What’s easier to understand?

1)    It is considered unwise to enumerate one’s collection of domestic fowl before the period of gestation has properly been completed.

 OR

2)    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

Most people would choose #2 because it’s straightforward and written in easy-to-understand words.

Unfortunately, experts in technical fields often use complicated language, shortcuts and jargon to explain what they’re doing – leaving the average person completely in the dark. In fact, most of us would need specialized training to understand highly technical explanations. Even something as commonplace as a laptop computer can be a mystery if you don’t understand its programming, but not everything has to be so difficult.

Association executives who are tasked with approving the purchase of new technology need to understand the products they’re buying, what their benefits and limitations are, and what it will take to get the new purchase up and running. To that end, we’ve found that our customers really appreciate it when we explain what we do and why we do it in simple, straightforward language. 

Our team always focuses on simplifying data for associations, ensuring it’s both accessible and easy to manage. Our goal is to help associations understand, confidently embrace and utilize data effectively, without feeling overwhelmed. We break down how association management systems store, organize, and report data, making technology approachable and empowering associations to leverage their data for informed decision-making and enhanced performance. 

Data Migration Explained … Finally

Data migration is one of the concepts that we think could use some simplification. Our data analysts can chatter to each other about databases and tables and mapping data, but what most of us probably need to know is “what does this mean” and “what I should do next” – in plain English. 

So here are some definitions and suggestions if you’re thinking about transitioning to  a new AMS:

1) What is data migration?

Data migration is the process of moving pieces of information from one AMS to another. If it’s done well, the data from the old system ends up in exactly the right place in the new system and is associated with the right member. If it isn’t handled properly and the data is scrambled, mistakes made today can cause problems in reporting and tracking your progress long into the future.

2) What data will you migrate to the new AMS?

Data is any piece of information that you keep in your AMS. In this case, it can be anything – member names, addresses, phone numbers, genders, birthdates, dues payments, meeting attendance, volunteer experiences or educational courses completed – just to name a few. You’ll need to decide what data to migrate to the new AMS based on your goals and the reports that are most important to your operation. 

3) What happens if data migration isn’t done properly?

We often work with clients who have had problems with data migrations in the past. It’s rare to find associations that have data analysts on staff, and at first glance, data migration doesn’t seem to be that hard, so budget-conscious associations will try to manage the transfer to a new system using their own staff. Sometimes it goes well. Often, it doesn’t.

Data that gets sent to the wrong places during bad migrations will create reports that the staff can’t trust. If the staff can’t trust the reports, they stop using them and adopt other methods that work, even if they need more effort – like private databases and spreadsheets. The staff often blames the AMS for untrustworthy reporting, and as dissatisfaction grows, the association eventually shops for a new AMS. Unfortunately, it’s likely that the previous bad migration will  transfer into the next AMS, causing the same problems. We find that changing to a new AMS often will not solve the problems created by bad data migration in the past.

MIssing data also creates reporting problems, either because you haven’t collected the data in the first place or you’ve neglected to transfer it during migration. It’s impossible to report on data that doesn’t exist in the system. And adding missing data after the migration is complete is not an easy task.

4) Can Intellidata correct problems with previous data migrations?

Short answer – yes. Our data analysts are very thorough and detail-oriented people. They have to be. They ensure that the information about each member is the same in the new system as it was in the old one. They also advise clients about how best to accomplish their goals, and they recommend what data to migrate. They use their experience with specialized software tools to correct data problems.

Our team members work very closely with clients, becoming almost another staff member during the duration of the project. We take pride in helping our clients achieve the best results possible.

After a successful data migration project with the Society for Neuroscience, Nikhil Deepak, data systems specialist said, ““At one point, we were copying them [Intellidata team members] on any question we had because they had become like part of our staff. They had such a good understanding of our system that we trusted their judgment. They really helped us stay on track.”

5) What is the best way to approach data migration with a new AMS?

Your first step will be to decide what data you should keep, what data you should archive and what data you should discard. This process doesn’t require technical knowledge, but your staff must consider what they really want to know about their members.

For example, if a member’s age or career tenure is important to your association, you’ll need to track birth dates or graduation dates to tell you how old members are or where they are in their careers. If you don’t ever report on different generations in your membership, you probably don’t need to store birth dates. 

Another example comes from purchasing history. Is it important to know who bought a tee shirt or other product five years ago? If not, you can throw that data away during the transfer. You might also consider tracking that a member made a product purchase but not keeping the details of the order.  

Consider what reports your staff uses frequently, as well as what they wish they could track. Make a list of those items. With that list, you can begin to decide what data you need to keep for the new AMS and what you can safely discard.

6) Why can’t we keep all our historical data in the new AMS?

Technically, new systems are designed so that you can keep all the data you’ve ever collected. Realistically, however, you might want to transfer only the most important and useful data to the new system for several reasons – cost, speed and complexity.

If your association has been operating an AMS for many years, you could have thousands, even millions, of data points to store and process. The more data that you keep in your AMS, store in the cloud or backup offsite, the higher the storage cost will be. And at some point, the cost will become prohibitive.

Secondly, keeping large amounts of data will slow down your system. Every time a staff member accesses a member record or runs a report, the AMS must sort through all the excess data you’re not really using to find the valuable information you do need. Load enough data into the AMS, and you’ll see a reduction in performance.

Finally, large data sets complicate the transfer from one AMS to another. As the complexity increases, the harder it is to ensure that the data will transfer cleanly from one system to another. Small and medium transfers just work better in the long run, and launching a new AMS is a great opportunity to trim excess data

At Intellidata, we love to help associations manage their data migrations. Our next blog will include a checklist for a data migration, regardless of who manages it. If you have questions about your data and managing your next AMS installation, contact us at info@intellida.tech. We are glad to help with planning, implementation or follow up.