Transcript of Video
You probably have data that you want to work with in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Things like contacts in Outlook, spreadsheets you’ve made, or lead lists you got from a tradeshow.
Rather than re-keying all that information, the Import Wizard helps you move your data into CRM. In fact, you can probably move it into CRM without an IT person’s help.
If your data is from a common source, such as Outlook, CRM will figure out the details for you.
The Import Wizard will automatically match the fields from the contact form in Outlook to the fields in CRM.
For other sources, before you run the Import Wizard, you need to save your data in a format that is supported by the Import Wizard, such as, CSV, .txt, or XML file, or a zip file that contains multiple files of the same file type.
In a CSV file, each row becomes text separated by commas.
Before importing your data, review your spreadsheet to make sure that all your columns have headings and there aren't any extra headings; there isn’t any data in the wrong columns; and empty cells are really empty and not missing data.
Every column heading in the data you are moving must correspond to a field in a CRM record. If some columns don't, you can map these columns to CRM fields during the import.
A record is a collection of information about a specific item; in this case, a contact.
With some planning, you can even link new records to an existing record as related records.
For example, link new contacts to one account.
Now, try running the Import Wizard with a small amount of data, maybe a dozen or so rows.
After the test, you may need to do more data cleanup or change your mapping file, and then try again until you get the right results.
When you get the results you want, run the Import Wizard on the rest of your data. The wizard runs while you are doing other work in CRM.
Don't worry about making sure every record is unique right now. CRM can help clean up duplicates later, when you have time.
Now that you’ve succeeded in importing your data and getting the results you want, save the map settings that you defined during the import to use again later on similar data.
And even share them with other people in your organization.
If your data has a large number of fields, or records that relate to each other, or has fields with different names than the forms in CRM, you may need to create a custom mapping file.
The import process can be as simple or complex as you need.
By moving your data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM quickly and accurately, you can spend less time entering data about your customers and more time building relationships with them.
