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Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

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Posted on by rowdy146 125

Dear all,

since we migrated (no inPlace upgrade) from CRM2013 (onPremise) to CRM2015 (onPremise) we struggle with a lot of duplicated contact records in the system. It was done by backing up the database and import it again to a new Server.

They were created while trying to bring up SSS feature again in the new target environment. This was around middle of September 2015 and therefore I need to say sorry: I can´t really remember all the details why we weren´t able to directly enable the feature again.

We currently have ~80.000 contact records in the system, only ~58.000 are unique. Based on the faulty SSS setup, duplicates sometimes where created more than twice (4x, 5x..).
At least we have ~180 affected users/mailboxes in the field that have SSS in use and still claim about duplicates.

Since we produced this massive overhead I´m pushing the "clean-up" forward on my schedule, not knowing how to get rid of this chaos.

I already investigated on good tools and found out that I need to split my problem at least into min. 2 tasks:

1.) CleanUp CRM

2.) CleanUp Exchange Mailboxes

One nice tool for task 1.) would be "duplicate detection addon" by Cowia which we already tested successfully in a small szenario. It´s a managed solution which is able to merge records based on certain filters.
duplicate-detection.com

Regarding task 2.) a PowerShell Script provided by "Michel de Rooij" could be our best choice: 
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Removing-Duplicate-Items-f706e1cc

I haven´t finally clarified with Michel, if this script is able to fetch the "CrmLinkState" value to kick out orphaned contact records from each mailbox, but since today I am still confident it would do the trick ;-)

But what I am mostly afraid of is: After cleaning up both environments, I can´t exclude SSS feature pushing again data mess to our mailboxes based on any (still) existing sync-tables per each CRM-Mailbox and I am also afraid of the next migration of our CRM database to new servers.

Therefore, at the end, these are my final questions:

1.)Is there any (supported) way to reset all CRM-sync information for each CRM mailbox in the database to start over with clear conditions for all users?

2.)Can anybody provide further information to survice this data advanture?

Any help would be kindly appreciated.

Please let me know if I missed to provide any necessary information.

Best regards,

Oliver

*This post is locked for comments

  • Suggested answer
    Drew Poggemann Profile Picture
    Drew Poggemann 9,079 on at
    RE: Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

    Hi Rowdy,

    I have been thinking about this and trying to identify a good solution and it is not just popping in my brain :)  The situation you have is different then what I have had to do in the past so I can not compare with what I have done.

    My only thought is the following...  

    1.  First, merge the records in CRM to remove the duplicates and make sure you duplicate checks are setup correctly to stop additional duplicates as much as possible.

    2.  Update all the remaining contact records with a specific value in say "Email Address 3" that you know will be the same for every record in CRM.  

    3.  This should sync down to the sales team so they should have this field populated down to their Outlook from CRM.  

    4.  Create a new Outlook view (not sure if this can be done at the administrative level by an Exchange Admin or would be done by each rep) that will show all their contact records in the list view and any records that are showing with the email3 are accurate / tracked in CRM and others are not.  I know it is supposed to tell you what are tracked but that has not been reliable for me in the past.

    5.  Have them export or backup their contact list

    6.  Have them delete any contacts from Outlook that look like duplicates that are not showing the email3 address where there is one that shows the email3 address as those are not tracked.  Before they delete they may want to update the right one with any additional information they know of as the other record would be gone after that point.

    This "should" clean up your contacts and then you can remove the email address 3 value and hopefully you are in good shape.  This will take some assistance from your sales team but it would get the data clean once and for all.

    Not sure this will help Rowdy but I really hope it does!

    Thanks,

  • Drew Poggemann Profile Picture
    Drew Poggemann 9,079 on at
    RE: Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

    Honestly Rowdy, I have not.  I thought through some ideas but did not like any of them.  I will try to see if I can give you some options today.  Sorry for the delay.

    Thanks,

  • rowdy146 Profile Picture
    rowdy146 125 on at
    RE: Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

    Hey Drew,

    is there any conclusion you could pull out of my Information?

    Regards, Oliver

  • rowdy146 Profile Picture
    rowdy146 125 on at
    RE: Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

    Hi Drew,


    thanks for your response, here are my answers to your questions:

    1) We currently have 680 users activated in the system, but only ~185 sales reps in the field use the SSS features for contact sync ( other activites are not playing a role for the sync process)

    2) As I already wrote: We buyed a license for that "duplicate detection addon" by Cowia which has good filtering features to identify the duplicates and can also do bulk merging with 2 different options : merge from newest to oldest record or vice versa
    I did some tests with that and I am confident to have a good tool for the process in CRM

    3) All contacts (~80.000) are still active in the system, the chance to add them to other records is at least given

    4) Yes we definetely want to do that as we have a custom sub entity "Contact Team" which is the base for our Outlook Sync filter ("Sync all active contacts where I am Owner of a related Contact Team") -> This is our current method to share contacts

    Based on the fact that we use the mentioned "Contact Team" to control sync to each Exchange mailbox, it is a prior target to merge duplicates instead of just deactivate/delete them.

    Hope these details will help you, looking forward for any news you come around with ;-)

    BR, Oliver

  • Drew Poggemann Profile Picture
    Drew Poggemann 9,079 on at
    RE: Server Side Sync: Reset CRM Mailboxes to start from scratch - Subtitle: Cleaning up duplicate contacts

    Hi Oliver,

    This does sound like a bit of a mess.  I do have some ideas for you on this and hopefully they are helpful.  I do have some questions for you first if that is ok:

    1.  How many users are setup in CRM and are synchronizing contacts?  

    2.  Are you able to identify the contacts that are duplicated in CRM easily?  

    3.  You mentioned there are 58,000 unique with 22,000 duplicates.  Are these duplicate contacts in CRM inactivated at this point so they are not mistakenly added to activities, etc?

    4.  If they are not inactivated at this point, are you looking to merge them to the primary record before you remove the duplicates?

    I have some ideas, I just want to get this information first so I can verify my thoughts make sense with an approach based on the number of users you may have.

    Thanks!

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