CRMfusion Inc - Team Technical Blog

Saving and loading all settings in DemandTools

2011-02-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

It is always a challenge when you are using DemandTools for multiple organizations or between sandboxes as you constantly need to change logins, pwds, endpoints, paths, etc.

To simplify we are going to be introducing profiles to DemandTools. A profile is all of your options, login, endpoint, etc saved in a file that can be loaded at startup. You could create a profile for each client or one for each sandbox and simply feed the profile file as an argument to DemandTools when you start the program (or call from batch)

If you would like to test it out it is available in the current production build as a hidden feature. Just email me at glenn.wilson@crmfusion.com and I'll tell you how to save and load the profiles.

Data Quality for Beginners

2010-12-20T10:38:00.004-05:00

Our breakout session for "Data Quality for Beginners" is now up on YouTube. The session covers some of the basics of data quality for Salesforce and give brief demonstrations of DupeBlocker, PeopleImport and DemandTools,

You can see the demonstration here

GlennW

DemandTools 2.3 Release Candidate Available

2010-08-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

DemandTools 2.3 is now available as a release candidate. It includes an improved Find ID's module and the Single Table Dedupe module is now twice as fast.

You can check out what's new in this release Here and download the DemandTools setup files Here.

We've done a lot of work to make sure this is a solid bug free release but would appreciate your help in testing it out on your Salesforce Org to make sure we haven't missed any small details.

GlennW

Release Candidate of PeopleImport 2.0 Available

2010-01-18T09:45:00.001-05:00

We've released the latest version of PeopleImport as a release candidate so feel free to download and test it out. It has several new features but the most important is the significant speed increase and it's ability to handle large data imports and compare it to large amounts of Salesforce data.

For more information check out the whats new section on our help documentation site at: http://help.crmfusion.com/peopleimport/page.aspx?pageid=new_features_in_peopleimport_21

DupeBlocker doing its job .....

2009-09-24T14:47:00.003-04:00

I thought I would share the dashboards from our real production Org showing DupeBlocker stopping about 400 dupes in the last couple of months from entering the system.

Click the image for a larger view.

Migrating to Salesforce - Clean Now or Later?

2009-07-27T15:26:00.004-04:00

I was just talking to a larger sized prospect moving from Onyx CRM to Salesforce. They had a question that we get often here at CRMfusion Inc. but I have never got around to putting my thoughts on paper about it.

During a migration to Salesforce should I clean (particularly deduplicate) before I load the data into Salesforce or after?

Most organizations assume to clean before, initially.

Although we have tools that could aid in finding duplicates in non Salesforce systems (check out EzDeDupe) our recommendation to clients has always been to migrate the data BEFORE cleansing and then after data table migration use DemandTools to find the duplicates and MERGE them using the Salesforce data centers natural merge capabilities (a hard wired merge that is perfect)

My top three reasons for this are as follows:

1) Pre-cleaning sounds all fine and dandy but in what environment are you going to do it in? You will need to introduce a "middle ground" database, maybe SQL or whatever but you still are introducing a 3rd system.
2) Migrating the data in its current form will allow you to easily verify record counts that were migrated and possibly even run parallel for a time while you ensure migration is complete and accurate.
3) If you merge records in the middle ground database you have to remember the multi-table structure and how to put all the sub-objects in the right place, not a simple task even for an experienced DBA.
Take advantage of the infrastructure that the data center provides for you, merging is a very important feature.

Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Mark

A useful scheduling tool

2009-06-03T16:46:00.003-04:00

We've recently made some changes to DemandTools to improve it's ability to be scheduled. The one thing that is missing is a good and easy to use scheduling tool. The one that ships with Windows is good but you'll find it changes with each release of Windows and has some limitations.

A company called Splinterware provides a great tool and the cost is only $30 (well worth it). You can download it from here.

