Can we import data from our existing system into SupportAbility?

It is important to note that SupportAbility does not provide a service to automatically import data from your existing system.

There are several reasons we do not to offer this service:

1. The idea of data importation is always better than the reality
   The fact is that different systems are structured very differently. Moving data from one system to another is often like taking an engine from a Holden Commodore and placing it in a Ferrari or forcing a square peg into a round hole.  
   
   SupportAbility has an incredibly sophisticated data structure designed to manage disability client data, specifically in the cloud. Other systems have different structures to meet their own purposes. Trying to force one into another generally results in a lower-quality implementation.  
   
   Our job here at SupportAbility is to ensure that your implementation is a resounding success and that you are using best practices right from the start.  The simple fact is we cannot do this with old data built for another system.
   
2. Lack of data point coverage
   Experience has taught us that the data points shared between SupportAbility and other third-party systems only accounts for around 3-5% of the total data points that can be entered into SupportAbility.  So the reality is, there are no huge gains in data entry efficiency anyway.
   
   
3. The data usually needs cleaning up
   Rather than migrating all of your existing data across to SupportAbility, it is important to start fresh as this is an opportunity to start with a clean slate.
   
4. Data migrations are always custom and, therefore expensive
   Because every provider migrates from different systems, or they are using different modules, or use the systems differently, no two data migrations are the same.  
   
   This means that our Engineering Team would need to build a custom importation script specifically to meet your organisation's specific needs and requirements, which is a very expensive exercise for something you are only going to use once.  Furthermore, as per point #2, you're only importing 3-5% of the data required, so the cost-benefit ratio does not favour importing data.

The above reasons summarise why we don't provide a service to import data, however, SupportAbility is implemented successfully by providers using a few different strategies.

How do new providers get their data into the system when starting out using SupportAbility?  Review our documentation on  Data Entry Approaches for more details.