Chapter 3. Preparing Your Data

Okay kids, everybody get out your EBCDIC decoder ring!

—Johnny Quest

This chapter focuses on the underlying data itself because no one will use the system if the data are confusing or a waste of time. This chapter is intended for anyone on the original implementation team because first, data preparation, conversion, and import are the most costly and time-consuming parts of any SFDC implementation; second, data are the basis for all reports, which is what most people use to judge the project success; and third, data are the basis for system credibility, which is the single biggest determinant of system usage and effectiveness.

From 1936 until 1969, water pollution was so bad in Ohio’s Cuyahoga River that it occasionally ...

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