You'll also want to download and install the latest version of the DemandTools that includes the improvements for scheduling from here DemandTools2234.zip

Manipulating Text in Excel

2009-05-26T12:42:00.002-04:00

A great article talking about advanced text manipulation in Excel. handy to bookmark.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347462,00.asp

New DemandTools Version Released to Production

2009-01-14T13:05:00.001-05:00

DemandTools 2.2 PRODUCTION Release

The newest major revision of DemandTools is ready for production use. Customers are recommended to upgrade at their earliest convenience. Download DemandTools 2.2

** IMPORTANT ** To protect your existing DemandTools scenarios please Read the Upgrade Letter First!

Too long ....

2008-10-23T20:45:00.003-04:00

Wow ... now with 4 different blog sites or so ( between this one, and DemandTools today, PeopleImport today, DupeBlocker today) this blog is long overdue for a new post.

Of couse major things have happened since last posting.

DupeBlocker fully released on the AppExchange, both a Record Type and non-Record type version for UE, EE and DE Orgs. PE should be before christmas (fingers crossed)

DemandTools has a new beta (available from the home page (soon to be a new prod version)) features the new Reassign Ownership module and the new (really fancy!) multi-table cababilities in the single table deduper.

EzDeDupe is launched and ready for evaluation at www.crmfusion.com/EzDeDupe

PeopleImport is "in the shop" for some tweaks before Dreamforce. On that subject CRMfusion is a gold sponsor and in Booth #624.

Happy Autumn everyone.

The CRMfusion team.

2 New CRMfusion Products Reach beta 2 Milestone

2008-06-10T16:12:00.003-04:00

The CRMfusion Technical team is proud to announce that our two newest products, DupeBlocker for Salesforce and EzDeDupe for Windows are now available for full customer testing.

Please visit their respective product pages at www.crmfusion.com for more information.

EzDeDupe Screen Shots Leak

2007-12-17T16:26:00.000-05:00

As many people know, we have been hard at work developing a new product called EzDeDupe. EDD as we like to call it internally will be a generic database/datasource deduplication tool. Here are some early screenshots cohersed from dev :)

Loading data sources, supported are XLS, MDB, CSV and UDL database connectors (UDL is the grown up version of ODBC and everything ODBCable is automatically UDLable.)

Through UDL Oracle, SQL, Informix, DB2 etc are all available as standard connections.

This screen shot shows a couple of key EDD features, the data sources being mappped into the main database and colour coded for visual reference. Also shown at the bottom is the pop up window with the column data checking routines build in.

EDD allows for an unlimited number of data sources to be mapped to the common database and then deduped as a group.

You can use any field in the table as deduplication criteria.

After selecting deduplication criteria and data matching algorithms to use, EzDeDupe will display a list of the found duplicates. The color coding helps you to know what data source they originated in.

From here EDD will present a variety of different merge operations to consolidate the data.

Beta program will definetly start in Q1 2008 and will be 100% free!

Stay tuned for more information.

DemandTools Userwide

2007-10-02T16:19:00.000-04:00

An interesting view of DemandTools customer locations around the world in both of these two pics. we generated the maps using Arrowpointe maps (found on AppExchange)

Its a great mapping product that links directly to salesforce.com

Obviously most of our customer base is in North America but you can see the European side really started to fill in as well. Did you know that more than 1000 Salesforce customers rely on DemandTools for their data quality requirements with Salesforce?

CRMfusion Named Apex Developer of the Year

2007-10-02T14:21:00.000-04:00

CRMfusion was the proud recipient of the Appy Award (handed out at Dreamforce in Sept) for "APEX Developer of the Year"

The award was for the work that Glenn Wilson and our development team have done creating the new DupeBlocker product. Dupeblocker will work in tandem with DemandTools and PeopleImport by now preventing users from entering duplicates.

- DemandTools takes duplicates out of the existing Salesforce database

- PeopleImport eliminates duplicates when loading tradeshow lists and purchased lists

- DupeBlocker stops or warns users when they manually enter duplicates

Look forward to the DupeBlocker release near the end of 2007.

