The Superiority of Converting Data with Human Oversight
Leave behind the legacy of bad data. Converting your data "in the clear" will leave you in the clear.
Formever® has an unconventional philosophy regarding conversion of your data. Most people mistakenly believe that some kind of automated conversion will save you time.
We believe that the key is to involve humans.
By putting your data into a spreadsheet, so that you and your staff can actually look it over, you will have much better results, and ultimately save time and money.
Looking over your data with your own eyes offers you an unprecedented opportunity to weed out obsolete and wrong data, to make sure it is entered correctly and to give you a fresh beginning. For example, if you no longer sell a particular item, do you still want it showing up in your inventory? Or if a vendor has gone out of business, do you really want them to continue showing up on your vendor list?
Easy Import Tool
Once your data is in a spreadsheet (most programs can output a .csv file, so it’s easy to do) you can review and do some clean up. Then it’s easy to import into Formever with our import tool. A little basic formatting and you’re good to go. It’s like having a data entry clerk built into the software.
The Problems With Highly Automated Conversion
Many people believe that highly automated conversion is faster, easier, and less costly. Nothing could be further from the truth! Automated conversion requires lots of custom programmer time, at $175 to $200 per hour, or more. And, being a software project, that amount of time is highly unpredictable. How many programming projects come in on time or on budget? And if there’s a mistake in your digital conversion, the best-case scenario is that you find out about it after a first pass, which means another round of costly fixes. The worst-case scenario is that you don’t find out about it at all. If you have a large data set and you do a digital conversion, how would you truly know that there isn’t a bad chunk somewhere in the middle? You might not notice until much later, at the worst possible moment.
The Joys of Human Involvement
When you convert your data "in the clear" (that is, in a format where humans can read it, like a spreadsheet), you are in control. Most data mistakes can be caught right at the moment of entry, by the data clerk, who can correct it on the go. With human oversight at least there has been a pair of human eyes on each entry to weed out gibberish and incorrect formatting. And that work can be done at staff rates, or reasonable outsourcing rates. Your costs are much more predictable and controllable. You can run a sample set of the data to see what the average entry time is, and extrapolate fairly accurately what your total cost will be. No software programming project is that predictable.
Firm Conviction
It may seem unconventional, but we strongly believe that with human oversight, and using spreadsheets to check and pass along your data, you will ultimately save time and money, and get better results.