Eliminating Duplicate Companies and Contacts in CRM System

7/29/2019 Eliminating Duplicate Companies and Contacts in CRM System

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Eliminating Duplicate Companies and Contacts in CRM SystemBy Kathiravan Udayakumar, Senior Architect - Technology

Introduction:

Data integrity plays a pivotal role in the

day-to-day operations of an organization. In

a CRM system, Company and Contact data

is the key information that determines the

success of the system. The objective of

this Paper is to elaborate on a tool

developed in-house, that ensures clean and

duplicate free Company and Contact data

in a PeopleSoft CRM System.

Business impact of Duplicate Company /Contact Data:

Company or Contact Data are the key

source of information for any CRM system.

Creating or maintaining duplicates of such

data might result in critical errors in

business transactions and cause significant

damage to the entire CRM process.

Following are some examples:

Incorrect Company & Contact

information viewed by the Sales users

Incorrect 360Degree view of the

Company or Contact information

presented to executive management

Incorrect Pipeline Revenue

Incorrect Shipment of a Product

Other Associated objects such as Lead,Opportunity, Case, Order, Agreements,

Quotes created around a Company

/Contact, might be duplicated.

Key drivers for building the Package:

1. Customers with PeopleSoft CRM

implementations would have imported the

source data (i.e. Company and Contact)

from one or more legacy systems. During

that process, the migrated customer /

contact information might have contained a

significant percentage of duplicate data. To

facilitate the migration by providing a

duplicate free CRM database for these

customers, a cleansing utility was provided

with this package. This utility is used by

them for identifying duplicate companies

and contact information in existing

database.

2. MS Excel is the most preferred way of

sending contact lists for bulk imports of

contacts. These are provided by

representatives from various departments

such as Sales, Marketing, Field Service or

external third party vendors who sell lead

lists. To avoid duplicates during such data

import operation, a Duplicate check utility

was provided to identify and highlight the

potential duplicate data that is being

imported. The user has been provided with

an option to either proceed with the data

creation/updating process or use theexisting information.

3. Duplicate contact / company data may

be added via online application (i.e. via

an application user interface). This

duplication can be avoided by using a


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pluggable Java Component to warn the user

about the existing contact / company data

that is a potential match to the customer

or contact data that is being created.

Scope:

To build a tools package that has various

utilities to ensure Company or Contact

related information in PeopleSoft CRM

System is free from duplication.

This package contains utilities to identify

and eliminate duplicate data in the

PeopleSoft CRM system under the following

scenarios:

Duplicate removal process - Cleansing

the duplicate data already existing in

the system.

Duplicate free bulk import process

Checking for and avoiding duplicate

data addition during bulk import

process.

Duplicate prevention process

Checking for and avoiding duplicate

data during addition/modification ofdata by user in online application.

The criteria to validate duplication can be

defined by users and will be taken as input

for this tools package. The package is

designed to support both stable version of

PeopleSoft, PeopleSoft CRM 8.8 and 8.9

Understanding Duplicate Company /

Contact data:

In order to identify duplicate data, It is

essential that one understands the nature

of data and the various forms in which it

will occur. Thisunderstanding dramatically

reduces the percentage of duplicate data.

There are two types of duplicates that

occur in the system, one which is an exact

match and the other a partial match. It is

very easy to identify the exact matches but

identifying the partial likely ones is

difficult and requires further explanation.

Samples of likely duplicate data are shownbelow:

Company

Name

Address Country

Metlife 300 MotorParkway,Hauppauge, NY

USA

Metlife,

Inc.

300 Motor Pkwy,Hauppauge, NY

USA

Metlife Motor Parkway,

NY

USA

METLIFE Motor Pkwy, NY USA

To identify these duplicates, the tool

provides an option of defining the multiple

likely forms in which the duplicate data

might occur. One can also define the

literals i.e. terms that are to be ignored

for comparison. For e.g. CORP, CRPT are

literals for Corporation. This option makes

the tool flexible as well as efficient in

accurately capturing and eliminating

duplicate data.


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Architecture:

Duplicate definition is the heart of the architecture that helps identify duplicates within the

PeopleSoft CRM system. It is a configuration definition for Duplicate data wherein users can

add different Templates and choose the template for running the Duplicate Check.

Scenario 1 - Existing Data:

Existing Companies and Contact data is processed using the duplicate definition template and

comparison is done to complete the duplicate check. Processing involves removing the literals

that are to be ignored for comparison and a compare report is generated using the dynamically

built Query from Duplicate Definition.

Scenario 2 - External list:

For External list of companies and contacts, the data is imported into a staging table and

comparison is done using the already processed existing data. Processing involves removing the

literals from Staging table and existing data. A Compare report as mentioned earlier is

generated using the dynamically built Query.

Used

PeopleSoft CRM

System

DuplicateDefinitionTemplate

Identifying DuplicateData in Existing System

Identifying DuplicateData with externalData

Used

Many Templatescan be defined

External Filewith Company

/Contact DataT

Data Mapping

File withmatching

information

File withmatching

information

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

Used

Adding

Data

Global

Settings

Scenario 3


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Scenario 3 - Adding Data:

Data added using the application is passed to a Java Object and comparison is done using the

Duplicate Definition Template specified in Global Settings of the Package. A message is

returned to PeopleSoft from Java on the likely match and users are notified if there are any

matches.

