Migrate from Column Case Management to Mailchimp

Mailchimp merge fields cap at 255 characters — long-text Column fields get truncated

Mailchimp's merge field schema is varchar(255) per field. Column Case Management stores free-text fields like case descriptions, subject notes, and evidence summaries that routinely exceed 255 characters. When we migrate these as merge fields, the values are truncated at 255 characters and the full text is included in the accompanying ZIP archive keyed by record ID. We flag any merge field in your Column schema that exceeds 255 characters before migration runs so you can decide which fields to truncate and which to archive-only.

Subject-to-case many-to-many relationships collapse into Mailchimp tags — case context can blur

A single subject in Column can appear across multiple cases with different roles — the same person may be a witness in one case and a complainant in another. Mailchimp contacts support tags but not role-per-context: if we tag a contact 'Witness', it applies to the contact globally, not to a specific case. We work around this by encoding case scope in the tag name (e.g., 'Witness-CASE-2024-0017') and storing the full role-per-case matrix as a custom merge field. However, Mailchimp segments built on role tags will catch the contact regardless of which case triggered the tag.

Evidence files and documents have no Mailchimp home — we export them as a separate archive

Mailchimp has no attachment or document storage capability on contact records. Column's evidence records, chain-of-custody logs, and case documents cannot live inside Mailchimp contacts. We export all file metadata and binary blobs from Column, package them into a ZIP organized by subject ID, and deliver the archive alongside the Mailchimp contact import. The ZIP file path is stored as a text merge field on each contact so your team can retrieve the full case context. Rebuilding document management in Mailchimp requires a third-party integration or a separate document storage tool.

Column workflow tasks and escalation logic do not transfer to Mailchimp automations

Column Case Management builds investigation task workflows with assignment rules, due-date escalation, and approval chains. Mailchimp automation journeys are email-sequence tools with no concept of investigative task management. FlitStack AI migrates task status and due-date metadata as merge fields, but the automation logic — who gets assigned a task, when it escalates, what approvals are required — has no Mailchimp equivalent. We provide a task-status export that your team can use as a rebuild reference in Mailchimp's Automation builder, but the logic must be reconstructed manually.

Column's duplicate management engine must run before export to avoid loading stale contact records

Column's duplicate detection and reconciliation engine identifies records that represent the same subject entered under different variations (typos, alternate spellings, changed contact information). If duplicates are present at export time, FlitStack will load each duplicate as a separate Mailchimp contact, causing contact list inflation and incorrect case-role tagging. We recommend running Column's duplicate management and reconciliation pass before the extraction step — we can provide the reconciliation output as a deduplication report that shows which Column IDs were merged so the Mailchimp merge field CASEID can reflect the surviving record.