by Andrew23. September 2013 10:10Well another update has been released – Deduplication! What the heck is that? Put simply: it is a new tool for removing duplicate records in your account. Duplicates crop up over time, especially in large accounts, so from today you now have a new option for dealing with this issue.
As part of the update we have run an initial auto-duplicate check across your entire account. When there is a high enough certainty that a company or contact record is a duplicate we now mark these as potential duplicates.
Finding these is as easy as running an advanced search with the new ‘Has Duplicate’ option.
You can select the two duplicate contacts and choose to merge these straight from the search results.
Or click on the contact to find more information about the duplicates detected.
Performing a Merge
Once you have determined to merge the contacts (two or more) you will be presented with the Merge Contacts page.
This page lets you select which pieces of information you wish to retain and which company to contact should reside in. The discarded contacts will be deactivated (not deleted) and any deals, actions and message history will be moved across to the merged contact.
The merge process can be lengthy and is run as a background task. Also I should note that although the auto detection feature does a pretty good job it is not perfect – so make sure you check out suggested merges before making any changes.
Duplicate Companies
Duplicate companies are also handled in a simular manner. A advanced search can also be performed for duplicate companies and the process is the same as above. Contacts from both companies are pulled into the ‘Winning’ company and the duplicate companies are made inactive.