The Joys of Importing Data

In high school I had the worst job ever! A data entry job for some no-name company. It didn't take long for me to realize that I needed good grades because I didn't want to be doing data entry for the rest of my life.

When shopping for an online SaaS tool the important thing to look for is options. It is helpful to have different solutions to solve the same problem. One of the most painful parts of implementing a new system is migrating the data from the old to the new system. If you were asked to preform this migration, how would you do it? The last thing I would want to do is manually type in the data. There isn't always a perfect solution. What you choose today might not be feasible tomorrow. A coworker might want to take a completely different approach. A SaaS tool should support several ways to import data. Including:

1. An API suite. If a SaaS tool doesn't have an API to their system then don't buy it. An API will allow a user to important anything and everything. It is the first thing a developer is going to look for data migration. It is the only way to reliably import terabytes of data.
2. A toolbox full of tools. I'm comparing a toolbox to a host of different options for importing data into the system. An array of many one-off file import options. They allow a user to upload data using a comma separated value (CSV), spreadsheets, MS Project, and zip files. Tools are now integrating with email servers. Just email a document to an email address and it will be added to the system. Having a toolbox full of options to import data can turn a expensive data migration problem into a simple copy and paste. It's game over once you can reduce a complex operations into simple steps that you already know how to solve. The next time you are faced with the problem of trying to import data, ask yourself the question: Would you rather be looking for a developer or opening up an excel spreadsheet?
   

When you have a lot of options for importing data it allows you to streamline the process. Importing data will always be tedious and boring. Don't make it harder then it should be. When shopping for an online SaaS tool first look for an API and then look for a toolbox full of different options.