Data Clean Up Tools
Data should be cleaned and/or mass updated frequently. At this time, the only way to update fields to groups or roles in bulk is to submit a data refresh. There may be fields that I would like to update on a record (ie living status on students) that are not included on my data refresh. If we need different data refresh routine, there may be a cost to create the routine. My hands are tied and I cannot update the database efficiently.
In Education Edge, we have the option to globally change records. This process does not include exporting and submitting a file for import. For instance, we can identify a group of students and add "Single" to their marital status in the matter of a few minutes. Or, we may need to add a custom admin field to a group of students. Creating a new routine for this update seems to be a lot of extra work. These are just a couple of examples of how it would be great to be able to update individual fields and apply the change to a group of people.
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Jenny Grimm
- May 10 2016
- Implemented
Related ideas
Good news!
As of 2/6/2019, you can “refresh” or update any combination of data fields on your own using the data imports. You will no longer need to wait 3-5 business days for Blackbaud to process a data refresh file. You can choose to update or add data for as many fields and/or users as you need to. If you use the import tool you do not need to adhere to the 25 record minimum. You can also import additional constituent types not included in the original data conversion – this includes candidates (who will be tied to a basic checklist).
What are the 4 new types of imports?
1. General User
The general user import allows you to import user data for new constituents or update existing constituents’ basic biographical information. When adding a new user, a HostID is required for each user. When updating existing users’ information, you can match on either the HostID or UserID. The general user import will update fields like name, marital status, ethnicity, religion, gender, SSN home address, home phone number, and more!
See more detail here
2. Roles
The role import allows you to assign constituent roles to users – including student, alumni, candidate, teacher, non-teaching staff, advisor, etc. Some roles are set through relationships – like parent or grandparent. Those roles are established through the relationship import.
Set more detail here
3. Relationships
The relationship import allows you to tie people together with relationships – these relationships can be peer-to-peer (I.e. spouse, sibling, cousin, etc.) or hierarchical (parent, grandparent, etc.) Tying people together will also share addresses and home phone numbers, if they're identical, between spouses and parents/children.
See detail here
4. User Education
The user education import allows you to add one or more user education records to a contact card. This import is done on its own rather than in the general user import because constituents may have several education records.
See more detail here
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It is ridiculous that we are being forced out of EE and into a solution that is missing such critical features. Not only do we have the burden of having to perform a data refresh for simple data actions, but the time that it takes for the data refresh to even begin is crazy! For a solution to cost this much and to not have these features is quite the disappointment.
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I, too, would like to be able to keep my data up to date and clean. It is nearly impossible to update large batches of data en mass if you don't want to update ALL the fields in the Refresh file. I would be nice to be able to upload a file with any data and have it taken care of immediately. It would also be nice to be able to search the data base for inconsistencies such as St. instead of Street and then make the adjustment on the fly. Having to export data, then search and manipulate the data in that spreadsheet is not efficient, let alone having to update the incorrect records one-by-one and then go check the handle profile changes box and handle those changes.
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I agree, Global changes and updates are essential for dynamic data management.
To also agree with John, the Idea of voting for essential features is very disheartening. Some of these ideas are over a year old.
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One more general comment: The idea of having to "vote" for features that should be an essential part of any system built in the last 15 years is not cool.
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It seems the whole process of updating data in this system is woefully inadequate.
Consider this:
In order for one to make a bulk change of something as simpel as the matital status as describbove, we have to:
1. Export ALL of our data to a spreadsheet
2. Massage that spreadsheet into something that is palatable to the refresh process [hoping we don't mess up anata in the process!]
3. Tweak only the data we want to change (e.g. set marital status)
4. Refresh ALL the data
At VERY LEAST, we should be able to selectively change certain columns with a simple spreadsheet that has only identifying information for the record to be modified (e.g. hostid) and ONLY the data to be changed. (e.g. marital status).
I have been told that there's an API out there with which I can write such a thing. Although I do write API programs now and then, this is for very specialized tasks.
What we are describing here is very basic and essential.
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