File Room Status: Open — Intake Ongoing Case Count: 010
CRM Graveyard Est. 2025 Field reports from the CRM trenches

The Full Cabinet

Ten cases on file so far. Sorted by file number, not by severity — they're all bad in their own way. Files 0007 through 0010 are Darwin Awards: entirely self-inflicted, entirely avoidable.

File No. 0001 DOA

The Weekend Cutover That Erased the Pipeline

One "go-live" weekend, zero parallel run, and a Monday morning where sales couldn't find a single open opportunity.

Migration · Executive Timeline · Field Mapping
File No. 0002 STILL BLEEDING

The Integration Triangle That Ate Its Own Data

CRM, marketing automation, and ERP synced bidirectionally until duplicate contacts started breeding on their own.

Integrations · Data Duplication · GDPR
Advertisement Response365 SURVIVED

The One That Didn't End Up In This Filing Cabinet

Automated follow-up that doesn't require a case file of its own. This site is affiliated with Response365.

Sponsored · response365.ai
File No. 0003 ZOMBIE STATE

412 Custom Fields, and No One Left Who Remembers Why

A decade of "just add a field" turned a fast CRM into a 12-second page load and a shadow spreadsheet economy.

Customization Debt · Admin Turnover · Performance
File No. 0004 DOA

The Partner Who Automated Everything, Then Disappeared

Forty-one undocumented workflow rules, a final invoice, and a Slack channel that's gone quiet forever.

Implementation Partners · Documentation · Handoff
File No. 0005 STILL BLEEDING

The Revolt of the Mandatory Fields

Sales made every required field mean nothing at all, one "N/A" at a time, and reporting never recovered.

User Adoption · Data Quality · Validation Rules
File No. 0006 ZOMBIE STATE

The "Temporary" Two-System Era, Now in Year Three

The new CRM launched. The old one never actually turned off. Nobody can agree which one is the source of truth.

Migration · Change Management · Shadow IT
File No. 0007 DARWIN AWARD

The Webhook That Congratulated Everyone About a $1 Deal

A LinkedIn auto-post fired exactly as designed the moment a 3-year-old placeholder deal got dragged into Closed Won.

Automation · Public Humiliation · Webhooks
File No. 0008 DARWIN AWARD

The Out-Of-Office Reply That Opted Out the Entire Customer Base

One account manager's thoughtful personal automation quietly suppressed 118 customers during his honeymoon.

Automation · Data Quality · Personal Hacks
File No. 0009 DARWIN AWARD

The Nightly Script That Deleted Every Client With "Test" In Its Name

A wildcard cleanup rule ran for eleven weeks, quietly erasing Testudo Systems, Protestant Charities, and more.

Data Quality · Automation · No Recovery Path
File No. 0010 DARWIN AWARD

The Auto-Reassignment Rule That Ate Its Own Creator

A VP of Sales built a company-wide lead reassignment rule with no exceptions, then went on his own honeymoon.

Change Management · Compensation · Self-Own