On 05/09/2014 05:49 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote: > I have a customer that uses a cloud application that I am converting > to my application. When we requested they export the data they said > a) they were not able to give me file structures (I'm okay with this, > though) and b) it would cost development time for them to build an > export. > > I asked them, who owns the data and they said the customer. > > Should a customer have to pay to get their data if they want to switch > applications? It is not in any agreement that they agreed to pay for > this. > > What do you think about that? >
I think it's a really good question. You say, "It is not in any agreement that they agreed to pay for this." and I'd respond that it was not a feature they were promised. The service provider contracted with your customer to provide their services: input, data manipulation, reporting. It's not necessarily in their business interests, looked at narrowly, to provide an easy way for people to take their data and leave. In the larger view of being a good provider, such facilities make sense. When I worked at BugCentral.com with Harold Chattaway, a full export was a feature we pointed out to the customers, to assure them that they were not locked in, and that was a feature we got positive feedback on: clients could keep their own backups, and download their data and integrate it in with their own systems. Similarly, I use a number of different web sites for tracking my (feeble) athletic attempts, and all of them have import/export facilities, and all of them are lacking in one aspect or another: limits of data, fields excluded, only export or only import, etc. This seems to be an under-appreciated, under-developed feature. As I typically am a no-cost user of these systems, it's hard to feel I have anything to complain about. I think your customer is going to need to: 1. Pay the service provider for the export. 2. Pay you or someone else to screen-scrape the old system. 3. Hire someone to re-key all of the data. If I were them, I'd get quotes for all three of the options, and use the estimates of #2 and #3 to try to negotiate down the estimated cost of #1, and then choose the cheapest/fastest/optimal choice. -- Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com/ _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/536e1da0.3050...@gmail.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
