I have a question in regards to prospects and the Constituent Import.
Are you currently using this function in Tessitura? If so what has your experience been with it? My concern is that there is no way to back out this import if there is an error takes place. Eventhough there is a validation report.
I've just started experimenting with it. It certainly beats manually entering names and addresses! There are a few limitations, but you can get around them with SQL scripts:
1. It doesn't add any marketing restrictions, so if you're in the habit of adding marketing restrictions (phone, email, mail) to records, you'll need to go back and add that after they've been put in.
2. The only way to distinguish the new people is either a) they show up on the TW_CONSTITUENT_IMPORT table or b) you create a unique Original Source for them before you import them. It'd be nice if you could add a Constituent or Attribute to them on the way in, but that feature isn't there currently.
3. One other limitation - at least according to the documentation - is that it won't import people with blank states. Doesn't matter in the US or Australia, but it might be an issue for folks in New Zealand or other countries of the world.
However, I prefer the system you all have where you get someone else to put the data in the right columns before they give it to you . . .