Because our clients' needs are varied, the Syllabus Geeks work with each client individually regarding data migration from other syllabus systems to Concourse. The following are points to consider leading up to a first discussion on data migration:
Recognize the difference between “migration” and “synchronization.” Migration involves permanently moving data from one system to another, with the new system becoming the system of authority. Synchronization involves continuing to manage an external system and using feeds to send information to Concourse. Keep in mind that should you decide to migrate your data, you will manage it in Concourse thereafter.
Learn what functionality is already available in Concourse to assist with your data migration. In many cases you can create and process your own item feeds without incurring the costs associated with system customization or manual data massaging.
Decide how much of your existing data you actually want to (and realistically can) migrate, and how you will map said data to a Concourse syllabus. Before doing this, it may be helpful to read about this step in our article regarding template design.
If you have archived syllabus documents, you may want to migrate these to Concourse. If that is the case, you’ll want to be sure that the file names of the archived syllabi are formatted consistently enough to allow for automation.
Assess the format and cleanliness of your data. If your data is coming from a vendor, or even from your own in-house system, you may find that you have to first convert your data into a more usable format. Depending on the state of your data at the time you receive it, you may decide that cleaning-up the data in order to produce feed files is not time-or cost-effective.
To summarize, data migration can be a very helpful way to reduce time and resources spent on Concourse implementation and deployment. The Syllabus Geeks can help you determine if this is an advantageous and viable option for your institution.