Great Story about our Company and DupeBlocker

2007-05-04T13:37:00.000-04:00

Glenn Wilson, our president is featured in this developers article discussing the new APEX development enviroment. The article also shows some good DupeBlocker background and screen shots.

http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/CRMfusion_Story

Introducing DupeBlocker - A Sneak Peek into the Future

2007-02-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

By now I am sure that most customers will have heard from Salesforce.com about the new Apex development language that will be rolled out hopefully sooner rather than later.

Here is a quick video on a new software product we are currently developing called DupeBlocker. DupeBlocker complements our existing Salesforce.com deduplication offerings by adding in a real time duplicate preventer to stop USERS from entering duplicates via the user interface. DupeBlocker, when released will be a 100% hosted and Salesforce.com integrated and managed application. Available when Apex becomes available.

Watch the DupeBlocker Intro Video (4min)

Exporting Data with DemandTools 1.8

2006-12-19T12:33:00.000-05:00

Below is a screen shot of the data export tool that is included with DemandTools 1.8 that will be release shortly after the salesforce.com winter '07 release.

There are a few key points to note:

The "Where" conditions can use fields from the parent object. For example you could request all Contacts that have non-blank emails AND Account names that start with "b"
The field to download can be from the objects you are exporting or from any of it's parent objects. For example you can download contact info plus the owners role, parent account's address, last modified user data, etc......
The "Where"condition now has an expert mode that will allow you to create OR and AND conditions

Winter '07 and the DemandTools

2006-11-22T09:02:00.000-05:00

It looks like mid January will be the release date for the Winter '07 release of saleforce. This will also be the release date of the new API version 8 that provides some significant (order of magnitude) improvements over the current API.

So how will this affect DemandTools customers?

Answer: You won't see any changes when using the current tools. We'll continue to test the existing tools against the new version and ensure that it works as it always has.

When will the DemandTools support the new API functionality?

Answer: We are currently working on version 1.8 of the DemandTools that will utilize the new functionality in the new API. We expect to release this as a beta as soon as all of the salesforce instances have migrated to the new release. The official release date will depend on the feedback of our beta customers but historically it usually takes 2 - 3 weeks.

What will be in DemandTools 1.8

Answer: We have 3 key areas that we are addressing:

- Improve MassChange (see previous blog entry).

- Use the "Merge" call for merging Leads, Contacts and Accounts. This should make dedupes of these objects run several hundred percent faster.

- Create a common "FindID's" tool that will work on any object and allow you to include parent object fields when searching for records.

What about wish list items?

Answer: All of our tools and features come from our customer requests. If you have a suggestion about a new tool or extension to an existing tool just email features@crmfusion.com and we'll put it on our potential features list.

How Salesforce Administers Salesforce

2006-11-06T14:12:00.000-05:00


Check out the references to DemandTools at: 21:00 , 23:00 , 40:30 , 44:50

Get ready for MassChange 1.8

2006-10-25T11:57:00.000-04:00

If you are a DemandTools user and make use of MassChange you'll be very happy with the new MassChange that will be available when the Winter '07 release of Salesforce is rolled out.

Because we now have table joins in salesforce your going to see some significant changes to MassChange that make use of this new functionality:

You'll see:

Display any field value and any field value from the parent object (i.e. show opportunity name and account name.
Base your object selection on parent objects (i.e. Select all Contacts where the MailingAddress is blank AND the Account BillingAddress is NOT blank
Change data based on fields or parent fields (i.e. Change the Contact MailingAddress to the Account BillingAddress

Here are a few samples of what you will be able to do:

Update all contacts and change their OwnerID to match the Contacts Account OwnerID
Update all Accounts and update the field "OpCount" to be the number of opportunities belonging to the Account
Update Custom Objects with values from their Parent Object

If you have any other enhancements that you would like to see in MassChange just email Features [at] CRMfusion [dot] com

Vote to get access to reports in the API

2006-10-18T11:57:00.000-04:00

Visit the link http://ideas.salesforce.com/article/show/23850 and make sure you vote to get access to salesforce reports via the API. If this is added to salesforce you would have automatic access to you reports (delete, rename, etc) via MassEffect and MassChange.

