Using IN queries or joining to a temporary table inside views for data managers to use with VBO for one-off updates
You could try Feeds as well .... but ...

Use either a CSV file or one of its other Migrate Sources, for instance it can use another database table as your source of change-data. But I recommend the Migrate module.

Your CSV can hold the primary key and whatever fields you need to update. You could use the new hash() functionality in Migrate 2.6 to check for changes in your data so that content is either Updated or Inserted as needed.