Data Cleanup and Maintenance:

Some of the data in the Application might be inaccurate due to user typo error and external list

miss match. An integration with Google Maps, enables one to lookup the accurate Address

information on the internet and correct errors if required.

Package Design:

Component NameComponent

TypeComponent Description

Literal DefinitionSetup

This Component is used to define the literals to beeliminated while running the Duplicate check. This

component is defined for various fields defined in DuplicateDefinition template

Duplicate DefinitionTemplate Component(Template Definition)

SetupThis Component is used to define the Duplicate definition.Various Definitions can be defined (created) using thisComponent and used in runtime for various Duplicate checkcomparisons.

Duplicate Checker GlobalDefinition Setup

This Component is used to define the various default valuesto be used in executing the duplicate checks.

Duplicate Checker forExternal Company list Dup Check

This Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate companies between the externallist and Database

Duplicate Checker forExternal Contact list Dup Check

This Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate Contacts between the external list

and DatabaseDuplicate Checker forExisting Company Dup Check

This Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate Companies within PeopleSoft CRMDatabase

Duplicate Checker forExisting Contact Dup Check

This Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate Contacts within PeopleSoft CRMDatabase

Duplicate Checker forExisting Contact withCompany Information

Dup CheckThis Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate Contacts within PeopleSoft CRMDatabase. The relationship with Company will be taken intoconsideration while identifying the Duplicate data.

Duplicate Checker forExternal Contact with

Company Information

Dup CheckThis Component along with various processes will be used foridentifying the duplicate Contacts between the external list

and Database. The relationship with Company will be takeninto consideration while identifying the Duplicate data.

Duplicate Checker forCompany/ContactAddition in the System

Dup CheckThis plug-in will help highlight the Duplicate Company/Contact during Company/Contact Addition

Find in Map DupElimination

This is a Feature added to Person Page which helps the userto correct the data by performing a lookup in Google Mapsfrom the Application


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Setup Component Relationship Diagram

Setup Component Screen shots:

Literal Definition

List of literals used inTemplate definition thatwill be ignored beforecomparison.


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Customer Duplicate Definition Screen Shot

List of literals that will beignored for Company

name field

List of literals that will beignored in Addressfields.

Parameters that definethe duplicate criteria.Tool will check for theseparameters duringcom arison


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Contact Duplicate Definition Screen Shot


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Hyperlink and Button to open

the contact location in Map

Data Clean up Tools: Google Map IntegrationOpening a Person (Contact) Address in Google Map for PeopleSoft CRM System


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Contact with UK Address

With Correct

Address of the

Contact


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Eliminating Duplicates when adding a Company into the System:

When a user is adding data in the system, the Tool highlights the likely names of the companies

existing in the database. This is listed to the user when a button is clicked.

Clicking this button willindicate Company namesalready existing in thedatabase that are similar tothe one being added


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Tool Output:

Following screenshots indicate the output of the tool in brief:

Resultant Output based on Company Name, Country, Address, City and State as Duplicate

Check Flags.

By SQL or Direct String Comparison, 185 Asylum Street and 185 Asylum st. are not

indicated as the same though they actually are the same address. This tool has the ability to

identify such major differences. Even Hart ford and Hartford , Newyork and NewYork

are identified to be same. This list of comparisons is not exhaustive and has several options.

This Tool is designed to be flexible enough to handle most of human errors during data entry.

This tool not only compares the data based on the duplicate definition chosen but also makes

an intelligent decision base on the Master template definition. This is one of the major

advantages of the tool.

Business Benefits:

Seamless business processes and customer transactions by maintaining duplicate free

Company and Contact data in PeopleSoft CRM System

Eliminates the need for implementing costlier tools like First Logic for identifying the

Duplicate Company/Contact data.

Effective and flexible design of the Package helps the business to define the duplication

criteria.

Reduction in cost by elimination of the Manual effort associated with identifying the

duplicate data


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Recommendations:

1. Ability for the user to upload the company or contact external File in the Duplicate check

Tool.

2. Ability to process the Data using Alternate names; a Component is designed for storing the

alternate name. Tool needs to be enhanced based on it.

3. Performance testing to be conducted for bulk amount data.

Conclusion:

Data integrity or a lack of it significantly affects business processes and transactions.

Therefore, the duplicate check tool developed is a comprehensive, high quality yet cost-

effective solution that are flexible to suit the customer needs.

Bibliography/References:

1. PeopleTools 8.48 People Books from Oracle | PeopleSoft Enterprise2. PeopleSoft CRM 8.9 BORM PeopleBooks from Oracle | PeopleSoft Enterprise

3. PeopleSoft CRM 8.8, 8.9, 9.0 Customer Data Model ERDs

4. PeopleSoft CRM 8.8, 8.9, 9.0 BORM ERDs

5. Websites: www.peoplesoft.com ; www.wikipedia.org
http://www.peoplesoft.com/http://www.wikipedia.com/http://www.wikipedia.com/http://www.peoplesoft.com/

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Eliminating Duplicate Companies and Contacts in CRM System