Case Studies

SOLUTION With the help of its marketing automation services partner BDO Digital, CenturyLink performed a successful migration. There were several key steps to successfully planning and executing the migration. First, Berns formed a migration "Tiger Team" by soliciting input from all system users and selecting key decision-makers to lead the migration effort. The team included people who had a stake in each of the legacy systems. "In putting together the plan, we had to consider which of the team's priorities aligned with the larger goal, which was to reduce costs and increase efficiency," he said. Next, it was critical to generate team enthusiasm and support for change. Many internal teams were reluctant to give up using legacy platforms, so, with the help of BDO Digital, Berns's team conducted training and educational sessions to get people on board with the migration. For example, there was an intensive 3-day training session led by BDO Digital for all employees who would be moving over to the new Marketo platform. Documentation regarding how to use the system was also provided. Finally, Berns's team established and enforced milestones and deadlines. "It was important to establish timeframes for various phases of the plan," he said. "We padded the deadlines to accommodate for potential date slips." When "moving day" came, Berns and his team performed a soft shutoff of their legacy marketing automation platform but discovered additional programs running on the platform that needed migrating. "We presented a lot of issues to BDO Digital, and they helped us rebuild the new instance quickly," he said. After migrating all the programs, the legacy systems were "turned off" and the new instance of Marketo went live. The entire process took roughly nine months. "After the migration, BDO Digital helped us conduct final user acceptance testing (UAT) and rebuild assets that weren't part of the original list," said Berns. "Thanks to BDO Digital's support, there were very few critical items we had to rebuild." BDO Digital, LLC is a Delaware limited liability company, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of BDO USA, LLP. BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership, is the U.S. member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. For more information on BDO Digital, LLC please visit: www.bdo.com/digital. Material discussed is meant to provide general information and should not be acted on without professional advice tailored to your needs. © 2023 BDO USA, LLP. All rights reserved. www.bdo.com RESULTS Today, approximately 1,500 salespeople and 150 global marketers are unified by the Marketo platform. The company has generated 26,000 MQLs for sales since the migration, a 20% increase year over year. CenturyLink has more than $4 million in monthly recurring revenue closed for the year, a 96% increase year over year. "We have integrated two separate systems, streamlining all processes, user experiences, and reporting... Moreover, the long-term value to our company will be in excess of $140 million in closed-won revenue. BDO Digital's help with the migration was critical to our success." - Scott Berns, Director of Lifecycle Marketing at CenturyLink

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