DemandTools Module Help
for FindContactID
 

PURPOSE:

The FindContactID's module of DemandTools is designed to allow you to quickly find salesforce.com ContactID and/or AccountID's from a typical marketing or prospect list of contact names, companies, phone numbers or email addresses etc.that you may have in a spreadsheet or database. FindContactID will compare the list of Contact data that you have in an external spreadsheet or database to the contents of your salesforce.com Contact table. In order to be seen as a match the mappings do not have to be exact because DemandTools provides you with a variety of different mapping techniques that will be described later.

The FindContactID tool is most ofenly used for the following type of purposes:

bullet Determine if a lead list that is to be imported is importing only new Leads (not ones you already have has Contacts).  In this case you will match your import data to your salesforce.com data and if you match a Contact you can be confident that the person already exists in your salesforce.com database
bullet FindContactID's that can be used for an update with the MassEffect tool when you don't already know the ID's.  This is often the case where you have a list of contact names and account names and need to update a specific field for this list of contacts.
bullet Find Id's for creation of Tasks or Opportunities.  If you have a list of names and would like to create a task associated to each name but don't currently have the Contact ID field.  The tool would be used to gather the ID's that would then be read by the MassEffect tool for insert into your salesforce.com database

Shown below is the DemandTools FindContactID's tool for salesforce.com.


FindContactID Interface Screen Shot

STEP 1:

Select the input data file by first selecting the type of file you will be using as the source for the contact and account/company information by setting the type radio buttons.  Then select the "Select File" button and choose your file from the standard windows dialog box.  If you are loading a CSV or XLS file make sure that the file is not already open in Excel or you may experience a file sharing error.

Also supported are the advanced file types of Microsoft Access (MDB) and the ability to utilize a UDL file to act as a connector to larger database systems such as Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server.

For more information on UDL files please see the knowledge base under the support section of www.crmfusion.com.


Selecting the data source file type and location

STEP 2:

Once a data file has been selected you will see the available tables (or worksheets for an XLS file) in the "WorkSheet/Table" window.  You can select the table that you wish to use and the select the "Use" button or simply double-click on the table name.  Once you select a table the fields from that table will appear in the left column of the "Field Mapping" window. 

For XLS data sources it is important that the file not use any filtering as this will cause the file to load incorrectly.

After hitting the use button the number of records or rows in the data source should be displayed in red.


Selecting the worksheet

STEP 3:

You can now select which Contacts in salesforce.com you would like to compare to your external file. For larger databases or for the sake of performance time you may wish to narrow the search range of the contacts the data source is compared to. For example you may want to narrow the results by country for trade show activities etc.

The FindContactID module will allow you to make a custom search range using any record that is available in the Contact table.

STEP 4:

The next step is to map how the external data sources columns map to the Contact record in salesforce.com. This mapping is done in the lower left frame of FindContactID.

By pressing the "Add Conditions" button you can easily see the available columns in your input data source. Simply, select the one you wish to map, and then select the corresponding field in salesforce.com in the next column.

The third column allows you to select the DemandTools proprietary mapping technology that you would like to use for this specific field. Options for mapping techniques include:

  • Exact
  • Fuzzy - Sounds like
  • First Letter
  • Numeric
  • First Name - Uses the DemandTools nickname list

Continue to map as many fields as required to ensure that the external data file is properly mapped to the Contact table in salesforce.com.


Mapping the data file to the Contact table in salesforce.com

STEP 5:

Although optional, in most cases you will also want to create a mapping between your external data source and the Accounts table in salesforce.com. This will add the additional criteria that the contact in the external data source also has to work for the right Account in order to be seen as a match.

Again, press "Add Conditions" and map between the external data source and your salesforce.com Accounts table.

Additional mapping techniques may be useful including:

  • Cleaned name - The account name watered down by removing punctuation and common account name prefixes and suffixes such as "The" and "Ltd" and "Inc"
  • Fuzzy Cleaned Account Name - The cleaned name is also put through the phonetic sounds like engine.

Mapping the data file to the Accounts table in salesforce.com

STEP 6:

The FindContactID module in DemandTools does not actually modify any data in either your salesforce.com database or your external data source.

FindContactID will create a CSV file that contains the original external data source values and the 'found" information.

Select a location for your results file.

Selecting the name and file location for the results file that FindContactID will create

STEP 7:

Select the "FindID's" button in the lower right hand corner of FindContactID to run the application and find the matching salesforce.com ID's as per your comparison mapping. When complete FindContactID will display a dialogue box with the location of your results file:


Completion dialogue box showing location and hyperlink for results file

 

  

STEP 8:

Looking at the created spreadsheet from FindContactID we see the results of the procedure.

Columns A,B,C,D (shown in yellow for demo purposes) in this example are the original values that we in my external data source.

Column E (blue) is the ContactID in saleforce that matched your external data file using the mapping and techniques you specified.

Column F (Lavender) is the corresponding AccountID that that Contact is currently associated with.

Columns G,H,I,J (Gold) are the values from salesforce.com for the fields that matched using your criteria. If there were multiple matches the additional matches would show in columns further to the right.

For the rows that do not have anything in columns E-J (in this example) we know that they did not match with any existing Contact records in salesforce.com


Resulting CSV file being shown in Excel with original values, foundID's and matching salesforce.com records

NEXT STEPS WITH DEMANDTOOLS

Your next step will now be to examine the file that is produced, extract the ID files that you would like and then determine:

bullet What data will be imported using the salesforce.com tools
bullet What data will be updated using the MassEffect tool
bullet If any new objects will be created via the MassEffect tool given the found ID's (Tasks, Opportunities, Events etc)