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WINSALES Support Document - sup234

Version: 5.0
Revised: 10/23/03

Combining Duplicate Contacts And Their Activity History With the Consolidation Utility

The Consolidation Utility was created to combine one or more duplicate contact records with an existing contact record. The utility will take the duplicate record(s) and combine all contact values and activity history into the contact master record. The utility will also record any conflicts in a WINSALES activity created as a historical record of each contact consolidation.

Implementation: To implement the consolidation program you must create a NUMERIC field on your CONTACT window using the ADMINISTRATOR that will store the MASTER RECORD ID (you can call this field whatever you want, it will be selected in the consolidation process). If you do not have a ID type field on the contact window that displays a contact’s unique CONTACT ID (CustID) in WINSALES you will need to use the WINSALES ADMINSTRATOR to create a new simple field that is data type of ID. Position the CONTACT ID and MASTER RECORD ID fields next to each other in the order of WINSALES fields as this will make flagging contacts as duplicates easier for your users. Enable the new fields for the appropriate SECURITY GROUPS using FIELD SECURITY. Finally you need to enable the appropriate SECURITY GROUPS to have the ability to run the Consolidation Utility. In the ADMINISTRATOR go to EDIT + SECURITY GROUPS and select a group whose users you want to be able to use the utility. Move the REPORT DATABASE UTILITY to the enabled list for the group. If the Report Database Utility is not enabled for the security group the user will receive messages that they are not authorized to run this program.

Setting Up A Consolidation: To set up a contact consolidation a user in WINSALES will enter the CONTACT ID for the MASTER RECORD into the duplicate contact record’s MASTER RECORD ID field. Usually this is done by positioning the CONTACT ID and MASTER RECORD ID fields next to each other in the Contact window field elements list. Then find the duplicate record and enter the contact’s master record ID value. The most efficient way users will accomplish this is by creating a query of contacts sorted by NAME and ADDRESS that can be reviewed in the query grid results. When a duplicate is found select the master record ID field value in the grid and copy (control + c) the value, then double click to drill to the duplicate contact’s MASTER RECORD ID and paste (control + v) the ID value of the master contact record into the field and SAVE. This will cause those two contacts to be consolidated. WARNING : Non-numeric (ID) values in the MASTER RECORD ID field will cause the program to generate the error: « Syntax error converting the nvarchar value 'VALUE' to a column of data type int. » in the WSCONSOLIDATE.LOG. Search by the « VALUE » listed in the error and find the contact to change or delete the value, and rerun the program.

Running The Program: When you run the WSCONSOLIDATE.EXE program you will log into the database as you normally would. Before running the utility you will select the field that stores the master contact record ID and the activity type you want to create linked to that master record for each consolidated contact.


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You can select to do a Test Run and review the LOG file (WS_Consolidate.log) created in the local program directory (usually C:\Program Files\WinSales) to see what contacts and activities will be consolidated before going back to the utility and running the consolidation with NO test run.

What Happens When A Contact Is Consolidated? When a contact is consolidated the utility compares each field on the duplicate record with the field values for the master record. If the master record has a value for a field, that value is kept and the duplicate contact’s value is entered in the notes of the activity created for this contact’s consolidation. If the master record has no value, the duplicate’s value is updated on the master contact record, and the time stamp is updated for that value so synchronization will distribute the changes to remote databases. Users working with remote synchronization do not need to recreate remote sites after running WSCONSOLIDATE.

Multiple Responses: If there are values in a multiple response field for the duplicate record they will be compared with the responses for the master record and any response that are not stored with the master record will be updated. Responses that are already linked to the master record will be ignored. With a multiple response field you will have on the master record all the multiple responses for both contacts with no duplicates.

Notes: Any notes linked to the duplicate contact record will be added to the MASTER contact record’s contact note.

Activities: All activities will be consolidated under the master record. If the master record and duplicate are both on the same ACTION PLAN the master record will stay and the duplicate’s activity associated with the Action Plan will be changed to status of cancvelled and the notes will be updated to say it was cancelled on DATE and TIME by USER in a consolidation so users will know why the activity was cancelled. Any ACTION PLANS for the duplicate contact that are cancelled will be recorded in the activity note linked to the contact consolidation.

Conflicts: For each consolidated contact a WINSALES activity will be created. You can create a NEW activity type to record consolidations (suggested), or record as TO DO, or whatever type you select. The activity will be linked to the master contact record with the date and time of consolidation and the sales rep linked to the sales rep logged into the Consolidation Utility. You can either record all the conflicts in the activity NOTES, or you can create fields for each field on the contact you wish to track the conflict with. The utility will update the field with the value if it exists, or if there is not field on the activity for the conflict the utility will record the field and value in the notes of the activity that is created. Most users will choose to just record the conflicts in the notes to have a history. If you need to search for these values those you may want to create those fields on activity for just the fields you need to search by as you can not search on the NOTES in WINSALES.


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Contact Silent Partner for more information.

 

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