data conversion, importing and cleansing

data import

From time to time it is necessary to import data from one database system to another, commonly known as data migration. This may be due to an upgrade or often to consolidate information. Importing data can be fraught with problems, particularly where the data structures are not compatible. Support for organisations have nine years experience importing data and mapping data to the right place. In that time we have developed unique tools and methods to transfer data efficiently and accurately. We are able to import virtually any organised data including ODBC compatible data sources, delimited text files (we can accommodate virtually any delimiters), XML.

Specifically we are able to map multi-table data sets to multi-table database structures including:

Combining data from two or more fields
Converting data formats
Extracting relationship from existing datasets
Creating new relationships and changing relationships between data
Using data efficiency modeling and normalisation to create more effective data structures.

We follow up data imports with a thorough audit for accuracy.

data cleansing

As businesses increasingly use data in the management of their day to day operations, so the need for data accuracy increases in importance. All too often the data stored is either incomplete, inaccurate, duplicated, confusing or in the wrong place.

Once this starts to occur, bad data becomes a disease, which ultimately renders a database system useless.

Support for Organisations can help with a range of data cleansing capabilities to cover:

Automatically finding duplicated records
Extracting “target” phrases from longer strings
Converting or removing illegal characters
Remapping data which has been inserted into the wrong fields

But data cleansing is only part of the problem. Poor data usually stems from indiscipline. We can help look at your database and how it is being used. Where practical we can modify or redesign the user interface to make data entry errors less likely. Failing that we can work with your staff to educate them on the importance of accurate data entry.