Lead2Contact DeDuplication

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Capabilities & Features:

Identification and consolidation of Leads and Contacts that are duplicates of one another
Ability to compare all Leads to all Contacts or only designated subsets of the records (ex: Only Leads in the US compared to only Contacts in the US)
Campaign and Activity preservation upon merger
Lead2Contact uses the Lead Convert API call making the operation identical to the conversion of a Lead from within the Salesforce interface
Communication/Task option to keep team members up to date on data movement
Option to create an Opportunity upon the conversion/merger of the Lead into a Contact

DeDuplication Best Practices & Guidelines:

Run the SingleTableDedupe and clean up the Lead and Contact Tables prior to running the Lead2Contact module

It is important to not have any duplicate Leads or Contacts in Salesforce as they will add to the complexity of the Lead2Contact clean up and increase the number of found matches.

Screen One:

Step 1. Determine the Leads and Contacts to compare

"Use All" radio button will include all Leads in the duplicate finding process

"Use Conditions" radio button allows the user to subset the Leads to only include some in the duplicate finding process

Using conditions can be done for many reasons, however users with large databases will more than likely opt to use conditions to ensure quicker processing and less dupes to sift through at one time
The grid may also take a long time to render if there are in excess of 500 matches found
Conditions do not have to be the same for Leads as they are for Contacts and vise versa; it is all very dependant upon what the user is searching for to merge

Image Using Conditions (subsetting the Leads and Contacts that are used in match finding)

Adding Conditions and Using Expert Mode:

Conditions are used when subsetting which objects will be updated, exported, and/or searched, depending on the module. In most cases the option to use all objects or specify conditions on which object(s) to use will be available.

When "Use Conditions" is selected the conditions area is no longer greyed out and open for criteria specification.

Step 1. Select the Field to Base a Condition On

Fields from the selected table will be listed on the left.

To access fields in a related table select the "+" to the left of the table name. This will display the fields from the related table. Multi-table join is available for Parent tables only, based on foreign key relationships between tables. For example, you can access the Account table from within the Contact table, because the Account ID is physically stored on the Contact Table. You cannot access the Contact table from the Account table.

Step 2. Select the Operator

Available operators will change based on the type of field selected.
"!=" represents "not equal to".
When using dates, operators will include "Today", "Yesterday", etc.".

Step 3. Specify a Value(s)

Text Fields: Type in the value. Multiple values for the same field are to be separated by commas. Commas are translated as "or". For example, "ma,nh,me" will be translated to "ma or nh or me". Note: values entered are not case sensitive.
Picklists: Select the value from the specified list. Multiple values can be selected and will be translated as "or".

Valid picklist values are shown (as defined in Salesforce.com). Right click on a list of picklist values to "Add a Value". This is used to add a value not currently in the picklist and make it available for use in the criteria. The value is added for the purpose of selection and will not be added to the actual picklist in Salesforce.
Right click on a list of picklist values to "Filter List" to subset a long picklist based on a search string to quickly find a value(s).

Dates: The current date will default in the value window. Click the arrow on the right to access a calendar and select a specific date.

To isolate a specific day regardless of time when dealing with a Date/Time field (i.e. created date), specify 2 conditions, greater than the day before and less than the day after. This is not necessary when using an operator such as "Today" or "Yesterday".

Step 4. Add Condition(s)

Select "Add Condition" to add the condition to the list of current conditions.
By default all conditions are and'd together. To create "or" groups see Step 5.
To delete one condition from the list, click the box to the left to highlight the condition and press the delete key on the keyboard.

Step 5. Creating "OR Groups" (this option is not applicable to all modules)

To create "or" groups, check the "Expert Mode" checkbox.

Change the "OR Group" number for specific conditions (click on the number on the right and adjust up or down). All conditions WITHIN a group are and'd and BETWEEN groups are or'd. For example:

Reads as:

(MailingState=ma AND LeadSource=External Referral) OR (MailingState=ny AND LeadSource= Trade Show)

Unchecking the "Expert Mode" checkbox will cause all conditions to be and'd once again.

Screen Two:

Step 1. Mapping Lead to Contact Fields

This is the most important part of the process as it is where the user dictates how Leads will match Contacts.

Depending on the data, several different combinations of field selections and mapping types will need to be tried in order to find the Leads that match existing Contacts.

