DaVinSci

The Challenge: A Fragmented Landscape of Lost Opportunities

The client (a high-growth professional association) had expanded rapidly, but its data infrastructure hadn’t kept pace. Critical contact records were trapped in:

• Multiple CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, legacy systems).
• Disparate event platforms (Eventbrite, custom solutions).
• Decentralised spreadsheets managed by regional teams.

The result?

• Duplicate or outdated records wasting marketing spend.
• Missed engagement opportunities due to siloed insights.
• No single customer view, hindering personalised outreach.

Leadership needed a complete data unification strategy – one that preserved historical relationships while enabling future scalability.

The Solution: A Strategic, Three-Phase Transformation

1. Discovery & Audit – Mapping the Chaos

Before any migration, we conducted a comprehensive data audit, uncovering:

• Over 45% duplicate or incomplete records.
• Inconsistent field mappings across systems.
• Critical gaps in segmentation (membership tiers, engagement history).

This phase wasn’t just technical – it involved stakeholder interviews to understand how teams used (or struggled with) existing data.

2. System Architecture & Cleansing – Building a Foundation of Trust

With insights in hand, we:

• Designed a unified data model, prioritising key fields (membership status, event attendance, communication preferences).
• Executed a rigorous deduplication process, merging records while preserving historical interactions.
• Standardised data entry protocols to prevent future fragmentation.

The goal? One golden record per contact – complete, accurate, and actionable.

3. Migration & Integration – Seamless Transition, Zero Loss

Using a phased, validation-heavy approach, we:

• Mapped legacy data to the new structure with automated checks.
• Maintained data lineage to ensure traceability.
• Integrated with marketing automation, enabling dynamic segmentation.

Critical to success: a rollback plan to mitigate risks during cutover.

The Impact: From Fragmentation to Strategic Advantage

Operational Efficiency

• 70% reduction in duplicate records, saving hours of manual cleanup.
• Faster, more accurate reporting with a single source of truth.

Enhanced Engagement

• Personalised outreach powered by unified engagement histories.
• 20% increase in email open rates due to improved segmentation.

Future-Proof Scalability

• Automated data hygiene processes to maintain integrity.
• Flexible architecture ready for new integrations.

Most importantly, 250,000+ relationships were no longer entries in a database—they became a connected community, fully visible and actionable for the first time.

Conclusion: The Art (and Science) of Data Unification

This migration wasn’t just about moving data – it was about transforming how the organisation thinks about its relationships. By combining technical precision with a deep understanding of human connections, we turned a sprawling challenge into a strategic asset.

Key takeaways for organisations facing similar hurdles:

1. Audit before you act – Understand the full scope of fragmentation.
2. Clean, then migrate – Garbage in = garbage out.
3. Design for the future – Build systems that scale with your ambitions.

When data chaos becomes cohesion, every number tells a story – and every story drives growth. When systems, people, and processes align, the results speak for themselves.

Ready to unite your data – and your community? Let’s begin the transformation.