Migration

Twenty years of data, moved without losing the part that matters.

Your candidates, your clients, your notes, your placement history. We run the migration, you keep working, and nothing goes live until you have checked it.

Quick answer

Migration means moving your candidates, contacts, companies, jobs, notes, documents and placement history out of your current system and into Signals. We handle the mapping and the transfer. Your team keeps working in the old system until you approve the result. Nothing is deleted from your existing data at any point, because we work from a copy.

When you can actually move

Most agencies are inside a contract when they start looking, and the renewal date decides the timeline more than the data does.

  • Check your notice period first.

    It is usually the constraint, not the migration. Auto-renewal windows close quietly, and a month’s notice missed is a year committed.

  • Ask what your provider charges to release your data.

    Some charge, some do not. Ask early, because the answer changes when you give notice rather than before.

  • Start before you switch.

    We run the migration alongside your current contract, so you are not paying twice for longer than you need to.

The export should be free once you have settled your account. If anyone tries to charge you for your own data, tell us.

What matters when you move

Three things every agency owner raises, and what happens to each.

  • Your notes are the business.

    Fifteen or twenty years of what was said, who knew whom, why a candidate turned a role down in 2019. They come across dated and attributed, on the record they were written against.

  • Your fields and your mapping.

    Not just the records but the way they are organised. We map field to field and check it with you rather than flattening it into ours.

  • Your own time.

    The founder’s attention is the real cost of a migration, not the software. The work sits with us, and your involvement is approving the mapping and checking the result.

That is what the process is built around.

What moves

Everything below comes across, linked to the record it belongs to.

  • People

    Candidates and contacts, with their full profile, contact details and history.

  • Companies

    Client records, the people inside them, and the relationship history against each.

  • Jobs

    Live and historic, with the candidates who went through them and where each one reached.

  • Notes and activity

    Call notes, emails, meeting records, comments. Dated, attributed, on the record they were written against.

  • Documents

    CVs, contracts, right to work, anything attached. Linked to the person or the job, not dumped in a folder.

  • Placement history

    Who was placed, where, when, and on what terms.

  • Your structure

    Fields, custom values and pipeline stages, mapped to Signals rather than flattened. Where something has no equivalent, we tell you before we decide.

What does not move

Every migration page in this category promises nothing is lost. Here is the honest version.

  • System-specific automations

    Your workflows, alerts and sequences were built for your old system’s logic. They do not translate, and rebuilding them is quick because most of what they were compensating for no longer needs compensating for.

  • Anything your old vendor will not export

    Some systems hold parts of your data back, particularly attachments. We tell you what is missing before we start, not after. Request the full backup rather than the standard export, and ask early. It can take weeks to arrive.

  • Data you choose to leave

    Most databases carry a decade of records nobody has touched. We will show you what has not been opened in five years. You decide whether it comes.

If we cannot bring something, you hear it at the start.

How it runs

  1. We look at what you have

    You request a full export from your current provider. We look at what came back, what is in it and what is missing, and tell you both before anything else happens.

  2. We map it

    Every field in your old system gets a home in Signals. Where the match is obvious we do it. Where it is a judgment, we ask. You approve the mapping before anything moves.

  3. We build it in a copy

    Your data goes into a separate environment that behaves exactly like Signals. Your team is still working in your old system throughout. Nothing you currently rely on is touched.

  4. You check it

    You get the environment and a checklist. Look up the candidates you know. Open the client you have worked longest. Check the notes are where they should be. Nothing goes live until you say so.

  5. We go live

    A final export catches anything that moved while you were reviewing. Your team logs into Signals with everything indexed and searchable from the first day.

One recent migration

ioTech Solutions in Hong Kong came to Signals from Manatal. Their candidates, contacts, companies, jobs, notes and documents came across, along with the placement history behind them.

They kept working in Manatal throughout. Nothing was switched off until they had opened the records they cared about and confirmed the notes were where they expected them to be.

The ioTech Solutions team in Hong Kong.

Who does what

We do

  • The export analysis
  • The field mapping
  • The transfer
  • The verification
  • The document linking
  • The final catch-up export

You do

  • Request the export from your current vendor
  • Answer questions during mapping
  • Check the result before it goes live

Your recruiters do not do data entry. That is the whole point.

From your current system

We have built migrations for the systems agencies in this market actually run.

If your system is not listed, it is very likely still fine. Most export to CSV or a full database backup, and both work.

Read how we think about migrating a recruitment database

Common questions

Weeks, not months. What changes the timeline is verification rather than transfer, so a larger database takes longer to check than to move. Your team stays in your current system throughout.

No. Your team stays in your current system until the day you switch. The migration runs alongside, in a separate environment, and does not touch what you are using.

Very little. One person approves the field mapping, and whoever knows your data best spends an hour checking the result before it goes live. Your recruiters do no data entry at any point.

Notes come across, dated and attributed, on the record they were written against. For most agencies the notes are the reason for migrating at all, so they are the first thing we verify.

Yes. Plenty of agencies leave behind records nobody has opened in years. We show you what is dormant and you decide.

Nothing. Migration is included, with no implementation fee and no partner to hire. We do the mapping and the transfer, and the work sits with us rather than with your team.

You take your data with you. Full export, in a usable format, whenever you ask, including on the way out. We do not charge for access to your own records.

Ask them directly, and ask early. Some charge for a full export and some do not. Whatever they say, the export should be yours.

We do. You request the export, answer questions during mapping, and check the result.