One of the most common risks in SaaS migrations is losing your history.
When businesses move to a new SaaS platform, vendors often recommend migrating only “current” data — active customers, open jobs, or recent records. On the surface, this keeps the migration fast and affordable. But what about the decades of historical records that sit behind those?
For many organisations, that history isn’t just old data. It’s the context behind decisions, the foundation for compliance, and the evidence your team relies on to answer questions that don’t come up every day — but matter when they do.
The pain of losing history
Imagine being asked to provide a compliance report that references inspections from 15 years ago, or needing to validate a long-standing customer relationship. If that information hasn’t been migrated, staff are left digging through backups, outdated systems, or spreadsheets that may no longer open.
Too often, “current data only” migrations create these headaches:
- Incomplete records when regulators request historical evidence.
- Gaps in customer service when long-term clients expect you to have their full history on hand.
- Additional cost and risk if legacy systems must be kept running purely for reference.
For small and medium businesses, there’s another hidden cost: customer relationships. If your SaaS platform only holds current data, your team can’t easily distinguish a brand-new customer from one who has trusted you for over a decade. That missing context can lead to missed opportunities to reward loyalty, anticipate needs, or provide personalised service.
Preserving your business history is about more than storage — it’s about ensuring continuity, maintaining trust, and recognising the relationships that underpin your business.
If you’re still exploring what migration really involves, our guide on What to Expect When Migrating from On-Premise Software to a SaaS Platform explains why it’s rarely just a simple “lift and shift.”
Your options
When planning a SaaS migration, there are three common approaches to handling legacy data:
1. Archive
Export historical records into a secure, read-only archive. This keeps costs low while ensuring you can still search and retrieve old records when needed.
2. Partial migration
Bring across a subset of historical records — for example, the last five years — while archiving the rest. This reduces migration complexity while still giving staff access to the data most likely to be used.
3. Hybrid solutions
Combine your SaaS platform with a companion application that preserves full access to your historical data. This provides the best of both worlds: your new SaaS system for daily operations, and a separate modern interface for legacy records.
For practical steps on cleaning and preparing your data before migration, see Data Migration 101: Cleaning, Enriching, and Preparing Your Data.
A real-world example
We recently assisted a pest control business that was moving to GorillaDesk, a SaaS field-service platform for managing jobs and customers. GorillaDesk’s import process only supports bringing across current records — a limitation that presumably helps keep migration costs low on their side. While this worked for operational efficiency, it still left over 20 years of historic data at risk of being lost.
To address this, we plan to create a companion archive application in Skyve. This will allow staff to access historic customer and job records without cluttering the new SaaS platform. The combination ensures seamless day-to-day operations in GorillaDesk, while preserving the whole history when it’s needed.
Where to next?
If you’re planning a SaaS migration, don’t let decades of valuable business data disappear in the process.
In our next article, we’ll explore Should You Archive or Integrate Legacy Data? Pros and Cons for Small Businesses, helping you weigh the trade-offs and make the right decision for your organisation.
