Data Conversion

Customers often have one or more old databases and want to convert their content to coecontact.  We are happy to quote for this work; the cost mainly depends on how well the old data is organised; typically it would be £400 + VAT for each database to be converted.

• We examine the old data and ask the customer to explain where the meaning and significance of a field is not obvious.  If the data can be represented in coecontact in more than one way, we will advise on the benefits of each choice.  We then perform the first conversion and send the customer the resulting coecontact database to test.
• The customer responds and we amend the conversion software to correct errors and misunderstandings.  We send the customer the result of the second conversion.
• Subject to further minor corrections, we perform the third and final conversion, on up-to-date data, just before the customer's chosen go-live date.

Data Clean-up

If your old data is a bit untidy, or frankly it's in a mess, we can help in several ways.

• When we convert from a customer's old database we are usually necessary and can be done at no additional cost.   Here are examples of what we've done: seperate forename and surname where a single 'name' field was used; highlight incorrect postcodes; derive gender from either the forename or Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms.
• Once we have consolidated all you data in its new coecontact database, you can easily use the built-in tools to carry out tasks such as: assigning contact to organisations; moving contacts between categories and subcategories; identifying contacts that may be duplicates.
• Eliminating Duplicates - in general we would not be able to tell whether J. Smith and J.J. Smith of the same address were two people or one and the same person.  However, your staff will know.  The tool in coecontact matches likely duplicates where: they share a forename and surname; share a surname and postcode; share a surname and date of birth