Switching from Salesforce to Advanzo: a lean move made easy

Switching from Salesforce to Advanzo is no mega-project for an SME: you export accounts, contacts and opportunities as CSV, map them to Advanzo's lean fields and are productive in days – not months. The real gain is less system upkeep: no admin, no sandboxes, no release cycles. Your data stays in Switzerland, and a typical switch takes under a week.

Updated: August 2026

Why do SMEs switch from Salesforce to Advanzo?

Salesforce is the most powerful CRM platform on the market – and that is precisely the problem for many SMEs. What means flexibility for a corporation with its own admin team becomes a permanent construction site in a ten-person business: fields, profiles, permissions, validation rules and releases all want maintaining, when all you actually need is a clean pipeline.

The most common reasons for switching we see among Swiss SMEs:

• Administrative burden: without a dedicated Salesforce admin or an external partner, the system stays half-configured – and is paid for in full anyway.
• Cost per user and edition: licences are billed per user per year, and important features sit in higher editions. You'll find the current prices on the official Salesforce pricing page.
• Over-dimensioning: a small sales team typically uses only a fraction of the platform but carries its full complexity.
• Data location: if you want to guarantee Swiss data hosting, a solution deliberately hosted in Switzerland makes the proof much simpler.

Why such projects often fail at the rollout stage is covered in why Salesforce implementations fail. And if you're weighing things up in general, the Salesforce alternative for Swiss SMEs helps with the classification.

What does Salesforce do better – and when should you stay?

Staying fair: Salesforce isn't the market leader by accident. Stay on Salesforce if one of these applies to you.

• You need deeply customised processes across several departments (sales, service, marketing) with custom objects and complex automations.
• You have an admin or partner who actively maintains and develops the platform.
• You're part of a group that has set Salesforce as its standard – then the switch is rarely your decision to make.
• You depend on the AppExchange ecosystem for special cases no lean tool covers.

If none of these applies and you mainly use the system as an expensive contact and pipeline manager, moving to a deliberately simple CRM is usually the more honest path. When exactly that step pays off is explored in leaving an enterprise CRM for something lean.

Salesforce and Advanzo in direct comparison

The table compares the models, not daily prices – check current amounts on salesforce.com and advanzo.ch.

How do you migrate step by step from Salesforce to Advanzo?

Salesforce lets you export all the relevant data – via the native data export or via reports as CSV. After that, the move is a manageable mapping project.

Step 1: Take stock and declutter

1. Count what's active: open opportunities, real accounts, maintained contacts.
2. Flag the baggage – dead leads, test data, orphaned campaign leftovers. What you don't bring along, you never have to maintain again.
3. Note which of the many fields your team actually fills in day to day. It's usually fewer than ten.

Step 2: Export data from Salesforce

1. Use the data export in setup, or reports with all the needed columns, and export as CSV.
2. Export accounts (companies), contacts and opportunities (deals) as separate files.
3. Save important notes and activities you want to keep.

Step 3: Map fields and simplify

1. Map the Salesforce columns to the Advanzo fields: company, contact, deal value, stage, next step.
2. Translate your opportunity stages into a lean pipeline – five to seven stages are almost always enough.
3. Deliberately leave behind custom fields nobody ever read. The switch is your chance to tidy up.

Step 4: Test import and check

1. Import 20 to 50 records first and check links, values, stages and special characters.
2. Correct the mapping before you run the full import.

Step 5: Full import, team, cut-off date

1. Import the cleaned-up dataset in full and compare the record counts.
2. Invite your team – a short introduction is enough; no training project required.
3. Set a cut-off date: from then on, everyone works only in Advanzo, with Salesforce briefly kept readable as an archive.

The vendor-independent process with all checkpoints is in the migration guide without data loss.

Switching made easy: contacts, companies and deals move from Salesforce to Advanzo in a guided, low-effort way – a typical switch takes under a week, and your history comes with you. See how CRM migration works – or start free and try the import yourself.

What happens to automations, reports and custom objects?

The honest answer: they don't move one to one – and that's usually a good thing. Flows, validation rules and custom objects have often grown over years without anyone knowing what's still needed.

• Automations: note the two or three routines your team really uses (e.g. follow-up reminders). In Advanzo, AI drafts and tasks do that job without a configuration project.
• Reports: define the three metrics you actually look at monthly – pipeline value, win rate, open follow-ups – instead of rebuilding dozens of dashboards.
• Custom objects: check whether the information doesn't simply live as a note or a field on the deal. It usually does.

Mini scenario: an IT service provider with 9 people in Basel

An IT service provider introduced Salesforce four years ago with a partner. What's used today: contacts, accounts, opportunities and one dashboard. The partner retainer keeps running, and changes take weeks.

The switch: exporting 1,800 contacts, 420 companies and 45 open opportunities in one morning. Cleanup down to 1,100 contacts, mapping to six pipeline stages, a test import with 30 deals, full import the next day. After a week the team works entirely in Advanzo; the AI summarises client calls, and the monthly CRM bill is capped at CHF 225.00 instead of a four-figure licence and consulting total. Most importantly: nobody waits for the partner anymore to change a field.

Frequently asked questions

Can I bring all my Salesforce data to Advanzo?

The core objects, yes: accounts, contacts and opportunities can be exported as CSV and imported into Advanzo, including notes. Custom objects and automations don't move one to one – which is usually the opportunity to leave them behind deliberately.

How long does the move from Salesforce take?

For a typical SME, under a week including cleanup. The pure export and import is a matter of hours; most of the time goes into the cleanup – and that pays off twice over.

Do I need technical help or a consultant?

No. Anyone who can export a CSV file and map columns can manage the move themselves. That's exactly the difference from a Salesforce setup, which rarely stands cleanly without a partner.

Will I lose my deal history?

No. Open and won deals move over with value, stage and notes. Salesforce stays readable as an archive until the cut-off date, so you always have a safety net.

Does my data stay in Switzerland?

Yes. Advanzo hosts your customer data in Switzerland and complies with revDSG and GDPR – proof you can give data-sensitive clients in a single sentence.

What does Advanzo cost compared to Salesforce?

Advanzo is free up to 25 deals, then CHF 25.00 per user per month, capped at CHF 350.00. Salesforce bills per user per year in tiered editions – you'll find current amounts on the official pricing page. The direct comparison is at Advanzo vs Salesforce.

Ready for the lean move? Start free with no credit card at advanzo.app and try the import with a small sample.