# Migrating from CollectMax > Leaving CollectMax: where the data actually sits, why SmartData is usually the only SQL-readable copy of it, and which parts of the build get rebuilt rather than moved. - Source: https://ottoforfirms.com/migrating/from-collectmax/ - Publisher: Otto — https://ottoforfirms.com - Updated: 2026-09-01 CollectMax stores its data in Advantage Database Server, a proprietary engine JST ships with the product. The SQL-readable copy most firms extract from is JST SmartData, a secondary data set that needs its own MS-SQL license and an active support contract. Confirm you have both before planning any migration. ## Key facts - CollectMax requires Advantage Database Server — "a third-party software license … required to be installed on your server in order to run CollectMax across your network". - SmartData is "a secondary MS-SQL data set that is updated incrementally" — a scheduled copy for reporting, not the live database. - SmartData is gated twice: it "requires that the Customer have an MS-SQL license 2016 or higher" and is "available to CollectMax customers with a support contract". - Size your extract from JST's own planning figure: "3 GB per every 10,000 accounts can be used for planning purposes", plus imaging files if the imaging module is in use. - Document templates are word-processor merge documents on every workstation — Word 2016/2019/2021 or WordPerfect 2020/2021, and "All workstations must use the same version of the selected word processor." - Wide-area access is already a workaround: "Wide Area Network (WAN) configurations are not supported", with Citrix or Remote Desktop Services recommended instead. ## What this page is, and what it is not This is the mechanics of getting your data and your build out of CollectMax. It is not a comparison — that is on the CollectMax alternatives page, which covers what the product does well, what JST publishes about compliance, and one control of theirs we think is better than ours. Everything below is sourced to JST's own published documentation and nothing to a sales conversation. Where their documents do not answer a question, this page says so rather than guessing. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements; accessed 27 August 2026.) ## Where your data actually lives CollectMax runs on Advantage Database Server, a third-party engine that JST supplies with the installation: "A third-party software license called Advantage Database Server (ADS) is required to be installed on your server in order to run CollectMax across your network. ADS is provided by JST along with the CollectMax installation files." The practical consequence for a migration is that your live data is not sitting in a format your own IT staff can query with ordinary tools. The first question to answer is not which system you are moving to — it is who can read what you have today. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 1.C.) ## SmartData is usually the only SQL-readable copy, and it is optional JST publishes a second product for exactly this problem. SmartData is "a secondary MS-SQL data set that is updated incrementally so building it daily will be quick and easy", and it "can be read and queried by the Customer to be used for reporting and other data needs outside of CollectMax". Two conditions are attached, and both are worth confirming before you plan anything: it "requires that the Customer have an MS-SQL license 2016 or higher", and it "is available to CollectMax customers with a support contract". A firm that has let support lapse, or that never licensed MS-SQL, may find its most accessible copy of its own data is the one it does not have. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 3.D.) ## It is a copy, so ask when it was last built SmartData updates incrementally and JST's own phrasing is that building it daily "will be quick and easy" — which tells you it is built on a schedule rather than being live. For most reporting that distinction does not matter. For a migration it matters twice: the extract you hand a new vendor is as of the last build, and any reconciliation between the two systems has to account for the gap. Ask when the job runs, whether it has been failing quietly, and whether the firm generated the full data set or the smaller "JST SmartData Lite" seed that JST recommends for customers using it only for Provana's IPA dashboards. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 3.D.) ## What gets rebuilt rather than moved Letters and pleadings in CollectMax are word-processor merge documents that live on the workstations, not rows in a database. JST requires "Microsoft Word 2016, 2019, and 2021 … or Corel WordPerfect 2020 and 2021 … installed on each PC", that "Either MS-Word or Corel WordPerfect must be selected as the default word processor for all systems using CollectMax", and that "All workstations must use the same version of the selected word processor." Nothing in that stack transfers to a different system as data. Budget for rebuilding the template set, and treat the inventory of which templates are actually in use as the first task rather than a later one — most firms find the list is shorter than they feared and older than they expected. