How does the data conversion process work?

Rest assured, you are not alone in this question.  The process of moving or cleaning data from one source to another is not a black and white or click – click process.  We won’t lie; it is a time consuming and sleepless night kind of process.  You have just entrusted us with your most valuable asset: your database.

On the surface the process is simple.  You give us your data and we import it.  But and there is always a but… nothing in data is that simple.  The process is as follows:

1. You will provide Antharia with an electronic copy of your current database (Access, FileMaker, Memex, whatever its) or series of excel files.  Excel has a line limit of just over 65,000 records so if you have more records than that expect to send more than one file.  Heck in many cases you may have multiple files anyway where you already manage your data.  No worries, we will get it all wrangled, send it all over.
2. The first time you send us the data we are not actually looking at the data.  WHAT?  That is right, we are not looking at the data.  We are instead looking at the field structure.  During this initial review you will continue to do business as usual.  You will continue to use your database in the same exact way you have been.  While you are going about life as usual we will be creating a data field set comparison where we match your existing fields to our database fields.  Now as we do this there is bound to be data you have collected we have not already accounted for in FortyFourFish.  Because of this we anticipate upon initial setup clients will have upwards of 40 custom fields. 
3. After we have finished the field set comparison, we will review this with you to make sure that we are only going to bring over the data that you really want and need.  It is at this time we will look at your data for the first time.  You still have your live copy you are using and we are working off the semi older file for continued development.  In this review we are looking at how bad your data is.  We look for things like:
   1. Syntax errors in Email Address
   2. Incomplete Names
   3. Incomplete Addresses
   4. Incomplete Phones
   5. Strange or unusual patterns in data.
4. After making note of any of the things we feel should be addressed prior to import we now schedule with you delivery of the final data.  This is the period when you are actually locked out.  We try and schedule this time over your down time and often will ask for your final data on a Wednesday AM and have it 100% in place by Monday.  Sometimes if you are super nice to us we will even ask for your data on a Friday and get in place by Monday.  You do have to be super nice and sending treats in the mail often helps.  Treats or no treats, the import process is not easy.  It involves a number of steps.  For your sanity we have outlined some of them below:
   1. Check Record Count for Accuracy
   2. Move information from existing source (Access, FileMaker, Whatever) to Excel.
   3. OPTIONAL: Simple Address Clean Up (quickly cleans up data and adds missing zip codes and +4 data. One time $250 fee per 5,000 records.  Records are only cleaned upon initial import).
   4. OPTIONAL: USPS Authorized CASS Certified Address Clean Up (thoroughly cleans up data and provides you with USPS form 3533 entitling you to lower postage rates. One time $375 fee per 5,000 records.  Records are only cleaned upon initial import).
   5. OPTIONAL: Full Duplication Removal (we will check your file to ensure duplicates are removed based on Name, Address, Phone, and/or Email Address.  One time $225 fee per 5,000 records.  Records are only cleaned upon initial import).
   6. Run a series of scripts and formulas in Excel that isolate irregularities and duplicates.  While we cannot guarantee you won’t end up with any duplicates, we will make every effort to avoid this.
5. The excel file is then given to the development team who then writes an import script based on what is actually provided.  The process of writing this script is the most labor.  It can take upwards of 12 hours and has been done in as little as 4.  While it would seem like we would have a script we use over and over, each client of FortyFourFish is unique and you may have a person’s hubby in its own record where another may save it in what is called Partner/Quick Spouse. The key here is it is all customized.
6. After the import script is written, the data is imported.
7. After the development team is done with the import, they then pass the completed project back to the leadership team who then performs correlation testing and key searches to ensure the data has gone in correctly.  Once this test is done, we will call you and show you around the system full of your data and poof you are ready to go.

So to close this out.  You are locked out of your live data for approximately 3 business days.  We will work with you to ensure this is done at a time that is convenient for your organization.  Please remember if you add any of the optional or extra services, you may be added a day or two to the process overall, but we promise to try and make it pain free.

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