Hi there,

I am looking for advise on a conversion of Sage data I've never seen to our existing RE database.  Has anyone ever done a conversion of sight unseen data to RE.  We are using a consultant for the conversion and I want to be sure to manage the process with as little restore of back-ups as possible.  My hope is to actually see data prior to conversion but honestly I'm not sure it will be possible.

 Thanks for any help!

Sarah

We have converted from Sage - Millennium database. I believe that Sage has multiple fundraising systems. What system do you have?

Hi Sarah,

I was the Implementation Specialist for three Sage-to-RE conversions. For the most part, the data elements line up well. Sage has Notes, Attributes and Contacts (Actions) that are easily converted. The tricky part of this conversion is identifying the Sage "Names" that convert as Relationships. Some of the Name types in Sage are Relationships, some are Addressees, and some are just a repeat of the Biographical name. So, you'll want to be sure that your developer has an understanding of how the Names were used in the Sage system.

One other point was identifying the soft credits from Sage (this will only apply, of course, if the historical data included Sage's soft credits). The soft credits in Sage are stored as records in the Gifts table. So, they could be mistaken for duplicate gifts, rather than soft credits. You'll definitely want to be sure that the developer is referring to the Sage gift.recordtype (values were similar to "Y", "P", "G", "MP") to identify the soft credits.

As far as doing a conversion "sight unseen" I guess it depends on what type of relationship you have with the consultant. Certainly you should be prepared for clean-up of records and tables after the conversion. I would also recommend that you ask whether custom table mapping is available--this will allow you to document the mapping between Sage's table values and the values used in your RE database. This could save you from having to do a lot of table cleanup in RE after the conversion.

Hope this helps,

Nicole

We are just starting a conversion from Sage - Millennium to RE.  Blackbaud has asked us to export certain fields from Millennium to start the process.  We do not seem to have a report that will export all of those fields.  Could you tell me, were you able to do the conversion from Millennium to RE without involvement from Sage?  I'm concerned that we will have to pay Sage to get our data out of Millennium.

Thanks, Kirstin

Hi,

 We are converting a Sage 50 db to RE. I have access to Sage but it doesn't appear that I have admin rights (I can't get into Security) and no one knows how to do that. We don't have a current maintenance agreement with Sage. I am trying to get all the data I can out of Sage and am running into issues. If anyone with knowledge of Sage can spare me a half hour or so I would appreciate it.

 Thanks,

laura

 Never mind. I found the adminstrative username and password and it turns out all I need to do is send the entire db file to Blackbaud.  I misunderstood the scope of work. :)

 Thanks,

laura

Have anybody converted sage 100 to RE..??  We are in the process of data migration.  Just trying to get as much information as possible before starting the conversion.  I took some training session from Blackbaud.  If anybody has done this before could you share your experience with me.  How did you give the data to Blackbaud (we are using blackbaud for conversion). Any advice or sharing your knowledge is mostly appreciated.

Thanks

Justy Thomas

Catholic Missions In Canada

justy@cmic.info