DataStitch :: partner faq
These are informal notes for DataStitch partners. They have been compiled based on the questions from our partner community, conversations with prospects and our learnings from implementation of cloud based version of DataStitch.
General
- Short Intro Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48HX0mKINsc
- Product Page: https://www.contactous.com/datastitch.html
- Product Use Case: https://www.contactous.com/operations-on-large-datasets.html
- Product Help: https://www.contactous.com/datastitch-help.html
- Evaluation Request: https://www.contactous.com/datastitch-eval-request.html
The following are being planned and will be available in very near future:
- Video - Installation & Setup
- Video - On Creation & Management of Datasets
- Video - On Merging & Clustering
- Video - On Dataset Operations
- Video - On DeDuplication
- 3 Demo Videos using examples from a hospital, insurance and dealer.
The larger the company, the better. Medium enterprises are good too. The more data they have, the better. If the data is coming from multiple sources as CSV files, it is ideal.
These are the best verticals:
The fact that DataStitch is on-premise makes it ideal for the above verticals. On-premise should be emphasized in discussions.
There have been good inquiries from Retail and Logistics too. After we are over with Covid, Hospitality, Airlines and Event Management (MICE) would be very good too.
It is not recommended to pitch to smaller organizations as their data volume is usually lower and can be managed by Excel.
DataStitch is designed to be used by non-technical users. From current experience, Marketing, Sales and Customer Support and very good departments to have conversations with.
These are the best verticals:
- Banking, Insurance & Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Telecoms
- Government
The fact that DataStitch is on-premise makes it ideal for the above verticals. On-premise should be emphasized in discussions.
There have been good inquiries from Retail and Logistics too. After we are over with Covid, Hospitality, Airlines and Event Management (MICE) would be very good too.
It is not recommended to pitch to smaller organizations as their data volume is usually lower and can be managed by Excel.
DataStitch is designed to be used by non-technical users. From current experience, Marketing, Sales and Customer Support and very good departments to have conversations with.
DataStitch pricing is based on number of records exported out of system. Keys are added to the application, and they are consumed only when the records are exported. There is no limit to the number of records that are ingested into the system and processed, even during the evaluation stage.
1 Million Keys means that 1 Million records can be exported from the product into CSV file.
License: 1 Million keys or in multiples of it. Eg, 1 Million, 3 Million etc. We would prefer to maintain it this way and not 2.7M or 3.5M.
The minimum is 1 Million keys.
End User Price:
First 1 Million Records: US$ 5,000
Subsequent 1 Million Records: US$ 1,000
Evaluation comes with complementary 10,000 keys.
1 Million Keys means that 1 Million records can be exported from the product into CSV file.
License: 1 Million keys or in multiples of it. Eg, 1 Million, 3 Million etc. We would prefer to maintain it this way and not 2.7M or 3.5M.
The minimum is 1 Million keys.
End User Price:
First 1 Million Records: US$ 5,000
Subsequent 1 Million Records: US$ 1,000
Evaluation comes with complementary 10,000 keys.
Product
Understanding of Input/Output for DataStitch is important.
- A dataset is created by importing a CSV file. The CSV file itself is not altered in any way. The imported CSV file results in a dataset.
- CSV files can be of any length. Files with more than ten million records have been tested. This is a strong USP.
- The presence of header in CSV file is important. Without a meaningful header, the dataset will not be of much use. If a headless CSV is imported, it is best to delete that dataset, edit the CSV with right header fields and re-import it into a new dataset.
- During import, DataStitch is not forgiving to CSV files which are corrupted or do not comply CSV standards and results in an error.
- The processed dataset is exported out as a CSV file.
The name of header field decide on how that field will be indexed by DataStitch. This is one and only consideration to be taken. In near future, this will become easier in the application.
The fields names are explained under Indexing Rules section of Product Help page. It is summarized here:
The fields names are explained under Indexing Rules section of Product Help page. It is summarized here:
The evaluation version of DataStitch is a fully functional program, with no limitations except Export of datasets to CSV files. Millions of records can be imported into the evaluation version and processed.
10,000 complementary license keys can be requested. These will enable to export 10,000 records from DataStitch. DataStitch does not accept license keys which are more than 7 days old.
10,000 complementary license keys can be requested. These will enable to export 10,000 records from DataStitch. DataStitch does not accept license keys which are more than 7 days old.
The following will being worked on DataStitch:
- Advance Merging Options
- Faster removal of exact duplicates
- Mapping of field names for auto-indexing
- Data Cleansing
FAQ from Prospects/Customers
The "installation" process is un-zipping DataStitch.zip into a folder. That's all. As long as a Windows 10 system is being used which allows compressed files to get unzipped - there is not much that can go wrong.
However, during installation, there have been reports of the Anti-Virus program removing the executable file. We are working on it so that this gets minimized. The current workaround is set the Anti-Virus to treat the installation folder of DataStitch as 'safe' and will need to be added to its exception list.
Similarly, Windows Defender tries to block such foreign files. But it can be easily resolved by allowing access.
However, during installation, there have been reports of the Anti-Virus program removing the executable file. We are working on it so that this gets minimized. The current workaround is set the Anti-Virus to treat the installation folder of DataStitch as 'safe' and will need to be added to its exception list.
Similarly, Windows Defender tries to block such foreign files. But it can be easily resolved by allowing access.
Speed of execution is the main reason. To process (import, index, dedupe, merge, etc) tens of thousands of records in minutes, we had to run the program as close to OS as possible. A browser interface is possible but in our tests it significantly slowed the product down, esp when millions of records were processed. Hence this design.
Yes, one can. There have been many instances when we asked the prospect to solve their challenge using Excel. If the requirements of data quality are not strict, the data is fairly structured and the number of records are not more than 20K-30K, it is possible for the customer to use Excel and get the work done.
DataStitch solves the pain when the expectations of data quality are high and the number of datasets run in hundreds while the volume of records are in millions.
DataStitch solves the pain when the expectations of data quality are high and the number of datasets run in hundreds while the volume of records are in millions.
While DataStitch has been rigorously tested with large datasets and the occurrence of such errors is unlikely. During a crash, a log file called php_errors.txt will be created in the root directory of DataStitch (where README file is located). Request the customer to send the file to support@contactous.com.