A decade ago, storing data in the cloud seemed risky. Today, cloud-based, software-as-a-service applications such as G Suite, Office 365, and Salesforce have made outsourcing data storage simple. But not risk-free. One big issue: With each of them, data is stored in a format that won’t work well outside that application. It can make switching from one to another tricky.
Just ask the Intern Group, a startup that places students in international internships. In 2016, the company consolidated its data. Some was in Google Sheets, some was in the customer-relationship management application Highrise, and some was in a second CRM app, Contactually. Intern Group wanted to consolidate within Vtiger, yet another cloud CRM app.
Dispatches From The Front 