If your company has been sold, it can signal a fresh beginning with new focus and vision. However, it can also bring significant changes to various departments such as sales, service, marketing, finance, IT, and of course, your Salesforce Org.
Over time, your Salesforce Org has evolved with the business, and as the business changes, so must Salesforce. While many Salesforce Admins would love to rebuild the Org from scratch, this is often impractical and risky during a pivotal time for the company. Therefore, “migrating-in-place” is usually the best approach.
In this post, I’ll outline the steps to consider as my example company, “OldCo,” is sold, renamed, and rebranded as “NewCo.” OldCo previously received managed infrastructure services from its parent company. However, NewCo will build a new, self-managed infrastructure. Fortunately, the Salesforce Org was included in the sale, and now the Salesforce team must migrate it to the new infrastructure.
Change “My Domain”
The “My Domain” setting is the unique URL that identifies every instance of Salesforce. Changing this will have a cascading effect throughout the entire Salesforce Org, affecting login, integration, email links, Chatter links, and other essential functions.
To change it, navigate to Setup → My Domain and update the URL from https://oldco.my.salesforce.com to https://newco.my.salesforce.com.
Tip: Check the box for “Redirect previous My Domain URLs to your current My Domain” to ensure requests made to the old URL are forwarded to the new one.
Reconfigure Single Sign-On (SSO)
To reconfigure SSO, our IT Admin will send an SSO metadata export file from Azure, which will serve as our identity provider. We’ll import the file by clicking on “New from Metadata File” at Setup → Single Sign-On Settings.
Once the file is imported and configured, we’ll export our settings by clicking “Download Metadata” and send the export back to the IT Admin to import into Azure and complete the handshake.
User Login
With My Domain and SSO reconfigured, we’ll change Salesforce usernames to match their corresponding Azure UPN (User Principal Name – typically the primary email address of the user). This one-to-one mapping of UPN-to-Username enables a domain user to pass through to Salesforce without a second login.
Tip: To change usernames in bulk, use Dataloader. This is also a great time to import new email addresses and company names.
Change Integration Logins
We also need to update integration usernames and URLs. This will be tricky, so we’ll coordinate with the integration endpoint admins. Our integrations have continued to function because we set the “Redirect previous My Domain URLs to your current My Domain” option. When ready, we’ll simultaneously cut over the usernames and URLs to ensure minimal disruption.
Tip: Don’t forget user-authenticated integrations! The Salesforce App and third-party apps like Outlook, ZoomInfo, Seismic, etc., will need users to re-authenticate to Salesforce.
Rebrand the Org
NewCo has a new logo and brand colors. We’ll update our Salesforce org to reflect these changes by creating a new theme at Setup → Themes and Branding. We’ll load our new logo and enter the hexadecimal values of our new brand and background colors. After previewing and finalizing the changes, we’ll click Activate.
Tip: Also rebrand your login screen at Setup → My Domain and the Salesforce App at Setup → Mobile App.
Email Changes
Our new email addresses were imported earlier, but there’s more to do.
At Setup → Organization-Wide Addresses, update the global email addresses available in the “From:” field of Email Alerts, Email Actions, Reports, etc.
Update Email Alerts, Email Templates, and Letterhead with the new logo, colors, and any references to the OldCo name, language, or branding in the body of the email template.
Lastly, create a public link to the new company logo image so users can add it to their email signatures under Settings → My Email Settings.
DKIM
At Setup → DKIM Keys, set up DKIM signatures for outbound emails from your Org to verify to recipient email servers that Salesforce is authorized to send emails on behalf of newco.com. Enter a Selector and Alternate Selector name, your email domain, and the match pattern of the domains you want to send as. After saving, Salesforce will generate two CNAME records to be published by your public DNS provider. Once published, activate DKIM by checking the Active checkbox.
Email-to-Case
At Setup → Email-to-Case, create a new Routing Address for support@newco.com. This address will contain a unique salesforce.com email address that will generate a new case from an inbound email. The IT Admin will then set support@newco.com to forward to this unique address.
Quote Templates
Update Quote Templates with the NewCo logo, new bank payment information, and legal terms.
Tip: If you use Salesforce CPQ, quote templates are record and field-driven. Build a report for a consolidated view of the quote templates side-by-side. Use this report to create an import file, use inline editing, or simply bring awareness to necessary changes.
Account Engagement (Pardot)
Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) uses an email domain for its verified sender. Change this to the newco.com domain name and enable DKIM by checking Expected DNS Entries.
Add a new Tracker Domain of go.newco.com, the branded alias URL for all marketing assets. Set up this tracker domain with a DNS CNAME record that resolves to go.pardot.com.
Security
The IT Admin will update all firewall rules, access lists, and whitelists for the new My Domain URL. NewCo uses Trusted IP ranges to limit certain access to Salesforce. Add the new IP address ranges at Setup → Network Access.
Fiscal Year
NewCo will change its Accounting Fiscal Year from April-March to January-December. Make this change at Setup → Fiscal Year.
Tip: Changing the fiscal year in Salesforce will impact reporting, especially reports using fiscal-based filters. Consult with key stakeholders to determine the best path forward. You may have to consider the Custom Fiscal Year feature.
Summary
The sale of a business can be transformative, affecting every aspect of the company, including people, processes, and products. However, your Salesforce Org does not need to be rebuilt from scratch. Salesforce is highly transferable, with creative ways to transition from old to new without putting the business at risk.
You can reconfigure your Salesforce Org to adapt to the new business environment, gaining a deeper understanding of your Org and potentially seeing opportunities to improve and optimize.