This would also permit us to create a "Report Managment" tool within the DemandTools to help customers with hundreds of reports to better manage and control them.

Make sure you have as many people in your organization vote for this feature.

Excel - How to split a Full name into First and Last

2006-10-03T19:15:00.000-04:00

So you are staring at some excel data you want to bring into salesforce.com and all you have is a single field with first and last name in one. Salesforce wont import it that way (and split it that is) so what to do. Split it Excel here is the formula for the first name split and the last name split:

First: =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)
Last : =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2) - FIND(" ",A2))

Assuming cell: A2 has your full name in it: Voila ... Anyone seen anything better? Steve? I know you must!!

Mark

PeopleImport Video Released

2006-09-29T22:31:00.000-04:00

The long anticipated PeopleImport Video has been released. be one of the first to see it in action.

Visit

http://www.crmfusion.com/video/PeopleImport/PeopleImportDemo.html

to watch

Salesforce.com Connect on Demand

2006-09-06T13:26:00.000-04:00

Just discovered this cool little business card that the SFDC Connect on DemandTools generates. While your on the site, join the new DemandTools discussion group we created.

DemandTools Logins per Month (my fav hockey stick)

2006-09-01T09:28:00.000-04:00

I though August was supposed to be a slow month where everyone went on holidays. Looking at the graph (total number of end user DemandTools logins / month since we launched the product) you can see it was not only a record breaker but a record smasher.

I am looking forward to crossing the 10,000 logins per month threashold... Anyone care to take a guess what month they predict will be the first 10,000 login month? I have dibs on November.

Known Limitations of the STD Deduper

2006-08-15T11:57:00.000-04:00

Is the merge process perfect? ..... Known Limitations in the 1.7 STD Deduper

Contact De-Duping: Self-Service Users
When a servant contact is merged into a master contact and the servant contains a self service user the SSU will be inactivated on the servant contact and will be recreated on the master contact. You will lose all login information for the SSU and will have to send the user a new password as this is not moved in the creation of the SSU.
Additionally, if the servant was also a "Super User" you will need to manually re-activate this status on the master contact.

Contact De-Duping: Campaign Members Status Dates
When duping contacts and opt'ing to use the "Duplicate Campaign Exception - Use Most Recent", if the most recent record is on the slave, when it is cloned to the master the "Last Modified Date" (which is also the status date) will become the date of the merge. If the most recent record is on the master, we do not touch the record, so the original date stays intact.
This will happen EVEN if you have had "Modify System Fields" turned on by salesforce.com. The only workaround is to create a custom object to track campaign history. There are some 3rd party vendors that have developed software that does this for you. Search the SF AppExchange for a current list.

Account De_Duping: Active Contracts
The salesforce.com API does not allow the re-parenting of "Active" contracts. Therefore when duping account records DemandTools CANNOT merge "active" contracts from slave accounts to the selected master account.
As a workaround we have added a master rule for "Most Active Contracts", so you can set the master based on active contracts. When you run your Single Table De-dupe on your accounts you will receive errors if there are still contracts that could not be re-parented. In the log file, it will indicate which slave accounts had active contracts and that it was unable to delete these slave records. You can then select these using salesforce.com's merge feature and merge them one at a time.

Use Conditions: Owner Role
Using the "Owner Role" in your "Use Conditions" for selecting which objects to check for duplicates will physically convert the Owner Role to the individual user id's.
If you update the members of a Role, you should re-do the "Use Conditions" (clear and re-add) so the correct user id's will be inserted.

Not perfect ... but pretty close to it.

New Matching Types in DemandTools 1.7

2006-07-14T09:35:00.000-04:00

We are always looking for new ways to match up duplicates with out new Single Table Deduper and have recently added Address Match, Relaxed Address Match and Relaxed Phone Match. These types of matches work great on your later dupe stages when you have already found the duplicate objects (Accounts, Contacts, Leads, etc) that have similar names but you now need to find the tough ones where the Account name has changed or is so badly misspelled that you will never match it.

