Data rescue and migration
At some point the software your collection lives in stops being supported, or the person who understood it retires. The records are still there. Getting them out in a state somebody can use is the work.
What you get
Out of whatever it is in
A dead database, a stack of spreadsheets, a folder of documents, or all three at once with different conventions in each.
Fields that mean something
Free text pulled apart into the fields a procedure actually turns on, with the original kept alongside so nothing is lost in the reading.
Duplicates found, never merged behind your back
Near matches surfaced as a queue for a person. A wrong merge is very expensive to undo.
Terms that survive the next move
Mapped onto a published vocabulary, so the meaning travels even when the software does not.
- A copy of whatever holds the records now, however old
- Anything written down about what the fields were supposed to mean
- Who can answer questions about the odd cases
- Where it needs to end up, if you already know
Start with a conversation
Tell me what you have now and what is going wrong with it. If it turns out this is not the thing you need, I will say so.