---
title: 'Struggling with Legacy Data Ingestion?'
description: Filename conventions, network drives, ancient formats and 5am batch failures - legacy spreadsheet ingestion hurts everyone. With Data Controller for SAS®, those issues disappear.
date: '2026-08-24 09:00:00'
author: 'Allan Bowe'
authorLink: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanbowe/
tags:
  - Announcements
previewImg: './legacy-data-ingestion.jpeg'
---

Do you struggle against legacy data ingestion processes?

Are your analysts saving spreadsheets with a particular filename, on a particular network drive, on a particular day, with a specific structure?

Perhaps your process necessitates an ancient format (.xls, Excel '95) or particular encoding.

Sucks, right?

It sucks also for the Platform Manager, who gets the email at 5am when the batch breaks due to something not-quite-right in said input file.

Or the Data Engineer, spending all day knocking out generic excel import routines. Or the sponsor, paying for a broken process, that should take seconds.

With Data Controller for SAS®, all these issues... disappear.

Thanks to our OEM licence of [SheetJS](https://sheetjs.com), analysts can self-serve data uploads via the browser - no (insecure) network drive needed, nor thick client install.

And the data really can be **anywhere** in the workbook - in any shape, spread across any number of disparate sheets, ranges and cells. A range of [import options](https://docs.datacontroller.io/excel/) handles everything from clean tabular sheets to sprawling financial reports. 

Once automatic validations and DQ checks pass, and approval received, the target table is updated and any onward jobs are triggered. Needless to say, there is a full audit trail right back to the original excel file.

Not only that - you can load ANY database, SAS dataset, format, or CAS table. New data targets are configured by the admin - zero code, nothing to deploy or drag through to production.

There is also a [community edition](https://datacontroller.io/pricing/), free for unlimited users (restricted by rows).

If you'd like to excel by spending less time on Excel - [let's chat](https://datacontroller.io/contact/).

<!--
Source LinkedIn post:

Do you struggle against legacy data ingestion processes?

Are your analysts saving spreadsheets with a particular filename, on a particular network drive, on a particular day, with a specific structure?

Perhaps your process necessitates an ancient format (.xls, Excel '95) or particular encoding.

Sucks, right?

It sucks also for the Platform Manager, who gets the email at 5am when the batch breaks due to something not-quite-right in said input file.

Or the Data Engineer, spending all day knocking out generic excel import routines. Or the sponsor, paying for a broken process, that should take seconds.

With Data Controller for SAS®, all these issues... disappear.

Thanks to our OEM licence of SheetJS, analysts can self-serve data uploads via the browser - no (insecure) network drive needed, nor thick client install.

The data can be anywhere in the workbook - in any shape, across any number of disparate sheets, ranges and cells - thanks to a range of import options. Columns in any order. Additional columns (not in the target table) are simply ignored. Invalid columns cause immediate rejection, so the uploader can rectify.

Once automatic validations and DQ checks pass, and approval received, the target table is updated and any onward jobs are triggered. Needless to say, there is a full audit trail right back to the original excel file.

Not only that - you can load ANY database, #SAS dataset or CAS table. New data targets are configured by the admin - zero code, nothing to deploy or drag through to production.

There is also a community edition, free for unlimited users (restricted by rows).

If you'd like to excel by spending less time on Excel - let's chat.

#datamanagement #excel #datagovernance
-->

<!-- Image prompt:
A flat-design illustration in the Data Controller brand style (dark navy background, teal/green and orange accents), composed around a SINGLE CENTRAL focal point so it survives a square crop: in the centre, a large glowing browser window with a spreadsheet file being dropped into it and a green tick, feeding a short downward flow into a database cylinder directly beneath. Sinking into shadow at the very bottom of the frame, small and half-buried, the legacy relics being left behind: a floppy disk labelled .xls, a dusty network drive wrapped in chains, and an alarm clock showing 5am. Light radiates from the central browser window against the dark background. All key elements within the central square of the frame; outer left and right thirds contain only background texture and glow, safe to crop. Minimal text, no logos. Professional but lightly humorous, suitable for a B2B data product site. 16:9 landscape, 1200x627, suitable as a blog/feed cover image.
-->
