Cul-de-Sac Software: Database Design IV
Avoid software from whence your data cannot migrate.
Vendors hate the insinuation that their platform might become obsolete or that you might decide later to use a different software configuration. In fact, I’m sure most of them count on you not understanding how they can corrupt your data in ways that prevent migration to a competitor’s system.
I call this Cul-de-sac software. You enter, and must remain because there is no path through to other streets. You are limited to data in and reports out.
Insert an interim step to copy data to a wide open platform before entering the data in a proprietary database. I’ve used MS Access and My SQL. In one case the extra labor needed for this stepped migration was mitigated by automated data massage programmed at each transfer.
This extra step is a good clean-data test as well. You are more likely to crash your system on a virus or corrupt data entry when you are still in your interim platform. This saves you going off-line because something corrupted your proprietary database which everyone in the company is depending on to keep proposals flowing.
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