NexcubatorFeatures · nex-calibrate
Data migration without import templates: your data comes in as it is
nex-calibrate handles data migration and data onboarding for Nexcubator with no import template: send the spreadsheets and exports you already have, in any format, and map them to your records. New entities and fields are defined on the spot, tidying rules are written in words, and nothing is created until your team agrees it.
Being built nex-calibrate is being built now, and early customers are onboarded by our implementation team. Join to get it first.
What data migration with nex-calibrate covers
The usual data migration starts with a template: squeeze your data into the vendor's columns and formats, and anything without a column is dropped or becomes a developer request. nex-calibrate has no template. You send the files you already have, as many as you like: the payroll export, the HR spreadsheet, the list of sites. It reads them together, throws away the file boundaries, and proposes in plain words what everything should become.
- Your entities. People, reporting lines, departments or services, sites and regions, joined across files on the staff number.
- Your hierarchy. The manager column finally means a person, and sites are grouped into regions using whichever file says so.
- New fields. A registration number, a vetting date or a cost centre the system has never seen can become a new field, or be left out.
- Mixed columns. When one column holds both a job profile and a grade, you decide once how to split it.
Map columns by drag and drop, not by template
Your columns sit on one side and the entities Nexcubator holds on the other. Each column is dragged onto the thing it means, and a line shows where it went, so the mapping is a picture anyone can read. Nothing is guessed: a column nobody has placed stays visibly "not placed" until someone decides.
Define new entities and fields on the spot
When you hold something Nexcubator does not, your implementation team defines it there and then: a new entity such as Cost centres, with its own table, colour and lookups, or a new field such as Professional registration on People, named in your own words. No developer, no release.
Your data model, your choice
Separate apps each impose their own fixed data model, and a traditional suite changes its model only through customisation. In Nexcubator, entities and columns are configured in the app by business users, not coded, so the software takes the shape of your organisation. What is Nexcubator? explains the idea in full.
Data cleansing rules and links, set once
A column is often not just a value; it points at something else. The manager is another person, a base is a place, a place belongs to a region. With nex-calibrate you decide once what should happen when a value points at nothing: set the row aside, leave it empty, or create the missing department or place.
Tidying rules written in words
The data is tidied the way people tidy it by hand, except the rules are written in words, can be switched off, and run again on next month's file: spaces taken off the ends, spelling variants treated as one, every date written the same way, currency symbols removed. Rows that cannot be used are set aside with the reason, to go back to whoever sent them. Pay columns stay hidden from anyone without permission to see pay.
Reconcile before anything is created
Your implementation team agrees each proposal, and nex-calibrate keeps count on screen: "18 of 21 agreed, 3 need you, nothing has been created". Only then are the records built. The mapping and the rules are saved as your profile, so next month's file maps itself.
Go live without re-importing
You import once. After that, the structure changes around the data. "John and Adam report to Lisa" changes the hierarchy and existing records follow, with no re-import. "Add a Region field to People" puts a new column on every person, with no developer. Before go-live, the structure is tested in org design; after it, every change is recorded and can be undone.
Data migration compared with a standalone import tool
An import template makes your data fit the software. nex-calibrate makes the software fit your data.
| What you need | A standalone tool | Nexcubator |
|---|---|---|
| Getting data in | Fill in the vendor's template, in its columns and formats | Your files as they are, as many as you like |
| Columns the system has never seen | Dropped, or a developer request | A new field, mapped elsewhere, or left out: your call |
| Something the system does not hold | A customisation project | A new entity defined on the spot |
| Data cleansing | By hand in spreadsheets before every load | Rules in words that run every time |
| Rows that cannot be used | Failed or dropped rows to hunt down | Set aside with the reason, ready to send back |
| Next month's file | Reshaped by hand again | Maps itself from your saved profile |
| Changing structure after go-live | Re-import | Changed in place, records follow |
How nex-calibrate works with the other nex apps
Your data is brought in once, onto the one set of records every nex app reads. See how Nexcubator works.
nex-org: test the structure
The hierarchy your files bring in is run against real situations before go-live.
nex-hrm: people records
The people records built here are the ones HR, leave and appraisal run on.
nex-genie: changes in a sentence
After go-live, a new field or reporting line is one sentence, approved by a person.
Data migration FAQs
Do I need an import template for data migration to Nexcubator?
No. nex-calibrate takes the files you already have, in their own columns and formats, maps them to your people, hierarchy, departments, places and pay, tidies them with rules you can read, and sets aside anything it cannot use with the reason. The mapping is saved, so the next file comes across on its own.
Who is nex-calibrate for?
Implementation teams moving an organisation onto Nexcubator, and the CIOs, HR and operations leaders who own the data. It suits organisations whose records live today in spreadsheets and exports from several separate systems, and whose structure has never fitted anybody's template.
How is it different from a standalone import tool?
A standalone import tool loads rows into a fixed model. nex-calibrate shapes the model around your data: new entities and fields are defined during the mapping, links between records are rules, and everything lands on the one set of records every nex app reads, so there is nothing to re-import into other apps.
What happens to columns the system has never seen?
nex-calibrate shows them as not placed and never guesses. Your implementation team can turn a column into a new field on the record, drag it onto something that already exists, or leave it out. Nothing is created until each proposal is agreed.
How is sensitive data such as pay handled during onboarding?
Pay columns stay hidden from anyone without permission to see pay, and rows that cannot be used are set aside with the reason rather than loaded silently. Who can see what afterwards is set in nex-org, and every change is recorded in one audit history.
Is nex-calibrate available now, and where is data hosted?
nex-calibrate is being built into Nexcubator's administration now. Early access is open, and early customers are onboarded by our implementation team. Nexcubator is hosted in the EU by default, or in the region you prefer. See how we keep information safe.
Bring your data as it is
Tell us what you have today, in whatever format it is in.
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