03.11 - Scoping Topics: Can you merge / clean up data?
Data Sanitation Projects Suck
Data sanitation projects tend to take a large number of hours and often results in unsatisfied customers.
As a general rule, you should inform the prospect that you provide transportation - not sanitation - services for data.
Here's why:
Data Sanitation makes the mess your fault
Firms know their data is messy and not right: maybe each staff member had their own way of doing things, people changed their processes over time, or they were just lazy. Either way, they know the mess is their fault.
When you accept a sanitation project, you are essentially saying "Pay me money and then you can blame me for the mess of your data." You can only lose.
Data Sanitation always needs more time
Imagine that a firm has spent 10 years making a mess out of their data. How many hours should you plan to invest in making their data right? Regardless of how much time you spend, there is always more you can do. It will never be completely "right", it will only get marginally better the more time you spend. And, as you spend time sanitizing data, there is also a chance that you'll clean one area but inadvertently make another area worse.
Data Reorganization is Fine
Some firms want to standardize/reorganize data as part of a migration. This is usually a well-defined, safe, and close-ended type of "cleanup" you can offer.
Some examples of standardization/reorganization include:
Merging "Categories"
As an example, a firm may have 50 Practice Areas and they want to consolidate the list down to 10.
This is a simple find-and-replace that is easily understood and executed..
Standardizing Folder Names
Sometimes firms have folders that have the same purpose but different names from matter to matter. For example:
- /Emails/
- /E-Mails/
- /Correspondence/
- /Client Correspondence/
As part of the project, you might offer to standardize all these folder names into just a /Correspondence/ folder.
Never Ever Merge Contacts
Often times law firms have duplicate contacts in their source system. When this is the case, you should inform the client that you will transfer the data as-is and will not attempt merge/deduplicate them. If the client does not like this, they should either deduplicate their contacts themselves before or after the migr
Migration Specialists Should Never Merge Contacts
Only an employee of the firm should ever attempt to merge contacts.
Attempting to merging contacts is a bad idea and the following examples demonstrate why:
Problems with Merging People
Let's assume the law firm has the following three people in their database:
[1] John Smith (Home Address: 12345 Wagon Road)
[2] John J Smith (Home Address: 54321 Harrison Road)
[3] Jonathan Smith (No Home Address)
How should the records above be merged? Maybe [1] and [2] are the same person but the record was created 5 years apart. Or maybe they are all different people? Or maybe [1] and [3] are the same? Only a person working in the firm even has a chance at knowing.
Problems with Merging Companies
Let's assume the law firm has the following four companies in their database: (Nebraska's Area Code is 402).
[1] State Farm Insurance of Nebraska (No phone number listed)
[2] State Farm Insurance (402-555-5555)
[3] State Farm Insurance (402-777-7777)
[4] State Farm Insurance (1-800-888-8888)
As you can see from above, it is still not clear how the listed companies should be merged.
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