Biosafety Company Achieves Seamless Global Integration

The Challenge
In 2022, the biosafety company faced the challenge of integrating a recently acquired division. This acquisition doubled the company's sales and service team members. During the acquisition process, the company identified the need to replace their legacy systems with a robust CRM solution that could support their global growth and align with the 650 Salesforce users from acquired teams.

Prior to partnering with Bolt Data, the company relied on homegrown legacy systems that were heavily customized and disconnected from other divisions worldwide. This led to a fragmented and disjointed user and data experience. To address this and ensure a 360-degree view of their customers across all divisions in the future, the company turned to Bolt Data for the implementation and customization of a new Salesforce org, as well as the migration of all their data from existing systems including:

• Multiple on-premise hosted Microsoft CRM systems (each geography and business division had their own siloed system)
• Sage payroll, human resources and finance software for EMEA
• Acquired company’s existing Salesforce instance
• Acquired company’s Lotus Notes (now HCL Notes) email client software for email, calendar and contact management

Bolt Data faced a significant challenge due to strict deadlines and time constraints for the acquisition. The company was operating under a Transition Service Agreement (TSA) with the acquired company, which was scheduled to end in February 2024. That meant there were multiple, fast-approaching deadlines given to Bolt Data to ensure all users, data, and processes were migrated well in advance of the TSA expiration.

Project Milestones

• May 2022: Project Kickoff
• Sep 2022: Go-live for first wave of acquired company users
• Nov 2022: Legacy division rollout
• Feb 2023: Enhancement rollout
• April 2023: Genomics division rollout
• May 2023: Acquired team migration
• Feb 2024: TSA and EMEA division rollout deadline

The Bolt Data team developed a multi-phase plan with the following key objectives:

1. Successfully launching the multi-cloud Salesforce solution well before the deadline to prevent data loss, including Salesforce Org, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud
2. Transferring all data from over five legacy systems (Microsoft, Sage, Salesforce, Lotus Notes) and four separate CRMs used by global divisions (three in South America and one in Australia/New Zealand) into one global standard Salesforce org
3. Integrating existing team members, along with the 650 sales and service users from the recently acquired organization
4. Establishing a “Center of Excellence” (COE) approach to build the Salesforce org with unified data and processes

The ultimate goal was to facilitate a digital transformation that would unite the company’s organization and align everyone toward common objectives. Given the pressing deadline and complexity, Bolt Data had to swiftly create an effective solution.

The Solution
To get the project in motion, Bolt Data developed a sales and customer service-focused solution in collaboration with Salesforce to address the company’s growing needs.

The team quickly launched the first implementation phase to onboard the first wave of acquired users. They focused on bridging communication gaps between the U.S. team, global divisions, and the recently acquired teams by establishing a Center of Excellence and creating a new Salesforce org to standardize global processes.

Bolt Data conducted interviews with stakeholders across worldwide divisions to inform their design of global processes. They thoroughly evaluated the acquired company’s data to define the migration scope and aligned the plan with source systems while adjusting for standardized processes.

Although the team held extensive discovery sessions, some early decisions required educated assumptions to maintain project momentum. As the project progressed, new requirements and data surfaced, leading to 12 follow-on Statements of Work (SOWs) and 2 Change Orders for additional scope.

Despite these changes, the project deadline remained fixed. Bolt Data’s ability to staff experienced Salesforce experts enabled them to meet new demands without delay. The final Salesforce solution included a new Salesforce instance with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, supporting a total of 700 Salesforce licenses.

The Results
The project led by Bolt Data was delivered on time, successfully merging two companies and their data into a unified Salesforce environment.

This consolidation improved visibility into both organizational and customer data. The transition and onboarding of the acquired organization was a complex effort, with many moving pieces and objectives.

Throughout the project, Bolt Data became an extension of the client’s team, earning trust and participating in critical strategic discussions. Executive alignment was a key factor in the project’s success. A strong top-down governance model enabled swift decision-making and resource allocation to keep the project on track.

Key outcomes include:

• Mobile access to Salesforce, enabling features not available in legacy systems
• Cloud-based infrastructure, removing reliance on VPNs or local data storage
• Scalable architecture to meet future needs (e.g., license growth, storage)
• Greater business resiliency through faster, more secure global data access
• Over 1 million records migrated into one new global org and four regional orgs
• Creation of data management processes to support ERP and marketing integrations

As a result of the international rollout and system consolidation, the company now benefits from enhanced visibility and operational efficiency.

Bolt Data continues to work closely with the company as they approach the February 2024 TSA deadline, onboarding additional users and delivering enhancements to further optimize the Salesforce environment.