Historical Data Input

PublicStuff recognizes the desire to retain and import historical request data from previously implemented third-party systems. PublicStuff offers a standard data import process to capture important data from the previous system to enable reporting such as number of requests per request type, and request closure rates by department.

There is also an advanced import process to retain more detailed data per request type.

Standard Data Import

This import style retains important information about previous service requests to be able to report on request trends from previous system to PublicStuff.

Requirements

PublicStuff to provide a CSV file with appropriate columns
Fields with * are required fields
Other fields are available for Standard Import (if available from previous system) as outlined below.
Data Cleansing

PublicStuff performs minimal data cleansing for such imports. Municipality is responsible for removing any unnecessary or unwanted data and checking the validity of the request data

All request types must be entered into PublicStuff Pro prior to import
Request type names must match between import file and PublicStuff Pro. Data will not import correctly otherwise. If there is a concern the names do not match, the municipality is responsible for providing a field mapping.
Assignee names must match between import file and PublicStuff Pro. Data will not import correctly otherwise. If there is a concern the names do not match, the municipality is responsible for providing a field mapping.

Import Fields

Field	Description	Example
*Request Type	Request Type. Must match request type entered into PublicStuff Pro	Playground Equipment Repair
Description	Description of the request, either customer or staff entered	The spiral slide on the north side of Greenfield Park has a loose step. Please fix soon!
Comments	Comments on a request, either customer or staff entered. Comments will be combined into a single comment field	Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Parks safety is an important goal for us. The step was fixed by the maintenance crew on Monday.
Department	Department responsible for request	Parks and Recreation
Assignee	Request Assignee. Request assignee name must match between import file and PublicStuff Pro.	Carol Thompson
Request Address	Street address of request	123 Greenfield St MyTown, ST 12345
*Date Submitted	Date request was submitted	5/1/2012
Date Closed	Date request was closed	5/2/2012
Foreign Id	Previous system id number	456789
Custom Fields	Imported as a single text block into either the Description or Comment field	Park Name: Greenfield Park
Customer Name	Customer Name	Helen Smith
Customer Phone	Customer Phone Number. Imported as text so format is not important	123-456-7890
Customer Email Address	Customer Email Address. Email address must be formatted correctly	hsmith@email.com

*Required Field

Advanced Data Import

There may be more detailed data you wish to retain from the previous system. Importing this data requires a greater work effort and comes at an additional cost.

Advanced workflows: Systematically tracking the entire workflow history instead of open/close

This includes status changes, dates, and staff workflow history

Custom field mapping: custom fields can be imported into matching custom fields to retain custom reporting abilities

For example, a Missed Garbage Pickup has a custom field for Day of Trash Service (M-F). In a standard import, this information is included as text in the Comments field. In an advanced import, this information is mapped from one system to another in the Custom Field