Note that the complexity of the mapping will determine the number of found matches and the confidence level on the validity of the matches.
The Image below shows a match only using the email address field and the exact mapping type

The image below shows another option of matching using more fields and specific mapping types (see below for mapping type definitions)

If a row/condition needs to be added, click the "Add Mapping Condition" button (on left of the screen)
If a single row/condition needs to be removed, click the box to the left of the criteria and click the "Delete" key on the keyboard

To clear out all mapping click the "Clear Mapping" button (on left of the screen)
Note: To access the Account Name field (or any field on a joined table), click the "+" next to the Account field (or corresponding table) and scroll down to Name [Account Name] (see below image)

Match Categories

All - All Categories
Alpha - Techniques for text
Contact - Techniques specifically for dealing with Contact names
CRM - Techniques for Customer Relationship Management Categories
Geo - Techniques for address information
Internet - Techniques for domain information
Numeric - Techniques for dealing with number based matches

Mapping Types

Type Description:

Found in Category:

The Cleaned Account Name mapping type uses the built in Account Name Cleaning List. To see the Cleaning list tool select the "Edit Account Cleaning List" button.

The cleaning list standardizes punctuation, spaces and removes common business prefixes and suffixes. These lists are customizable for language(s) and/or line of business.

All, CRM

The Country Match mapping type is used to standardize field values for the recognized countries of the world. It will recognize the long name of a country, the 2 digit ISO short form, the 3 digit ISO short form and the numeric ISO country value as possible matches of each other.

All, GEO

The Domain mapping type is used when mapping web pages and/or email addresses. It allows for the independent analysis of the domain information contained within the URL or the email address. For email addresses it uses any information to the right of the @ sign. For web pages it parses the XXXXX.com portion. This mapping types allows for easy comparison of web page field vs. web page field or email field vs. email field. It also allows for the comparison of email addresses to web pages and vice versa.

All, Internet

The Exact mapping type is a 100% match of every character (assuming no options apply (see Fuzzy, Transpose & Alpha Clean))

All, Alpha, Numeric

The First Name mapping type uses the built in Nickname List. To see the Nickname list select the "Edit Nickname List" button at the top of the interface.

The Nickname list will see Bill, William and Billy as potential duplicates/matches of each other. This list is also customizable by the end user for localization or for non contact substitution on any field by replacing the nickname list with synonyms.

All, Contact

The First XX Letters mapping technique is used to compare the first XX letters in a field. When selected a pop up box will appear in order to specify the number of letters on which to match. Applicable to text fields only.

All, Alpha

The Numeric mapping type is used to compare only the numeric values in a field. All other characters, such as spaces or punctuation, will be ignored by the deduper. A field with a value of "Apt # 31" is seen by the deduper as the numeric characters "31", ignoring "Apt #".

All, Numeric

The Relaxed Address Match mapping type parses the street address to the lowest common denominator. Based on North American standards it has also proved effective with most country address formats.

Example:

Apt#4, 123 Pavillion Street
123 Pavillion, Apt 4
4-123 Pavillion Ave NW

Are all seen as "123 Pavillion"

All, CRM

The Relaxed NA Phone Match mapping type removes all non-numeric characters and spaces, leading 0's and 1's, area codes and extensions on the back end, returning the 7 primary digits of the phone number. If just 7 digits are left use those 7 digits, else just return digits 4 - 10. It will not match the "Phone-word" values and will trim off the "SPOT" in the phone number and only look at the numeric portion.

Example:

+1 879 555 1212 ext 500
(879) 555 1212
1.879.555.1212 ext 408

Are all seen as "5551212"

Note: This is based on a 10-digit North American phone number. Although it can be used with international phone numbers (will just return 7 digits in the middle), the Numeric mapping type is the recommeded mapping type to be used with international phone numbers.

All, CRM

The Salesforce.com ID Match mapping type is used to match any Salesforce.com objects 15 digit ID to its 18 digit equivalent ID and vice versa.

All, CRM

The Street Address Match mapping type is a slightly more rigid criteria than the relaxed address match mapping type. The deduper will ignore the differences in street type short forms such as crescent - cres, road - rd, street - st, etc.

All, CRM

The Zip 5 and 9 mapping type will automatically match USPS 5 and 9 digit zip codes without the need to standardize them to a common number of digits.

