Migrate from ContactDB to Zoho CRM

ContactDB Contact records map directly to Zoho CRM Contacts. The primary fields (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Title) align to Zoho standard fields. We preserve SICCODE, company size, credit rating, and country as custom fields on the Contact record. Data Integrity Guarantee tier (if known from the export package) migrates as a picklist value. Pre-import validation flags records with malformed emails, missing first name, or duplicate email addresses for customer review before final import.

ContactDB exports firmographic data (company name, company size, industry, SICCODE, credit rating) embedded in each contact row. We extract unique company names from the contact export, deduplicate by exact name and domain match, and create Zoho CRM Account records. Each Account receives the firmographic fields (Industry, Annual Revenue, Number of Employees, SIC Code). After Account creation, the Contact import links each contact to its parent Account via Account Name lookup. This two-phase approach prevents orphaned contacts and enables Account-level reporting in Zoho.

ContactDB segments contacts by industry, profession, title, country, and software usage, but these are not exported as tag objects. We reconstruct segment membership as Zoho CRM custom multi-select picklist fields (one per segment category: Industry Segment, Profession Segment, Title Segment, Country Segment, Software Usage). We also create a Zoho Tags entry per contact for quick list segmentation. The customer confirms which segment categories are meaningful post-migration during scoping, as not all ContactDB segment types may warrant a picklist field in the target CRM.

ContactDB does not produce Lead records; it stores flat contacts without qualification status. We do not create Zoho Leads in this migration because every ContactDB record is a known contact with an email address, not an unqualified prospect. If the customer intends to route ContactDB contacts through a sales qualification process, the Zoho CRM admin creates a Lead conversion workflow post-migration that converts existing Contacts to Leads for re-qualification.

ContactDB does not implement pipeline or deal-tracking. There are no Deal records to migrate. If the customer wants to create Deals for their migrated contacts post-migration, they configure Zoho CRM Deals manually or build a Blueprint workflow to generate Deals when contacts reach a specific stage. This is outside standard migration scope.

ContactDB is a purchased contact database. It does not track calls, emails, meetings, tasks, or engagement outcomes. No activity data is available to migrate. We explicitly scope the migration to contact and firmographic data only and exclude activity objects that do not exist in the source.

ContactDB does not store meeting or call records. No Event or Call data is available to migrate. Zoho CRM's native activity tracking begins post-migration when the team uses Zoho to log outreach.

ContactDB does not store notes or annotations against contact records. Any internal notes or context about contacts must be added manually in Zoho CRM post-migration or sourced from the customer's outreach platform history.

ContactDB does not expose a custom fields schema. Any proprietary attributes stored against contacts by ContactDB are not exported in the standard CSV package. If the customer has negotiated extended data fields with ContactDB, they must provide a sample export showing those columns for evaluation. Standard scope assumes flat contact export without custom object equivalents.

ContactDB is a data product, not a team CRM. There are no internal user accounts, owner assignments, or team member records to map. The customer's Zoho CRM admin provisions users post-migration, and contacts are assigned to owners as the team begins using the CRM.