Sylva Digital Communities: The 7-CRM Nightmare Consolidation
Consolidated 400,000+ records from 7 systems into one clean revenue engine.
The Problem (The Before)
The Client: Sylva operated multiple digital community businesses under one umbrella.
The Environment: 7 different CRM and data sources managing 400,000+ member records.
The Friction:
- System Fragmentation: No centralized visibility across communities.
- Automation Breakage: Workflows failed due to platform drift.
- Operational Drag: Each community manager built their own workarounds.
- Cost Bloat: Paying for redundant CRM licenses and hosting.
- Scaling Impossibility: New launches meant more disconnected systems.
The Pain: Money hemorrhaged on redundant tools while teams drowned in manual work. Every new community added more technical debt.
The Plumbing (The Fix)
Strategy: Consolidate everything into a single HubSpot instance with a unified data model and standardized automation.
The Stack: HubSpot (unified CRM), Python (data normalization), Make.com (migration sync).
The Execution:
- Current-State Mapping: Interviewed stakeholders to capture workflows and reporting needs.
- Future-State Design: Built a unified CRM architecture with room for community-specific customization.
- Data Migration: Consolidated and deduplicated 400,000+ records across 7 sources.
- Governance Rules: Established protocols to prevent future fragmentation.
- Automation Rebuild: Rebuilt onboarding, engagement, and renewal workflows.
Technical Approach:
- Multi-system extraction and normalization via Python/Pandas
- Schema design for multiple business models in one instance
- Phased migration to minimize operational disruption
- Post-migration monitoring to catch edge cases
The Flow (Results & ROI)
Quantifiable Impact:
- Cost Reduction: 75% reduction in CRM and hosting costs.
- Operational Efficiency: 50% reduction in operational headcount.
- Time Savings: 3+ hours/week saved per community manager.
- System Reliability: Automation breakage dropped to near-zero.
- Scalability: New communities could launch without added debt.
- Records Managed: Unified 400,000+ records with zero data loss.
The Breakthrough: Paying down data debt unlocked scale. A bottleneck became a competitive advantage.
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