The day of your data migration can be stressful. No matter how much planning you do, or even if you've hired a pro to do the migration for you - there will still be some trepidation, some dread, when you finally hit the "go" button.

To alleviate as much stress as possible, and to increase your feeling of preparedness and confidence in your data migration, you can take some simple steps on the actual day you migrate:

1. Make yourself available.
This is the cardinal rule. You must be present while the migration is running.If you are doing the migration yourself, and watching the data process - you should be checking in for errors, for the quality of data as it appears in Salesforce. That way, if something looks "off", you can take action right away.

If you've delegated the migration task to someone else (your developer team, a consultant or third-party service), you need to be present in case they have any questions or concerns in real-time as they are working with the data. And just as if you were doing it yourself, you should check in periodically with how the data looks in your Salesforce database.

2. Don't make any last minute changes.
It may seem obvious, but it can be tempting to want to make some last-minute tweaks. Whether it be to your CRM database setup, your migration requirements, even something as simple as a field name update. Don't make any changes and still expect to run the migration on time! If the change is critical, then it is best to take a step back and reschedule the migration to a later date. If the change can be done post-migration - then wait until then. Just a simple change to a field name can result in 1,000's of errors in a data migration, and it is something that can easily be done after-the-fact.

Following this rule will avoid most major headaches on the day of your migration.

3. Remember to "turn off" your old CRM database.
As part of your data migration project plan, you (hopefully) determined a final cutover date for your team's data entry into your CRM. At the moment you press "go" on the data migration, you are essentially taking a "snapshot" of your old CRM database and copying that over to Salesforce. You do not want any further data entry going into your old CRM - those additions or updates would not be reflected in the data that ends up in Salesforce.

Do you what you need to do to remind your team to stop entering data into your old CRM database. You can send an email reminder, have a calendar event or even deactivate access, to ensure no one accidentally logs in and makes any changes. This will ensure you do not end up with data in "limbo" and subsequently deal with the headache of figuring out what data was missed during the migration.

4. Make a personal plan for how to handle issues.
You don't want to be taken off guard if your migration results in more errors than you anticipated, or if you see data that looks "off". Instead of panicking or rushing to pause or cancel the migration, decide how you want to handle any issues that arise.

For example, come up with a strategy for dealing with errors. Will you resolve them in real-time, or will you wait until the migration is complete to see a full list and tackle it then? Will you enlist the help of a team to resolve them post-migration?

Or, what if you see data which looks inaccurate which will critically impact your company's ability to do business? Will you pull the plug on the migration and start again from scratch when you've had a chance to assess the issues? Or, will you make an attempt to fix post-migration?

Ideally, there will be little to do on the day of the migration. You've planned and prepped, tested and validated. The final, full migration to Salesforce should reflect that preparation and should result in exactly what you expected. In the event things come up (and they do!), just breathe and remember to review the above to survive the day-of.