaigns, distribution lists, press releases, and mention streams for each active sub-product. While awaiting fulfillment (5-10 business days), we supplement with direct API calls where Cision exposes endpoints for structured data objects. We coordinate with the customer to ensure Cision account credentials and API tokens are provisioned for the migration window. Any Brandwatch data in scope requires a separate Brandwatch export request or API session, which we initiate in parallel.

Schema design for custom entities in Dynamics 365

We design the destination schema in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales . This includes creating the custom entities Media_Coverage__c (for mention streams), Social_Mention__c (for Brandwatch data), and Press_Release__c (for PR Newswire records), along with all custom fields, picklist values, and lookup relationships. We also add custom fields to the standard Contact object for journalist-specific attributes (beat, outlet lookup, journalist tier, social profiles) and to the standard Account object for outlet type and geographic region. Schema is validated in a Dynamics 365 Sandbox before any production migration begins.

Data deduplication and transformation

We transform exported Cision data into the Dynamics 365 schema. This includes resolving journalist-to-outlet relationships via outlet name matching, applying the deduplication logic to coverage mentions (matching on title plus outlet plus date), flagging records with incomplete metadata for customer review, and splitting brandwatch social data into the custom Social_Mention__c object with platform attribution preserved. Press release wire tier, open rates, and click rates map to custom Press_Release__c fields. Distribution lists are restructured as Dynamics 365 Campaigns with Contact members.

Production migration in dependency order

We run production migration in record-dependency order: Accounts (media outlets first, as they are referenced by journalists), Contacts (journalists with outlet lookups resolved), Campaigns (with press releases as child records), Custom Entities (Media_Coverage__c and Social_Mention__c with their parent lookups), and finally Distribution List memberships attached to the relevant Campaigns. Each phase emits a row-count reconciliation report before the next phase begins. Cision writes are frozen during cutover to prevent new data accumulating on the source side without being migrated.

Cutover, validation, and alert rebuild handoff

We run a final delta migration of any records modified during the cutover window, then enable Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as the system of record for the migrated data scope. We deliver a written inventory of all Cision saved alerts and dashboard configurations with recommended rebuild steps in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales or Power BI. We support a one-week hypercare window for reconciliation issues. We do not rebuild Cision workflows, monitoring automations, or Brandwatch social configurations as part of the migration scope; these are documented separately for the customer's admin team to rebuild or replace with Dynamics 365 equivalents.