Importacular vs. ImportOmatic - revisited

JoAnn Strommen

Saw post from 2018 but looking for additional comments from users who have used both, especially in a higher ed setting.

We have Omatic but to date I've only used it for graduate imports in db view. Gone smoothly at times, other times not so smooth. (Have not tried cloud version yet. We don't do gift entry in webview due to missing required fields. Missing some we like for bio too.)

This year have been trying Importacular for new bio records with data from a giving platform. Works well for that. Much small data import than grads.

I am looking for tool that will bring in bio fields with attributes, gifts and education relationships. Others data is icing on the cake right now.

Any users who have comments who have used both platforms?
Thanks in advance.

Madeleine Holdsworth

@JoAnn Strommen

I've used both Importacular and ImportOmatic at a higher ed institution. I think building the profiles in Importacular is a bit easier than in ImportOmatic, but other than that, I feel they're about the same in terms of use. You may need to get the paid version of Importacular, depending upon what data you want to import. Either way, when I imported, I would import the Constituents first, then go back and add the Education as a separate import. Then import gifts. Even when a product says it can do it all at once, I believe it's easier (and less error prone) to do the imports in stages. Also I don't think the cloud based version of ImportOmatic will make a difference one way or another, but I could be wrong on that.

Christine Robertson 4

@JoAnn Strommen If you want to add Education data with Importacular, you would need to add at least one paid area. It would certainly be worth comparing the pricing between the two on that front.

I haven't done nearly as much with Omatic on this front, but I definitely can speak to Importacular if you have specific questions.

Alex Wong

@JoAnn Strommen
Only investigated Impactacular once and thought ImportOmatic is more powerful with the custom code so been sticking with IOM ever since.

The biggest issue we have that needed custom code was gift coding that is based on constituency. Using custom code, it allows me to create ONE profile that will do both new and existing constituent and create the gift that's based on the new/existing constituent's constituency all at the same time, saving a lot of time on import.

JoAnn Strommen

Thank you for the feedback.

I have info from Importacular on different costs/destinations. Waiting for reply on my questions. I'm registered for IOM's gift course as have not used for gifts previously. Need to see how it works.

@Alex Wong - will definitely look at gift code - required field for our gifts
@Madeleine Holdsworth - good thoughts on multiple imports. I've done bio and ed in one import. I've had issues when need to mix new and existing record ed data and my attempts at second address. Didn't like mapping.

Ashley Hanisko 2

@JoAnn Strommen Hi JoAnn! Short on time, but I would highly recommend ImportOmatic. I have used the version on REDB for about 5 years and have seen a demo for the online version. The last time I used IOM was about 2.5 years ago, and they have done a TON since then. You can run multiple imports at the same time while still using RE as normal. They save a list of all the exceptions from the import so that you can address them individually later, but the rest of the records will go ahead and import which I thought was pretty cool.

Their support is incredible. They will even adjust the product at the code level to make updates to the software if you can identify something that improves/fixes the product and work with them to test it.

You can assign permissions to people on your team that are independent of RE settings (I'm 90% sure of this, you should double check), so that people can use IOM to do their own imports but not have access to do imports in the database. This is useful for fundraisers who don't like to get into RE but need to record actions. They can keep a spreadsheet and import themselves. Alumni Relations can import event invite/participant lists. Stewardship can upload their own actions.

I would recommend setting up a demo with them. It's free. Personally I think the cost is very reasonable and inclusive of everything you need to get going. I would prioritize it.

Feel free to reach out if you have any more questions!

Stu Manewith 2

@JoAnn Strommen

‘I am looking for a tool that will bring in bio fields with attributes, gifts, and education relationships. Other data is icing on the cake right now.’

ImportOmatic can do what you need before breakfast. All the best,

Stu Manewith, CFRE

(PS – please visit Omatic at BBCON next month to learn more.)