Consultation on Migration to 1C-Bitrix
Companies considering migration to 1C-Bitrix typically face one recurring question: where to start to avoid redoing work three times. Consulting is not about selling services, but technical expertise: honest assessment of the current situation, pitfalls, and realistic timelines.
What Consultation Includes
Initial consultation covers several question blocks:
Current system assessment. Analyze what exactly needs to be migrated: data structure, content, user base, integrations. Each data type requires a separate strategy. A WordPress catalog with 3000 products migrates differently than a CRM system with 5 years of history.
Bitrix edition selection. Common mistake — buy "Standard" and discover needed features (B2B cabinet, advanced search, multi-site) only exist in "Business" or "Enterprise". We review requirements and determine the minimum sufficient edition. Sites without shopping cart work fine with "Start" — no need to overpay.
Architectural decisions. What load is the system designed for? Do you need separate servers for database and file storage? Will there be a cluster? These decisions are cheaper to make before migration starts than to redo after launch.
Typical Questions Resolved in Consultation
"Do we need to migrate all data or just part of it?" Answer depends on business requirements. Archive orders from 2018 rarely needed in active system — read-only access to old database is enough. Migrating only active customers and orders from last 2 years reduces complexity and cost.
"How long will downtime take?" With proper strategy — minimal. Standard approach: raise new site on temporary domain, complete full migration, verify, switch DNS. Downtime = DNS switching time (usually 5–30 minutes) + time to sync delta data that changed during main migration.
"Which integrations need rewriting?" Specific answer needed: if current site integrates with 1C via CSV — Bitrix has standard catalog.import module supporting CommerceML, which simplifies. If custom API gateway used — needs adaptation to Bitrix REST API or D7 ORM.
Consultation Formats
One-off technical session — 2–4 hours for specific task review. Suits technical teams needing expert evaluation of their plan.
Migration support — regular meetings (weekly or on-demand) throughout project. Consultant checks architectural decisions, helps with non-standard situations, reviews critical code parts.
Pre-migration audit — deep analysis of source system. Result: technical document describing all entities to transfer, mapping to Bitrix structures, risk list, and work recommendations.
Common Mistakes Consultation Reveals
- Attempting one-to-one data structure transfer instead of adapting to Bitrix capabilities. For example, Magento categories stored in arbitrary-depth tree — Bitrix infobloc sections support trees too, but logic differs, simple copy insufficient
- Ignoring SEO during CMS change: position loss from URL structure change, missing redirects, metadata loss
- Underestimating file volume. Media library with thousands of images requires separate planning: storage, optimization, CDN
- Launching without load testing. New server may not handle peak load old site sustained for years on optimized configuration
What Client Receives
After consultation — migration plan document: task list with effort estimates, execution order, risks, and mitigation strategies. This is the basis for technical specification or independent work execution.
Consultation makes sense even before development contract — allows proper TZ formulation and avoids disagreements during execution.