http://oraclearchworld.wordpress.

com/ Eliminating Duplicate Companies and Contacts in CRM System

By 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. 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 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

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 the existing 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

to

the

entire

CRM & view

process. Contact of the

Following are some examples: Incorrect Incorrect Company

Company 360Degree or Contact

information viewed by the Sales users

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.

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:

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. This understanding 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 shown below: Company Name Metlife Metlife, Inc. Metlife METLIFE 300 Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, NY 300 Motor Pkwy, Hauppauge, NY Motor Parkway, NY Motor Pkwy, NY USA USA USA USA Address Country

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 of data 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

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.

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

Duplicate Definition Template Many Templates can be defined

Used

Identifying Duplicate Data in Existing System

File with matching information

Used

Scenario 3
Adding Data Global Settings

PeopleSoft CRM System

Scenario 2

Used

Identifying Duplicate Data with external Data

External File with Company /Contact Data

File with matching information

Data Mapping

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.

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 Name Literal Definition Setup Duplicate Definition Template Component (Template Definition) Component Type Component Description This Component is used to define the literals to be eliminated while running the Duplicate check. This component is defined for various fields defined in Duplicate Definition template This Component is used to define the Duplicate definition. Various Definitions can be defined (created) using this Component and used in runtime for various Duplicate check comparisons. This Component is used to define the various default values to be used in executing the duplicate checks. This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate companies between the external list and Database This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate Contacts between the external list and Database This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate Companies within PeopleSoft CRM Database This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate Contacts within PeopleSoft CRM Database This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate Contacts within PeopleSoft CRM Database. The relationship with Company will be taken into consideration while identifying the Duplicate data. This Component along with various processes will be used for identifying the duplicate Contacts between the external list and Database. The relationship with Company will be taken into consideration while identifying the Duplicate data. This plug-in will help highlight the Duplicate Company/ Contact during Company/Contact Addition

Setup

Duplicate Checker Global Definition Setup Duplicate Checker for External Company list Dup Check Duplicate Checker for External Contact list Duplicate Checker for Existing Company Duplicate Checker for Existing Contact Duplicate Checker for Existing Contact with Company Information Duplicate Checker for External Contact with Company Information Duplicate Checker for Company/Contact Addition in the System Find in Map Dup Check Dup Check Dup Check Dup Check

Dup Check

Dup Check

Dup This is a Feature added to Person Page which helps the user Elimination to correct the data by performing a lookup in Google Maps from the Application

Setup Component Relationship Diagram

Setup Component Screen shots: Literal Definition

List of literals used in Template definition that will be ignored before comparison.

Customer Duplicate Definition Screen Shot

Parameters that define the duplicate criteria. Tool will check for these parameters during comparison

List of literals that will be ignored for Company name field

List of literals that will be ignored in Address fields.

Contact Duplicate Definition Screen Shot

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

Hyperlink and Button to open the contact location in Map

With Correct Address of the Contact

Contact with UK Address

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 will indicate Company names already existing in the database that are similar to the one being added

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

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 costeffective solution that are flexible to suit the customer needs. Bibliography/References: 1. PeopleTools 8.48 People Books from Oracle | PeopleSoft Enterprise 2. 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