Don't Store Your Family Jewels in a Black Box

Way too often I hear a new computer "tale of woe." Generally the cause is a hard drive crash or a virus, and the victim is a novice computer user. This time the call came from a colleague who runs a large production record service bureau. He asked me about my experience with "Version 6" of a popular production record package from which a prospective client wanted to move his data.

It's a common practice with ag software publishers to import data files from their competition. In the olden days this required a great deal of "reverse engineering" because software was often written in a proprietary/undocumented data format. Most modern software now run in an "open" database such as Access or SQL or even have "import/export" functions that convert or read Excel, CSV or text files.

While prior versions of the program in question likely had these capabilities, "Version 6" poses three aggravating and costly obstacles.

1. It's written in a proprietary format.
2. It's owned, controlled and supported "offshore."
3. The new owners are not particularly interested in "playing ball" (at least the American style).

As a result, the "V6" user is forever locked out of his own data and will "beholden" to the software company for as long as it's in business.

The larger message isn't' so much to stay away from a specific program as it is to ask yourself (and the software vendor), "Do I have access to my data outside of your program? (In case I want to move on or you go belly-up.)" With more and more applications moving to the "web" this concern will become more and more relevant.

Your accounting and production data are the modern equivalent of your "family jewels," representing years of work, irreplaceable information and proprietary knowledge. Please don't stash these priceless jewels in a "black box" without a key.