Use cases by sector
Discovering your data will not come out
You want to change provider and it turns out the information is yours but out of your reach. You check that on the way in, not on the way out.
You have worked with a tool for years and want to change: on price, on service, or because it no longer does what you need. **Then you discover the information is yours in the contract and not in practice**: it comes out in a format that is no use, without context, at an unexpected price, or —at worst— there is no provided way of getting it out at all.
The four degrees of being stuck
| Situation | How you find out | What can be done |
|---|---|---|
| Everything comes out cleanly | On asking | Change whenever you like |
| It comes out unstructured | On opening it | Usable, but costly to rebuild |
| It comes out at high cost | On asking for a quote | Decided with a calculator |
| **There is no provided way** | **On asking** | **Little, and that is the problem** |
Important
**The moment to check how you get out of a tool is before going in, and it is the one question in the buying process nobody asks.** Features, price and support get compared; the exit does not. And yet it determines whether in three years you will have a decision or a situation: changing provider when the data comes out cleanly is a project; when it does not, you simply do not change, however good the reasons.
What to ask and put in writing
- 1
In what format data and documents come out
And ask for a real sample, not a sales answer.
- 2
Whether they come with their context or loose
A thousand documents with no idea which client they belong to are worth little.
- 3
What it costs and how long it takes
A long lead time can block you as effectively as a high price.
- 4
And what happens if the provider closes
It is the case nobody asks about and the one that ends worst.
Watch out
There is a situation worse than a provider making it difficult, and that is **a provider disappearing**. There is no negotiation, nobody to claim from, and somebody else sets the timescale. The only real protection is not having all the information in one place you depend on: a periodic copy of what matters, in a format openable without them, turns a catastrophe into an inconvenience. It costs little and is appreciated exactly once.
Worth knowing
What rights you hold over information a provider processes on your behalf, what return and deletion obligations arise at the end of the contract and what must be agreed **is determined by the applicable rules and the contract, and settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the practical part: what to check before going in and how not to end up stuck by default.
›When do I check how to get out?
Before going in. Afterwards it is a negotiation from a weak position.
›Is it enough that the contract says the data is mine?
Owning it and being able to obtain it are different things.
›What if the provider closes?
Which is why a periodic copy of what matters, held elsewhere, pays for itself.
A real case
The situation
You want to change provider and the data does not come out usable.
What you do
- Allows exporting documentation with its context
What you get
The change is a decision rather than an impossibility.
The situation
Documents come out loose with no idea which client they belong to.
What you do
- Keeps the link between document and file
What you get
What is exported stays usable.
The situation
A provider closes and the information must be recovered fast.
What you do
- Keeps a copy of what matters outside the provider
What you get
A third party failing does not take the archive.
The situation
Nobody asked how to get out when contracting.
What you do
- Has the exit process agreed and documented
What you get
The condition exists from day one.
The situation
Information is split across several tools.
What you do
- Gathers documentation in one place
What you get
You know what exists and where it is.
The situation
Extracting the history carries an unexpected cost.
What you do
- Keeps the essentials continuously and accessibly
What you get
The cost of leaving stops being a barrier.
This article answers
- how to get my data out of a provider
- data portability from a tool
- the provider will not give me my information
- changing software without losing the history