How to switch surrogacy agency software: a migration guide

Agencies stay on software they have outgrown because moving feels risky: years of applicants, active journeys mid-pregnancy, contracts, files. Done in the right order, a switch takes days of work, not months, and active journeys never notice.

Short answer: To switch surrogacy agency software, inventory where everything lives today (CRM, spreadsheets, form tools, e-sign, drives, inboxes); decide what moves (all people records, active journeys in full, documents, contract templates and your workflow steps); export everything in whatever format you can get; map your old stages, fields and statuses onto the new system; import and check a sample against the source; cut over on a set day, with new applications pointing to the new forms; then train the team on its own data and switch the old system to read-only for a few months. Most of the risk is in active journeys, so check those by hand.

Signs it is time

• The real status of each journey lives in a spreadsheet next to the CRM.
• Applications, contracts, scheduling and texting each need a different login.
• Surrogates and intended parents have no portal, so the team answers “any update?” all day.
• Only one person knows how the system is set up.
• You cannot say which ads or recruiters bring surrogates who match.
• Sensitive files travel by email.

See spreadsheets vs. software and what software surrogacy agencies use for the options.

1. Inventory what you have

List every place agency information lives: the CRM or database, spreadsheets, the form tool behind your applications, the e-signature account, shared drives, the scheduling tool, the texting tool, and coordinators' inboxes and phones. For each, note what it holds and who owns it. This list is usually longer than anyone expects, and it is the checklist for the move.

2. Decide what moves

• Every person record: surrogates, intended parents, egg donors, including closed and archived ones. Past applicants are future repeat surrogates and referrals.
• Active journeys in full: stage, sub-step, checklist progress, documents, notes, key dates and the match.
• Documents: signed contracts, records, uploads. Decide whether historical files move or stay archived.
• Contract templates for your agreements.
• Your process: the stages, steps, timelines and messages you actually use, which become workflows.
• Application forms and their qualifying questions.
• Sources: where each person came from, so recruiting reports carry on.

Message history is often the hardest to move and the least needed. Decide whether to import it or keep an export on file.

3. Export everything

Most CRMs and form tools export to CSV or Excel; spreadsheets already are. Export documents in bulk from your drive or e-sign account. If a system makes exporting hard, ask its support team; your data belongs to you. Keep a dated copy of every export, untouched, before anyone cleans anything.

4. Map stages and fields

Old stages rarely match new ones exactly. Write a simple table: each old stage or status, and the new stage and sub-step it becomes. Do the same for fields: which old column holds date of birth, which holds BMI, which free-text field holds the preferences. Decide what happens to fields with no new home (a note on the profile is usually fine). This is the step that decides whether your pipeline looks right on day one.

5. Import and check

Import a sample first, perhaps twenty people across every stage, and compare each with the source: names, dates, stage, answers, documents. Fix the mapping and import the rest. Then check every active journey by hand: right stage, right match, right documents, right next step and due date. Archived records can be spot-checked.

6. Cut over

1. Pick a cut-over day, ideally early in a week.
2. Point your website, ads and recruiter links to the new application forms.
3. Do a final export from the old system of anything new since the main import, and bring it across.
4. Send portal invitations to active surrogates, intended parents and donors, with a short note explaining the change.
5. From that day, all work happens in the new system.

7. Train and retire the old system

Train the team on its own data, not a demo, starting with the screens each role uses every day. Keep the old system read-only for a few months in case something needs checking, then cancel it, keeping a final export on file according to your retention policy.

Questions to ask a new vendor

• Who does the import, you or us? What formats do you accept?
• How are active journeys, documents and contract templates moved?
• How long from sending our data to going live?
• Will our team be trained on our own data?
• How is our data protected, and who can see it?
• Can we export our data later if we leave?
• How many users are included?
• What happens when we need a feature you do not have?

How SurroHub helps

SurroHub does the move for you. Send what you have, in whatever shape it is in, and most agencies are live in about a week of us receiving everything.

• Any file, any format. Exports, spreadsheets, PDFs and contracts. SurroHub's import reads any file, so there is no template to fill in first.
• Your clients. Surrogates, intended parents and egg donors arrive with their applications, stages, notes and documents.
• Your contracts. Your agreements become templates you can send and e-sign in a click, with merge fields filled from each profile.
• Your workflows. Your steps, timelines and messages, set up as workflows that run themselves from day one; you can also import a workflow with a mapping step for each step's owner and due date.
• A walkthrough on your own data, then portals open and messages flowing.
• Unlimited users, so the whole team moves at once.

Want the facts in one place? SurroHub by the numbers: what it is, who built it, and what agencies run on it today.

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