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Establish Data Feeds - For most VIVO sites, the biggest challenge of a VIVO system is not VIVO itself. Instead, the challenge comes in populating VIVO with data from your institutional systems. Many pages in the VIVO wiki are concerned with data issues. Start with VIVO Data - what and from where, and the pages linked to it. Data challenges are often particular to the individual institution, ranging from the practical (Data source specifications for implementation) to the political (Policy and planning questions for VIVO data).
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Build Customized System - Add your customizations to VIVO. If you are only making small changes, mostly to appearance, you might add your changes directly to the VIVO distribution files. For larger customizations, you should learn Building VIVO in 3 tiers. This helps to organize your installation, and will make it easier to implement system upgrades when the time comes.
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