Here is how they work:

Relaxed NA Phone Match

If the phone number is sales force was one of:

+1 (416) 628 1486
416 628 1486
415 628 1486
628 1486

It would be reduced to 6281486 and all of the above numbers would match.

Address Match

If your input address was one of:

123 Main Street North, Unit 23
123 Main St. N – Unit23
123 Main st N Unit 23

The Address Match output would be:

123 Main St N Unit 23 - all of the above addresses would match

For a Relaxed Address Match the output would be 123 Main

As you can see the Address Match will “Normalize” the address into a common form and the Relaxed Address Match will return just the street number and street name ignoring the type (street, ave, blvd) or any other information.

The result of this matching is that you could find some very tough matches where there has been a phone area code change and the address was entered in a non-standard fashion. For example, the following would be a match if you just used Relaxed Address and Phone matching:

Bob’s Custom Boats
123 Main Street North, Unit 234
416 628 1486

Robert Smith and Sons Yachts
123 Main St, Suite 234
(905) 628 1486 x234

Bug Fixes in 7.0 API - Quick Find

2006-07-13T09:52:00.000-04:00

I always forget what SFDC has fixed from the API bug sheet, here is the fixes in the 7.0 release of API

Querying the name field on profile works correctly in the 7.0 API. Prior to 7.0, the names came back as PT1, PT2, etc. (Note: The behavior for API versions 6.0 and lower will not change.)
Previously, queries against Task did not match the results received from reports on Task delivered via the application. These behaviors now match.
SOQL filters (greater than, less than) on negative numbers now work. Previously, a query such as: "Select Id, Name, AccountNumber from Account where ofITStaff__c > -1" would return an error.
Previously, a number of objects allowed the owner to be changed to an inactive user. The API will now return an error when an attempt is made to assign a record to an inactive user.
Assignment rules based on formula fields will now work correctly in all versions of the API.
getUpdated calls for non-admin users will now evaluate the sharing model prior to returning data. This may result in some objects returning less data than before 7.0.
When activating a contract with a user-defined Activation value, the picklist value is remembered correctly. Previously, it would always set the value to the "Activated" picklist value.
SOQL queries that return a formula field with a GETSESSIONID function will return a valid session id.
The BusinessHours object is now described with a label. Previously, there was no label.
AccountShare has a field called AccountAccessLevel. The "Private" option has been removed from this enumeration, as it was never a valid option.
The defaultedOnCreate flag is now set to true on AccountShare.AccountAccessLevel and AccountShare.OpportunityAccessLevel. The behavior does not change, however, the metadata will be described correctly.
The pluralLabel on CaseComments was changed from "Case Comment" to "Case Comments".
The label and pluralLabel on CaseShare.CaseShare are changing from "Opportunity Share Default" to "Case Share".
The label on LeadShare.LeadAccessLevel is changing from "Case Access" to "Lead Access".
Error behavior for deleting a non-existent ID has changed in version 7.0. Attempting to delete a ID will now return INVALID_CROSS_REFERENCE_KEY. The behavior in 6.0 and below has not changed, deleting non-existent IDs will return success.

An Interesting Data Loading Question ..

2006-06-29T07:44:00.000-04:00

What I'm missing on MassEffect\Insert is returning the created IDs directly to a field in the source file, similar to the way this is handled with the sforce connector. This way it would be much easier to handle complex migrations, because you no longer would have to pull the newly created records and map them back to the source table before proceeding with the next object.

What does anybody think about how useful this would be? Would it just be easier to have the data loader be able to load sub-objects via a foreign or imported key? Thougts anyone?

What I learned about Access the other day

2006-06-28T09:20:00.000-04:00

Working with a DemandTools customer the other day I learned that Microsoft Access is limited to only 255 maximum fields in any object. The client I was working with when we exported the case object had columns AA-MF ((13*26)+6) or 344 fields populated when we exported to csv.

Simply too big for access in the horizontal direction .

http://www.databasedev.co.uk/access_specifications.html for more information about Access capabilities.

First posting

2006-06-28T08:02:00.000-04:00

First posting to the CRMfusion blog