At Action Network, we are proud of the powerful, intuitive digital mobilization toolset we’ve built collaboratively with our progressive partners. We also know that many folks at organizations across the progressive movement agree and would gladly switch to Action Network, if not for one notable hurdle: Migration.

No, not that kind of migration.

Traditionally, migrating an organization’s data from one toolset to another is a daunting prospect, especially for organizations with millions of activists in their database. Then, once an organization has migrated to Action Network, there’s the issue of training staff and administrators to use the new technology.

As a mission-driven, nonprofit movement partner, Action Network’s approach to migration is fundamentally different than that of other technology providers. Our team works hand-in-hand with organizations to ensure a smooth and successful migration from start to finish.

A sample of Action Network partners.

“The staff at Action Network make the migration experience stand out,” says Christian Norton, CEO of Blue Bulldog Digital, who personally led Action Network migrations for AFL-CIO, DailyKos, Working Families Party, and several others. He estimates he’s migrated over 15 million supporter records across all the migrations he’s worked on.

“Action Network staff work with me and the clients hand-in-hand through the migration process much better than any other CRM or toolset,” notes Christian. “What’s happened in the past is I’ll get assigned a caseworker at a tech company who is not a tech person, and the result is that getting technical advice is very difficult.”

“Action Network staff work with me and the clients hand-in-hand through the migration process much better than any other CRM or toolset.”

“Compared to other migrations I’ve done, Action Network is easy. If you need help, you can get in touch with Jason [Rosenbaum, Action Network Director of Technology], who knows the tool in depth,” added Christian. “It’s nice to work with really core staffers.”

Further, the way Action Network was built — as an accessible, intuitive toolset with powerful functionality built-in — simplifies the migration process.

“The database structure at Action Network is very straightforward. They’ve really pared down elements that can be overly complicated in other systems and focused on the core supporter fields.”

What about when the migration is complete and it’s time to train staff on use of Action Network?

After their migration to Action Network, AFL-CIO quickly trained hundreds of administrators in the use of the new toolset.

“After the AFL-CIO migration, which included all of its affiliates, we had several hundred admins to train,” explains Christian. “But the tool is designed to be intuitive for folks who might not be super technical — while keeping all the power under the hood for more advanced users — creating a really nice balance of accessibility and functionality.”

While the Action Network is intuitive enough to be picked up with little or no training, some basic tech-savviness is necessary.

“If you can embed a YouTube video, you can embed an Action Network form,” adds Christian. “Action Network is very straightforward and gets the job done.”

Learn more about becoming an Action Network partner at ActionNetwork.org/Partnerships.

#ANPartner Case Study: AFL-CIO migrates seamlessly to Action Network was originally published in Powering Progressive Movements on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.