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mruselessmruseless 

check for duplicates

I'm relatively new to the SForce Connector.

What I would like to do is use the connector to add new contacts. I have spreadsheets with contact data from vendor shows, and I would like to add them into SF. This is pretty easy to do with the SForce Connector, but is there a way to check for duplicates first?

 

To clarify, I would like the SF Connector to first query to find duplicates, then add any that are not already in SF.

Message Edited by mruseless on 03-28-2010 12:13 PM
ggsellggsell

The Excel Connector does not check for duplicates. However, you can accomplish this using some Excel data manipulation before you upload the new contacts.

 

The first thing you need to do is determine what defines a duplicate. The easiest way is to assume each contact will have a unique email address. In Excel, sort your list ascending by email address. Next insert a new column next to the email column. Here you can create a formula that says =if(a2=a1,"Duplicate","Unique"). This formula is comparing cell A2 to A1 and if they are a match then returning the word "Duplicate". Once you have done this, copy your formula column, paste special as Values, then delete any row with the Duplicate value.

 

Hope this helps. 

mruselessmruseless

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Too bad that the SFC can't check an Excel list of email addresses against those already in SF. 

But it doesn't seem like too much work to first query SF for all contacts in a particular account, then sort the list against the new data and remove any duplicates, then Insert into SF any that remain.

ggsellggsell

That is a good idea to query salesforce first for existing contacts.

 

For more advanced deduplication, check out Demand Tools by CRM Fusion. It is the top of the line for mass deduplication. 

 http://www.crmfusion.com/demandtools/

forceDotMomforceDotMom

Demand Tools is truly an amazing product for this sort of thing.  Actually their People Import tool will allow you to import a list from a trade show, like you are describing, and check across both Leads and Contacts for any matches, and insert new names as either a Lead or a Contact, and update any existing Leads or Contacts with new data from your list.  Its brilliant.  Worth every penny.

 

Here is another interesting tool that is an Excel add in, just came across it today: http://www.digdb.com/excel_add_ins/duplicates_find_remove_dedupe/

teamkteamk

you can throw an email address against contacts and get back the contactid, found #, or #NF

 

see the callable functions in the help.

 

if your email address is in c3, then you can put =sfemail(c3) in another cell.

you will get back:

    contact id

    found 3   (if 3 contacts match the email)

    #N/F if no matches

 

there are other great callable functions as well on that help page    http://sforce.sourceforge.net/excel/functions.htm

 

You could concatenate a quick =soql_table to throw the email address against the lead object as well.

 

 

forceDotMomforceDotMom

Thanks teamk,

 

that sounds really useful.  I was not aware of that functionality in the Excel Connector.  I need to dig into that some more.  I will post any questions here if you don't mind coming back to answer!

mruselessmruseless

The "=sfemail(A1)" function is AWESOME! It made my life much easier.

Now, I can have an excel list, add a column using that function, then relabel the column "Contact ID". Then all I have to do is change the "#NF" results to "new", and use the SFC tool to add those rows. Fantastic!

teamkteamk

One trick / thing to watch for on this - make sure you copy/paste special values only in excel after it runs the first time - otherwise the function will run again every time you open the sheet.

 

the callable functions (=sfemail    =sfaccount   etc) are SLOW to run against big lists.  

mruselessmruseless

Good point!

After pulling the Contact ID, then I suppose I could do a quick copy and paste "values only". That would take care of the slowness.