I am old time IT guy who left for a teaching career. I am used to 3rd generation file structures. In those days, programmers had direct access to discreet files (tables now). Therefore when converting from one system to another, you would typically get a flat file, write some code, and load it to the new system’s file structure.
I am now back in the IT game, trying to see how my small to midsize business can convert to newer software (Netsuite, Great Plains, Everest, Cougar Mountain) or whatever.
Question: What techniques have you folks used to transfer data from an older (70’s) system onto these newer systems (let’s assume I can get the data from the old system in a flat file or delimited format of some type)? Does the newer software have import type capability that loads the data into the proper fields, tables, rows, columns, files, or whatever they are called now?