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Practical RevOps Analytics Series: Data Quality Across Multiple CRM Systems

By Rob Kall, CEO & Co-Founder, Cien.ai

“Every system has its own quirks. But they are all solvable using the same methods.”

– Gosia Wiejacha, Lead Data Scientist, Cien.ai

We Analyze a Lot of CRM Data. Here is What We Have Learned

At Cien, we analyze CRM data across hundreds of companies and three dominant platforms: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and HubSpot. While each CRM has its strengths, none are immune to bad data. And bad data isn’t just an annoyance — it derails your analytics, skews your pipeline, and leads to poor GTM decisions. 

Let’s start with the basics: how can CRM data be bad?

The 5 Ways Your CRM Data Is Failing You

1. Duplication – Inflated pipelines and duplicate accounts that create reporting errors

2. Completeness – Missing fields like industry, segment, or lead source make segmentation impossible

3. Consistency – Different categories or naming conventions confuse even your best dashboards

4. Sales Process Accuracy – Stages skipped, dates backfilled, or deals that defy logic

5. Activity Capture Level – Reps not logging calls, meetings, or emails — making attribution and coaching guesswork

CRM-by-CRM: Strengths, Weaknesses, and What to Watch For

So which system has the best and the worst data? Well, as always that depends. But here are some typical patterns we see over and over. As our lead data scientist, Gosia Wiejacha said: “Every system has its own quirks. But they are all solvable using the same methods.”

Salesforce: The Power and the Pain

Often the system of choice for larger organizations, Salesforce is highly customizable — which is also its Achilles heel. Most orgs we analyze have multiple Salesforce instances due to M&A or siloed teams, and no consistent data model. Customer Fields are added or repurposed, pipelines get bloated, and no one’s quite sure which of the 5 different industry definitions for tech companies to use anymore.

Microsoft Dynamics: The CFO’s Favorite

Let’s be honest — Dynamics isn’t typically selected by Sales. It’s bundled with enterprise Microsoft deals and often lacks RevOps ownership. Adoption tends to be lower, configuration is outdated, and the data feels more ERP than CRM. We frequently see major completeness and process accuracy issues, especially for activity data and opportunity stage tracking. Also there is no easy way to get opportunity history which is critical for pipeline analysis.

HubSpot: Clean UI, Dirty Underbelly

HubSpot has made huge strides, but it has two big recurring issues in the B2B space:

  • Account duplication — due to manual imports or poor matching logic
  • Activity black holes — because much of the rep activity still happens outside the system

It’s intuitive for marketing but still maturing as a full-fledged sales CRM.

Honorable Mention: The Home-Grown CRM System

Typically, has been on the chopping block for the last 10 years to be replaced by one of the systems above, but the custom code and integration to other business processes prevent it from happening. The big issue – most people use it only for the bare minimum and there is no activity info.

What Does Success Look Like?

Success means you can trust your data enough to take action on it. That doesn’t always mean fixing everything at the source (which can take months). Sometimes, it means tagging bad data automatically and filtering it out in reporting — which Cien can help do in just days. Then we show you which records are broken, and help you either fix them at the source — or build analytics that ignore the noise and surface the truth.

About the Practical RevOps Analytics Series

This article is part of our Practical RevOps Analytics Series, inspired by our work with B2B revenue leaders, growth consultants, and PE operating partners. These articles focus on the technical aspects of improving GTM performance. For strategic insights and executive-level GTM topics, check out our Cien.ai Growth Essentials Series.