Modules ? Customers ? Reports ? Quality analysis ? Deduplication
A correct and up-to-date customer database is a commodity. The data is used to communicate with your customers, to correctly perform analysis and create statistics, and to make sure your invoices, orders, and quotations are delivered to the right customers. However, because of many reasons, the data can become unreliable. This could be caused by incorrect manual entry, imports, or organizational procedures.
One of the problems encountered is the fact that one physical customer can exist in the database multiple times. This could cause several problems such as your customer receiving the same mailer multiple times to sending invoices to the wrong address because the multiple customer records contain different address data.
The deduplication feature aims to minimize or remove and merge data that are similar or identical. This helps in creating a cleaner and smaller database where doubles are eliminated. The deduplication feature is designed to maintain the database. As such, it is suggested that it is preferably run once every few months, depending on how frequent new data is added.
To define the criteria and conditions to remove and merge similar data, function right 608 — Allows to perform accounts/contact deduplication tasks is required. By default, users with the Administrator role have this function right.
Note:
The information in this document is applicable to product update 260 and higher. If you have versions lower than this, certain features explained here will not be applicable.
Keep in mind: All fields with the "!" icon are mandatory.
Click this to exit.
Click this to clear the defined criteria.
Click this to remove and merge similar data according to the defined criteria.
Upon clicking this, the deduplication process will be queued for execution. This will be managed by a scheduled background job. After the job is executed, whether actual or simulated, a report will be created as a Microsoft Excel file. This will be attached to a task and sent to the creator of the deduplication job. The report will provide information on the success of merging the accounts. If the process was run as a simulation, this report can be used to confirm whether the results of the merged accounts are as expected. Once this is confirmed, you can run the actual process. It is advised that a confirmation is done before running the actual process because the process cannot be undone if there is an error.
Note: This is available only if Advanced >> is clicked.
Select the method for the deduplication process:
Select the method to merge the contacts of the accounts. Selecting Merge will show additional options in the Contact merge conditions section while selecting Add will show fewer options.
Type the maximum number of accounts to be merged within the search criteria. The maximum number of accounts is 999,999,999. Should there be any other accounts that can be merged after the limit specified here, the system will not merge these accounts. For example, if you specify 1,500 here and the search criteria lists 2,000 accounts that can be merged, the remaining accounts after 1,500 will not be merged. The generated report will also list these accounts as not merged. One of the reasons to control this is to limit the amount of time the system will be involved in performing the deduplication process.
Select the comparison method in merging the accounts. Select Entire database to compare the listed accounts with other accounts from the entire database and merge all duplicated accounts found. Select Within selected criteria to compare within the listed accounts and to merge any duplicated accounts found.
Select the required check box to list the account types for deduplication purposes. You may select more than one.
Select the required check box to list the accounts with the selected status for deduplication purposes. You may select more than one.
Select the division group to list accounts linked to that division group.
Type or select a sector to list accounts from that sector.
Select the continent to list accounts from that continent.
Type or select the division ID to list accounts that are linked to that division.
Type or select a subsector to list accounts from that subsector.
Type or select a country to list accounts from that country.
Type or select the cost center to list accounts that are linked to that cost center.
Type or select a classification to list accounts with that classification.
Type or select the post code to list accounts with that post code. This will look for post codes after all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, have been removed.
Type or select a project code to list accounts linked to that project.
Type or select the account manager to list accounts that are linked to that account manager.
Type the city to list accounts with that city.
Select Delivery, Invoice, Postal, or Visit to define the type of address to be used for comparison.
Select this check box to use the country of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to remove all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, before comparing account names when merging accounts.
Select this check box to use the chamber of commerce number of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the city of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to remove all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, before comparing phone numbers when merging accounts.
Select this check box to use the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) number of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the post code of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to remove all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, before comparing fax numbers when merging accounts.
Select this check box to use the first line of the address of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the e-mail of the accounts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the value-added tax number of the accounts for comparison.
Note: This section is displayed only if Add is not selected at the Contacts field.
Select the option to compare the name of the contact before merging accounts. Select First - Middle - Last to compare the first, middle and last name of the contact. Select First - Last to compare the first and last name of the contact. Select Last to compare the last name of the contact.
Select this check box to use the country of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to remove all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, before comparing the initials of the contact when merging accounts.
Select this check box to use the job title of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the city of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the gender of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the job description of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the post code of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to remove all spaces and other characters, except a-z and 0-9, before comparing the contact’s phone numbers when merging accounts.
Select this check box to use the language of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the first line of the address of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.
Select this check box to use the e-mail of the accounts’ contacts for comparison.