All, CRM

Additional Mapping Options

Option:	Description:	Applicable Mapping Types:
Fuzzy	Phonetics engine capable of analyzing words for how they sound when pronounced. Through a technique of removing vowels and analyzing the remaining consonants the fuzzy engine works well for matching fields with spelling mistakes.	Cleaned Account Name Exact FirstName
Transpose	The transpositional engine allows for fields to appear as duplicates even when there are differences in their word order. For example, "Jones, Smith and Jackson" will appear to be a duplicate of Jackson, Smith and Jones.	Cleaned Account Name Exact FirstName Street
Alpha-Clean	The alpha cleaner extends some of the capabilities of the account name cleaner to other fields for easier matching. The alpha cleaner is used for ascii (north american) data to ensure that the only characters that are analyzed are the 26 characters of the english alphabet and the numbers 0-9. Any other character that the field may contain will be ignored by the deduplication matching algorithms.	Cleaned Account Name Exact FirstName Numeric Street Zip 5 and 9

Step 2. Selecting Fields to Display

Choose fields to display on the dupe grid by placing a check in the fields checkbox
Lead fields are selected in the left pane and Contact fields are selected in the right pane
Be sure to select fields that will aid in recognizing duplicates that should/could be merged accurately
For comparison purposes, the grid is easier to read if the same fields have been selected for Leads and Contacts
To access joined table fields follow the example above and click on the plus sign next to the table of choice
The more fields that are selected, the longer the duplicate grid will take to process
Fields will be shown in the order they were selected, but can be re-arranged on the dupe-grid
If the user forgets to select a field they will need to go back to Screen 2 to make the selection, this will result in a re-processing of matches

Screen Three:

Step 1. Selecting the Leads to be Converted and Merged into Contacts

The status bar will indicate to the user the Lead and Contact processing advancement

The processing is based on the criteria setup in Screens 1 and 2

The image below represent how the found matches will appear once processingis complete (see more images below for more detailed information and suggestions)

Select the "+" sign next to the Lead to view the found Contact match(es)
To make viewing easier select the "Headers" checkbox on the bottom left of the screen

This will keep the yellow header present on all match groups-making it easier to identify a new match group
Clicking the "Expand/Collapse" button will expand (or click all plus signs) all duplicate groups, clicking it a second time will collapse all of the groups

NOTE: Checking the box in any yellow header will select a Lead and Contact for every group, and unchecking any yellow header checkbox will de-select all Lead and Contact selections
To make a selection for only one group at a time, select the Contact or Lead record in that group

It is beneficial to arrange the Lead fields and Contact fields in the same order on the found matches grid, as it makes the data comparison easier for the user

To re-arrange the fields, drag a field to the desired location and when the red arrow appears drop the field to the new spot by releasing the mouse click

Details of the Lead and Contact can be viewed by clicking on the icon button at the begining of each row, for Lead detail and for Contact detail

All checked Leads will be merged into the matching Contact
If more than one Contact is matched to a Lead, the user will need to select the Contact in which to merge the Lead

When more than one Contact match for a lead is found the default selection of the Contact is controlled by the "Default Contact Selection" area.

When there are 2 or more matching Contacts to a Lead this is an indication that there are duplicate Contacts in the database. The Lead -> Contact Dedupe should be stopped and the Contact Deduplication wizard should be revisited.
The "Update Checked Leads" button will update any contacts (where 2 or more have been found) so that the selected one below the lead matches the condition set by the "Default Contact Selection"

The conversion of the Lead to a Contact is controlled by the "Convert Settings."
Lead Status is the new status of the Converted Lead and for most cases it is set as Qualified. If you are tracking lead conversions for analysis of campaign success you may want to create your own lead status for converted leads found by the tool. You must ensure that this status is valid for "Converted" Leads.

If the "Overwrite Lead Source" is checked the Lead Source in the Contact will be superseded by the Lead Source in the Lead.

You also have the option of creating an Opportunity for each converted Lead with the option of giving a default Opportunity name or using the Lead company name.

By selecting the "Process Merge" button the process starts and the Leads are converted into Contacts in batches of 100.
This process can take some time depending on the total number of Leads that are being Converted.

Screen One:Step 1. Determine the Leads and Contacts to compare

Screen Three:Step 1. Selecting the Leads to be Converted and Merged into Contacts

Screen One:

Step 1. Determine the Leads and Contacts to compare

Screen Three:

Step 1. Selecting the Leads to be Converted and Merged into Contacts