Migrate from EF Enterprise to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

EF Enterprise Exhibitions are the top-level container storing event name, dates, venue, and status. Dynamics 365 has no native exhibition object, so we create a custom Dataverse entity named Exhibition with fields for name, start_date, end_date, venue_name, venue_address, status, and total_booth_count. We preserve Exhibition status (Draft, Active, Archived) as an Option Set. The Exhibition entity serves as the parent for Booth and Sponsor entities via Dataverse lookup relationships. Discovery includes extracting any EF Enterprise custom fields on Exhibition for remapping to custom columns on the destination entity.

EF Enterprise Booths are child records of Exhibition, storing booth number, size, zone assignment, and per-booth pricing. We create a custom Booth entity in Dynamics 365 with a required lookup to the parent Exhibition record and columns for booth_number, booth_size_sqft, zone, pricing_tier, rental_fee, and status. The parent Exhibition reference is resolved by matching the EF Enterprise Exhibition ID to the newly created Exhibition record ID in Dataverse before Booth records are inserted. Zone and pricing_tier are recreated as Option Sets in Dynamics 365 to match the EF Enterprise picklist structure.

Sponsors in EF Enterprise link to Exhibitions and optionally to specific Booths, with sponsor tier hierarchy (Gold, Silver, Bronze) stored as a custom picklist or tag. Dynamics 365 has no native sponsor entity, so we create a custom Sponsor entity with lookups to Exhibition (required) and Booth (optional), and columns for sponsor_name, tier (Gold/Silver/Bronze as Option Set), contract_value, contact_name, contact_email, and is_booth_sponsor (boolean). If EF Enterprise stores sponsor benefits or ROI metrics as custom fields, we attempt to map these to custom columns on the Sponsor entity and flag any unmappable fields in the migration report.

Attendee Registrations in EF Enterprise store contact reference, session selections, and badge type. We migrate the underlying contact data to Dynamics 365 Contact records with the standard Contact fields (name, email, phone, company) populated from the EF Enterprise contact data. We add custom columns on Contact for registration_id, exhibition_reference (lookup to Exhibition), badge_type, registration_status, and session_count. Session selections are tracked via a related custom Registration Session entity. Early-bird pricing flags and custom registration-type fields from EF Enterprise migrate to custom Contact columns if the fields are discoverable via schema export; otherwise they are flagged as unmapped.

Sessions in EF Enterprise are associated with Exhibitions and carry capacity limits and track classifications. Multi-track sessions are split into individual Session records, each with a required lookup to the parent Exhibition, columns for session_title, track, start_time, end_time, capacity, enrollment_count, and speaker_name. We compute enrollment_count from the number of Attendee Registration records that reference each Session. Session capacity limits migrate as-is; we flag any sessions where current enrollment exceeds the migrated capacity threshold so the customer can resolve before or after migration.

Badge records in EF Enterprise encode attendee type, access levels, and printing status. We create a custom Badge entity in Dynamics 365 with lookups to Contact and Exhibition, and columns for badge_type, access_level, printing_status, and badge_printed_date. The printing_status field is set to NotPrinted for all migrated records to reflect that badges have not been printed in the new system. Any EF Enterprise custom fields on Badge records are mapped to custom columns on the destination entity. We suppress all outbound badge-print automation during migration to prevent migrated records from triggering print jobs at cutover.

EF Enterprise stores exhibitor contract terms in custom Salesforce fields on Exhibition or Booth records. These fields require a Salesforce schema export from the source org for field-level discovery. We attempt to map the most common fields (contract_value, start_date, end_date, payment_terms, renewal_status) to custom columns on a custom ExhibitorContract entity in Dynamics 365. Fields that cannot be matched to a Dynamics 365 data type or that use Salesforce formula or roll-up logic are flagged as unsupported in the migration report. Custom object migration requires the customer to provide schema access during discovery; without it, we migrate only standard fields and note the limitation in the migration report.

EF Enterprise Salesforce User records and Owner assignments are migrated with a user ID remapping table built during the discovery phase by matching on email address. The customer provisions corresponding Dynamics 365 User accounts before migration. EF Enterprise follows the Salesforce pattern of archiving inactive users rather than deleting them; archived users are included in the export and surfaced during the discovery review so the customer can decide to keep them active, reassign their records, or leave them inactive in Dynamics 365 rather than having them land as orphaned owner references.

Attachments linked to booths, sponsors, and exhibitions in EF Enterprise are migrated via Salesforce ContentDocument, which maps to Dynamics 365 SharePoint document locations on the related Exhibition or Booth record. Large floor plan PDFs are chunked and re-uploaded to SharePoint. We also migrate attachments to Dynamics 365 Notes if the destination environment does not have SharePoint configured. Attachment file size limits for Dataverse apply and are respected during chunking.

EF Enterprise uses a mix of Salesforce standard tags and custom property sets for exhibitor classification. We export the full tag taxonomy and recreate it in Dynamics 365 as Option Sets on the relevant entity. Tags that appear as multi-checkbox properties in EF Enterprise become multi-select Option Sets in Dynamics 365. Duplicate tags are merged before migration. The customer selects the tag strategy during scoping: Option Set for controlled taxonomies or plain text for freeform tags.

EF Enterprise floor plans are stored as Salesforce ContentDocument records or custom objects. We migrate floor plan files to SharePoint document libraries attached to the Exhibition record in Dynamics 365, preserving the original file name and upload date. If the customer uses a custom floor plan management object in EF Enterprise, we recreate it as a custom FloorPlan entity in Dynamics 365 with a SharePoint document location reference. Large floor plan PDFs are re-uploaded in chunks to respect file size limits.

EF Enterprise uses custom Salesforce objects for exhibitor lead retrieval at events. Lead retrieval records are typically linked to a specific Exhibition and Booth. We create a custom LeadRetrieval entity in Dynamics 365 with lookups to Exhibition and Booth, columns for exhibitor_contact, lead_contact, lead_company, notes, and retrieval_timestamp. Custom fields on the lead retrieval object require schema export for field-level mapping. Lead retrieval data migration is performed after Contact migration is complete to ensure that lead contacts are already present in Dynamics 365.