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Moving data from your previous system to a new system can be time consuming and frustrating while you are trying to learn the functionality of the new system. Outlined below are the steps you will need to take to help your Customer Success Manager import your historic data into Element451. This documentation will go into further detail for each step.

To get started, your institution will need to make decisions on what student data from your previous system, SIS, or other tools you want to bring into Element451. We think of your historic data as two pieces, your true historic data from years ago and your live student data that you are actively recruiting for the upcoming term.

When it comes to your true historic data, we see our partners bringing in applications from 1-5 years in the past and prospects from 1-2 years in the past, but don’t view these numbers as a limitation. When thinking about how far in the past, consider how you are going to use this information in Element451. Are you going to create communications for older prospects to see if you can gain their interest again? For reporting, do you want to see multiple years worth of applications to have a multi-year comparison? Regardless of your decision, this is the data we will focus on importing first as the data is not actively changing and updating.

For your live students, your team will need to decide the best time to bring them into the new system. This will depend on how quickly you start using the system, specifically generating campaigns. Other partners have imported their current prospects and used the campaigns and conversations modules to communicate with them. They will also update historic profiles if they start applications in their previous system. Other partners have waited till their Go-Live date to import their active students. Data can be imported multiple times to ensure that records are up to date as possible.

Once your team has determined how far back your historic data will go and the timing of when to import, it is time to create the file from the systems the data is coming from. Although our import/export module is very flexible, during implementation we understand that data needs to be imported quickly and efficiently. To help out your Customer Success Implementation Lead during this portion of the project, we have outlined some requirements of the historic file.

The file needs to follow a specific layout/order of fields. The list of column headers can be found here. Your CS Implementation Lead will create and provide a copy of the historic data import for you to edit. The fields in this sheet are the most common fields we have seen our partners importing. We know this list won’t cover all of your institution’s needs, so any additional fields needed can be added to the end of the specified column headers under the tab "List of Common Fields with Definitions". This order is important. We have a template already prepared for the first 100 columns. By preserving this layout, your CS Implementation Lead will be able to apply the template, and get your historic data imported quickly. We will only need to spend time on mapping your institution’s additional fields.

Make sure the data for each column is clean and consistent. The historic data import has a tab that will help you get the data into the preferred format depending on the type of field.

If the data file has fields that need to be cleaned up, the CS Implementation Lead will have to take additional time to clean the data which might cause a delay in other components of the implementation.

Update the data sources in the historic data import. What are data sources? These are simply lists of options for a dropdown or checkbox field. Element451 has many prebuilt system wide lists of student types, race/ethnicity, citizenship status, gender, etc. found under System Data Sources but we know that these lists won’t align with every partner. The student type field is a good example that we often need definitions and codes from our partners as they have their own list of student types that need to be used in Element451. We list the system data sources in the file shared, but you will need to review and edit the list to match it up to what your institution uses. Your CS Implementation Lead will look at these lists and recreate them in Element451 as Regular Data Sources so when students fill out an RFI form or an application, they will see the student types or citizenship statuses that your institution and other systems acknowledge.

After updating the historic data import with additional fields you need, updating the data sources, and creating your historic files in the proper format, you are ready to place them in the SFTP folder. Credentials should have been provided during the first few weeks of implementation, but if you do not have credentials or need help getting connected to the SFTP, please reach out to your CS Implementation Lead. In the SFTP, there will be folders created to organize the files being shared, look for an inbound/import folder to place these files in.

Depending on the timing you decided at the beginning of the project, you may need to provide an updated file in the SFTP around your go-live date to make sure all data has the latest updates. Format will need to be the same as the previous file you generated.