Background Information
Alibaba Cloud has introduced Customer 360 to China in partnership with Salesforce. Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud consists of the following parts:
● Salesforce Connected Experiences Gateway (CXG), a localized extension component designed specifically for China
● Salesforce’s global core products including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Salesforce Platform.
To successfully migrate to Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud is not a simple task like ‘lift - shift - land’. It is an end-to-end migration project. This data sheet is designed to help you understand and prepare for this migration project from a high level perspective.
To access the full the 30-page “Technical Migration Guide”, please reach out to your sales representative.
Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud Migration Journey
Your end-to-end migration journey may consist of four steps.
Prepare for Your Migration
Every customer’s Salesforce org is unique. You could have a global shared org that has been used for 10+ years including China usage, you could already have a dedicated org for users in China, or there could be no Salesforce org for China usage at all. You need to understand your As-Is Salesforce org environment to decide the migration approach of building your To-Be Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance.
At the preparation stage, the expected outcomes are to:
● Understand your Salesforce As-Is org environment
● Understand your Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud migration options
● Agree on the migration approach for metadata/data migration
● Agree on the relationship and data synchronization scope between your existing global Salesforce instance, and the Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance
To archive the expectations, the following stakeholders will need to be involved:
● Internal - IT team, Salesforce Architecture
● External - System Integrator (who implemented your current Salesforce org)
And below are the steps you are required, but not limited, to take:
● Confirm your As-Is Salesforce org types (global shared, dedicated, no Salesforce org for China)
● Workshop to decide your preferred method of metadata migration based on your existing org type
● Workshop to understand the data history in your As-Is org and agree on the appropriate method to define the China-related data for migration
You can start the preparation stage as soon as you have decided to migrate your Salesforce organization to Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud. You should consider the time to investigate your As-Is org, to align all the stakeholders on the migration approach, and to complete the migration budget approval process.
Validate Your Migration Approach
Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud will be as similar to the Salesforce global version as possible, with some differences, for example:
● No Einstein Service as this will require cross border customer data transfer
● Lightning support only. If your As-Is Salesforce org is still on Classic, you will need to upgrade to Lightning first before you can migrate to Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud
● Some features like Omni-Channel might not initially be available at the time of GA
● The ISV package in your global Salesforce org might not be available in China
Therefore, the migration scope for both metadata and data will need to be well defined and validated, and a mitigation plan created for those features which are out of the migration scope.
At the validation stage, the expected outcomes are:
● Workshops have been held to confirm and sign-off on the migration scope for metadata and China-related data
● Major blockers have been identified and documented, for example, the Salesforce As-Is org is not Lightning ready, the solution components (Marketing, Commerce, CPQ, FSL, etc), or the ISV packages are not yet available at the time the Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance becomes Generally Available
● A mitigation plan (Lightning upgrade, alternative solutions, change management) has been created with the Salesforce team and your SI partner
● The migration plan has been thoroughly tested and optimized together with your selected Salesforce SI
Some tools you can use to help:
● An org compare tool that compares your As-Is org with a clean Salesforce org to identify the initial scope of customizations to be migrated
● A free or commercial tool to test the metadata and data migration process
We recommend that you start the validation stage no later than 3 months before your targeted migration project start date.
Migrate to Your Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud Environment
Although each customer org is different, there are several rules that are important for every migration project:
Don’t just copy everything and assume it will work. e.g. some standard fields might not be available in the Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance org environment. And some standard or custom fields might exceed the length limit due to special requests in the past.
When you try to conduct the org split task, if some metadata configurations can not be confirmed if they are related or not related to China scope, MIGRATE THEM FIRST.
There might be incremental data during the migration. Plan ahead how to handle this situation, or simply contact Salesforce to enable the ‘read-only’ mode during data migration.
It's important to import object data in a particular order to maintain record relationships. For example,import the parent record before the child record, import the mandatory field record first,etc.
Migration Steps:
Understand and avoid the limitations. For more information, see Salesforce Limitations.
Run the pre-migration checklist:
❏ Custom connected app is ready to connect the SFDX tooling for migration
❏ No hard-coded URL
❏ Enable the relevant settings (multi-currency, supported languages, personal accounts, etc.)
❏ Apply the special request to increase the system limits (APIs, pickup values, field length, etc.)
❏ Disable the triggered flow to avoid unexpected incremental data
Migrate metadata and data in the right order
Update the metadata before import, like creating/updating username/email for new org, new custom object/field for some China-related data importing
Decide approach to maintain the data relationship (parent child)
Handle the special data like encrypted data, audit data, system generated data, etc.
Understand which data cannot be migrated (opportunity history, field history, etc.)
Add Preferred Alternatives to IP Allowlisting on Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance
Testing and Post-Migration Tasks
We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have everything tested properly. While understanding that each migration project scope is unique and we may not cover every circumstance, we have provided a sample testing guide in the complete Technical Migration Guide for you to download.
Please make sure to consult your migration team or certified solutions for the "Technical Migration Guide" (30 pages). Please contact your sales representative.
At the testing stage, the expected outcomes are:
● You have built out your own test plan using the Technical Migration Guide as a reference
● You have made a plan to handle exceptions after migration
● Changes have been communicated to the internal stakeholders (Global Salesforce Team, IT team, China business users):
Sent email after verification is complete reminding end users about the change in the URL
End User Impact: Have reminded support community and leadership team that URL will change, but bookmarks, links in Chatter posts, templates, etc will redirect to the new instance
Have tested and communicated with internal and external impacted parties that Mydomain will be changed and it will impact your experience cloud
Have notified (Chatter & Email) all employees that: the Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud application is accessible, the login URL has changes, and all browser bookmarks will redirect (assuming you follow our best practices of whitelisting IP addresses)
Have communicated similar (or different) local process and differences between Global org and Local Org
● Local internal team enablement in complete
● A future plan (Enhancement, Exceptions Management) has been created
As always, thanks for your support on Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud!
Continue to read our China Architecture Guide to learn more about the Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud platform, product strategy and roadmap, integration patterns, the operations practices of IT and data governance and release management, and local practices including Center of Excellence (CoE), partner ecosystem and user experience and adoption in China.