Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is structured differently than Microsoft Office Outlook, there are additional planning and preparation steps required before you can import Outlook contacts that contain data in the Categories field.
- There is no one field in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online that matches the Outlook Categories field. So you'll need to decide where to map the data.
- Outlook can store multiple values in the Categories field, while most fields you might map the data to in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online allow only one value. You'll need to split the Categories column into separate columns with one value in each column.
This article identifies the questions you need to ask yourself about your data, and provides several alternatives for how to import the data.
Note
Some of these options will require help from your system administrator or system customizer because they require permissions typically available only to users with the System Administrator or System Customizer security role.
Map your Outlook category data
Take a look at your Outlook data to see how you have categorized your contacts. The easiest way to do this is in Outlook:
- In the Navigation Pane for Contacts, select the By Categories view.
- On the View menu, point to Expand/Collapse Groups, and then click Collapse All Groups.
This will show you all the category values you need to map to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does my Outlook contact data map to more than one Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online record type? For example, do I have some contacts that I categorize as accounts, while others are leads?
If yes, see "Split exported data by record type based on category values" later in this article.
- Do I store multiple values in the Categories field? For example, each of the following might be the values in the Categories field for one record:
- Account, Premiere Customer, Restaurant
- Lead, Hot
If yes, see "Separate multiple values in the Categories column" later in this article.
- Does my company's implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online have a field or a field value for each of my Outlook categories? For example, if I have categories "Priority 1" and "Priority 2", is there a field in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online that has these exact values?
There are several Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online default fields that might map to your Outlook categories:
- The Job Title or Role fields in the Contact record type.
- The Relationship Type, Category, or Industry fields in the Account record type.
- The Job Title, Rating, Industry, or Lead Source fields in the Lead record type.
Your organization may have already customized Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and added other fields or field values that you can use. To see what other fields might be available, open Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, and look at the forms for entering new contact, lead, and account records.
If there are no existing fields that map to each of your category values, you can customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online so it matches your Outlook data. See "Customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online" later in this article.
Make yourself a spreadsheet using the following columns to organize how you want to map each category value:
Outlook Category Value
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CRM Record Type
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CRM Field Name
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CRM Field Value
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Split exported data by record type based on category values
If your exported data from Outlook has records that belong in more than one Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online record type, you'll need to split the exported data file into separate files, one for each record type.
- Put all the records that will become accounts into an Accounts.csv file.
- Put all the records that will become contacts into a Contacts.csv file.
- Put all the records that will become leads into a Leads.csv file.
The easiest way to do this is to:
- Make three copies of the .csv file you exported from Outlook. Rename the files to be Accounts.csv, Contacts.csv, and Leads.csv.
- Open each file in Excel, sort the data by the Categories column, and delete any that won't be imported to that record type.
- Import each file separately.
Separate multiple values in the Categories column
If you have multiple values in the Categories column, you must create new columns, and then divide the data so there is only one value in each column. Each column represents one field in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online where you will put the data.
For example, you might have two categories in one record that map to Job Title and Role in Contacts. Here are the steps you'd need to take:
- Open the exported .csv file in Excel.
- Make two copies of the Categories column, changing the heading for one column to Job Title, and the other to Role.
- Clean up the data in each column so that it has one value for each record.
Original Contacts.csv file
Name
|
Category
|
More columns ...
|
James Doe
|
Purchaser, Supplier
|
...
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Susan Doe
|
Accounts Payable, Customer
|
...
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New Contacts.csv file with a column for each Category value
Name
|
Job Title
|
Role
|
More columns ...
|
James Doe
|
Purchaser
|
Supplier
|
...
|
Susan Doe
|
Accounts Payable
|
Customer
|
...
|
Customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
Note
Customizations typically reflect how all users in your organization want to organize their data, so designing changes requires following whatever processes are set up in your organization. Actually making the customizations requires permissions typically found only in the System Administrator and System Customer security roles.
There are several options you might want to explore:
- Modify an existing drop-down list (picklist), or create a new one.
- Often, all that is needed is for new values to be added to an existing drop-down list. For example, the Industry field might need another industry added. This is an easy task that takes just a few minutes to do.
- A new drop-down list (picklist) might be required. This task is a little more complicated, because the new field does not automatically show up on reports.
For more information, see Configure drop-down (picklist) fields.
- Create new single option (bit) fields for each category.
For example, if you stored data on five categories in your Outlook data, you might want to have five fields that have Yes/No or True/False values. This makes it easy to search and report on records within each category. For more information, see Entity customizations.
- Create a new lookup.
If your list of categories is a continually growing one, consider using a custom entity for the category values, and creating a lookup. Using a lookup means that specific users can be assigned the task of adding categories, without having to ask the system customizer each time a new category is needed. For more information, see Add a lookup field to connect two types of records.
This is a more complex task. If you decide to use this approach, after the lookup is set up in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, you will need to separate your exported Outlook file into two files, with the category information in a separate file. For more information about separating the exported Outlook file into two files and importing related data, see Importing Outlook contact data that includes notes.
After Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is customized, you can map your Outlook Categories data and proceed with organizing your exported data for import.
Related Links
Import your Outlook contacts into Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
Articles about importing records
