Migration from Salesforce to ServiceNow

[SidharthSwami]

Dear Community,

We are working with a FinTech compnay who is running their CRM, CSM and FSM on Salesforce and we are in the process of replacing it with ServiceNow CSM & FSM. While from the product standpoint we have enabled customer on the feature sets and customer is convinced on the capabilities. However we are looking for some help where anyone has worked on the similar use-case of replacing Salesforce and migration strategy of migrating the data to ServiceNow.

Feel free to update the post, or reach out to me at below contact details:

sidharth.swami@servicenow.com

[Vishal36]

Hi @SidharthSwami, 

Migrating from Salesforce to ServiceNow is definitely possible, but it comes with a few complexities due to how differently the two systems are structured.

The two platforms differ significantly in how they handle data models, relationships, permissions, and automations.

Some key challenges to watch for:

• Downtime: Teams in Salesforce are typically asked to stop updating any data while migration is not complete.
• Data structures: Salesforce uses objects like Leads, Opportunities, and Cases, while ServiceNow organizes data around tables like Incident, Request, and Task. Mapping these correctly requires thoughtful planning.
• Field mismatches: Custom fields, picklists, and relationships won’t always line up 1:1 and may require transformation logic.
• Attachments, comments, and history: These often get overlooked in basic migrations but are critical for context and traceability.
• User and permission mapping: Users may exist in both systems under different names or roles, which affects ownership and audit trails.

For a structured, reliable migration—especially if you're working with large volumes of historical data or complex relationships—OpsHub Migration Manager, a ServiceNow partner can help you to

• Execute phased or one-time migrations with no disruption and zero downtime
• Migrate complete data sets, including history, attachments, comments, and custom fields
• Handle field-level and object-level transformations between Salesforce and ServiceNow
• Preserve traceability and history without scripting every edge case

OMM takes care of the complexity behind the scenes, so you're not stuck writing manual scripts or losing key information in the process.  We have done migrations for US Fortune 500 Financial services company for 3 million records.

Thanks

[Tetiana Belevsk]

Hi,

If you're migrating from Salesforce Service Cloud to ServiceNow, here’s a general outline of steps you can follow to prepare your environment and manage the transition:

• Set up the security_admin role: Go to the User menu → Elevate Roles → select security_admin → click OK.
  
  
• Enable “can create” permissions: Navigate to System Definition → Tables → select the target table → Access Controls → New → select Create and define appropriate conditions → Submit.

• Create custom fields: Open any form → Configure → Form Layout → Add new fields by specifying name, type, and length → Arrange them as needed → Save.

• Set up user profiles: Go to User Administration → Users → New → Fill out the user details → Submit.

• Create groups: Navigate to User Administration → Groups → New → Complete the fields → Unlock → use the lookup icon to assign the correct application role → Save

I suggest these steps to anyone migrating to ServiceNow from another help desk, PSA, or ITSM platform. It is especially crucial if you are using a third-party migration service like Help Desk Migration.