One of the ways that buying organizations can stay afloat, even if software vendors go under, is to ensure that vendors provide user-accessible flat-file data dump capability in all modules. I’m not talking about the ability to dump mysterious XML files or useless binary data files — I’m talking about dumping well-documented and human-readable CSV files containing every piece of data that’s ever been entered into the system (if it’s relational data, multiple CSV files and a well-documented schema).

For example, suppose that your contracts management system is suddenly shut off (a very real possibility in an SaaS environment). If you had taken flat-file backups of the contracts data on a regular basis, not much will be lost. That backup data can be loaded into an Access database in about 5 minutes, restoring your ability to view it and index it (without the pretty user interface, but you can live without the pretty UI while you find another product).

One of our customers pointed this out to me a while back. He said, “When you buy software, make sure there’s an exit path if the software vendor shuts down, or if you want to change horses. You need to be able to extract your data at all times, in a useful format.”