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, sections 3.A and 3.B.) ## How large is the extract, roughly JST gives a planning figure you can use before anyone runs anything: "Though data size can vary between installations, 3 GB per every 10,000 accounts can be used for planning purposes." They add that imaging files sit on top of that where the imaging module is in use. A firm running 40,000 accounts should therefore expect something in the region of 12 GB of database before media — useful mainly because it tells you whether this is a transfer that fits on a drive or a project that needs a plan. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 1.C.) ## Remote access is already a workaround, which affects the cutover JST's networking section states that "Only Windows networking options are supported" and that "Wide Area Network (WAN) configurations are not supported. Citrix and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) … are recommended for those customers requiring an application server environment." If your firm has remote staff, they are almost certainly reaching CollectMax through a published desktop rather than directly. That matters at cutover because the thing your people are used to is the remote session, not the application — and the two do not fail in the same ways. Ask who owns that layer before you schedule anything. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 1.D.) ## What JST will and will not help with JST documents help for moving CollectMax to different hardware: "JST can provide instructions for migrating the CollectMax installation and data to a new server environment." That is a server migration, not a vendor migration, and the distinction is worth keeping straight in a conversation with them. We have not found published JST documentation describing an export intended for a competing system, and this page does not assume one exists. Ask them directly, in writing, and ask what format the export is in. (JST, CollectMax System Requirements, section 1.A.) ## What we do not know JST does not publish a data dictionary for the ADS tables, a documented export path to a third-party system, or the SmartData schema. Everything above is drawn from the requirements document they publish for prospective and existing customers. If you have any of those documents and they contradict this page, tell us and we will correct it — that offer is genuine and this page has been changed before on that basis. ## Primary sources 1. [CollectMax System Requirements (Advantage Database Server)](https://www.collectmax.com/downloads/CollectMax%20System%20Requirements.pdf) 1. [CollectMax System Requirements (JST SmartData)](https://www.collectmax.com/downloads/CollectMax%20System%20Requirements.pdf) 1. [CollectMax System Requirements (word processing)](https://www.collectmax.com/downloads/CollectMax%20System%20Requirements.pdf) 1. [CollectMax System Requirements (networking)](https://www.collectmax.com/downloads/CollectMax%20System%20Requirements.pdf) 1. [CollectMax Features & Benefits](https://www.collectmax.com/features-and-benefits/) ## Related - [CollectMax alternatives for collections law firms](https://ottoforfirms.com/compare/collectmax/) — Weighing an alternative to CollectMax: what JST's own system requirements, feature page and help files describe, what CollectMax does well, what a migration off it actually carries, and where Otto differs. - [Migrating a collections firm to a new case management system](https://ottoforfirms.com/migrating/) — What actually moves when a creditor-side collections firm changes case management systems: the trust ledger, the media, the client interfaces, and the history. - [Migrating from Q-Law](https://ottoforfirms.com/migrating/from-q-law/) — Leaving Q-LawE: the move from perpetual to subscription licensing, the change-tracking tables that can be truncated, and what gets rebuilt rather than moved. - [Migrating from Collection-Master](https://ottoforfirms.com/migrating/from-collection-master/) — What moves when a firm leaves Vertican's Collection-Master, sourced to Vertican's own published materials — including the roadmap it publishes for the product. - [Debt collection software for law firms: how the category works](https://ottoforfirms.com/collections-software/) — What collections case management software has to do — placements, ledgers and trust accounting, compliance gates, court and service integrations, document assembly and client reporting — how the category is structured, and who the established systems are. ## About Otto Otto publishes this reference and builds the software underneath it: case management for US creditor-side collections law firms, where a client's written rules run before an action is taken rather than in next month's report. - [Talk to us](https://ottoforfirms.com/contact/) - [See what it costs](https://ottoforfirms.com/pricing/) --- This is an informational reference, not legal advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. Limitations periods turn on facts this page cannot know — which state's law governs, the contract type, when the claim accrued, and whether anything tolled or revived it. Confirm against the primary source and your own counsel before acting.