Settings

Migrate data from ACT! 2005, version 6 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Published Date : April 12, 2008

To migrate from ACT! 2005, version 6 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you need to export your data from ACT! 2005, version 6, prepare your source data for migration, map your data to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and then migrate your data. For an overview of the migration process, see Data migration overview.

There are two approaches you can use to map your data:

Use the sample ACT! 2005, version 6 data map that is shipped with Data Migration Manager. When you start Data Migration Manager, you select the ACT! 2005, version 6 map. You can run Data Migration Manager in Standard mode, which lets you review and change the mappings for each field.
Do your own mapping by using Data Migration Manager.

This article provides information that will be helpful whichever approach you select:

It describes how to export your data and set up your source files to match Microsoft Dynamics CRM record types. You can use the files with the ACT! 2005, version 6 data map or with your own mapping.
It shows you where the default fields in ACT! 2005, version 6 map to in an uncustomized Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This is helpful for understanding how data is mapped in the ACT! 2005, version 6 data map, or provides a starting point for doing your own mapping.

The article also includes detailed steps for using Data Migration Manager to do your own mapping.

Important

The mappings in this article are guidelines only. Because your ACT! 2005, version 6 database and Microsoft Dynamics CRM may be customized, you will need to verify that the mappings make sense for your data.

Preparing the data

Before migration, data must be in comma-separated value format (.CSV) files, and each file must contain data for one record type in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Prepare your data:

Export contact data from ACT! 2005, version 6 to a text file called Contacts.csv. This file can contain comma-delimited or tab-delimited data.
Remove any newline characters from the data in Contacts.csv. If a record contains the newline character, it will not migrate.
Because the exported data includes both accounts and contacts, it maps to both the Account and Contact record types in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Save a copy of Contacts.csv as Accounts.csv.
Edit the Accounts.csv file, and remove records that should be migrated as contacts. These can be identified as records that have duplicate entries in the Company column. The unique information in these records will be retained in the Contacts.csv file, and will be migrated as contacts.
1. Open the file in Microsoft Office Excel 2007.
2. Click the Data tab, and then click Remove Duplicates.
3. Select Unselect All, select My Data has Headers select Company, and then click OK.
Do not modify the Contacts.csv file. All the records in this file will be migrated as Contacts, with the Parent Customer set to the Account with the same Company name.
If you want to map the owners of records to Microsoft Dynamics CRM users other than you, refer to footnote ¹ in the following Review the account and contact mapping table section. If necessary, create a Users.csv file.

Review the account and contact mapping table

Review the data in the following table to see how the columns in the source Accounts.csv and Contacts.csv files map to attributes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Account and contact mapping table

ACT! 6 attribute	Account mapping	Contact mapping

Company	Account Name	Parent Customer
Address 1	Address 1: Street1	Address 1: Street1
Address 2	Address 1: Street2	Address 1: Street2
Address 3	Address 1: Street3	Address 1: Street3
City	Address 1: City	Address 1: City
State	Address 1: State/Province	Address 1: State/Province
ZIP	Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code	Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code
Country	Address 1: Country/Region	Address 1: Country/Region
Phone	Main Phone	Business Phone
Fax	Fax	Fax
Web Site	Web Site	Web Site
Ticker Symbol	Ticker Symbol	Ignore
Public/Private	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore
Record Manager	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Phone Ext.	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Fax Extension	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Home Phone	Ignore	Home Phone
Mobile Phone	Ignore	Mobile Phone
Pager	Ignore	Pager
Salutation	Ignore	Salutation
Last Meeting	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Last Reach	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Last Attempt	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Letter Date	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Title	Ignore	Job Title
Assistant	Ignore	Assistant
Asst. Title	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Asst. Phone	Ignore	Assistant Phone
Asst. Phone Ext.	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Last Results	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Referred By	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
User 1 ... User 15²	Ignore, map to existing attribute, or create custom attribute ²	Ignore, map to existing attribute, or create custom attribute ²
Home Address1	Ignore	Address 2: Street 1
Home Address2	Ignore	Address 2: Street 2
Home City	Ignore	Address 2: City
Home State	Ignore	Address 2: State/Region
Home ZIP	Ignore	Address 2: ZIP/Postal Code
Home Country	Ignore	Address 2: Country/Region
Alt Phone	Ignore	Address 1: Telephone 2
Alt Phone Ext.	Ignore	Alternate Phone Extension
2nd Contact	Ignore	Ignore
2nd Title	Ignore	Ignore
2nd Phone	Address 1: Telephone 2, or ignore	Ignore
2nd Phone Ext.	Ignore	Ignore
3rd Contact	Ignore	Ignore
3rd Title	Ignore	Ignore
3rd Phone	Ignore	Ignore
3rd Phone Ext.	Ignore	Ignore
First Name	Ignore	First Name
Last Name	Ignore	Last Name
Department	Ignore	Department
Spouse	Ignore	Spouse/Partner Name
Record Creator	Ignore	Ignore
Owner¹	Ignore¹	Ignore¹
2nd Last Reach	Ignore	Ignore
3rd Last Reach	Ignore	Ignore
Birth Date	Ignore	Birthday
Create Date	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Edit Date	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
Merge Date	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³
E-mail Login	Ignore	E-mail
E-mail System	Ignore	Ignore, or create a custom attribute ³

¹ The mappings shown in the table will result in all records being owned by the user who migrates the data. If your goal is to have more than one owner or someone else as the record owner, you can use one of the following approaches:

After migrating the records using the mapping described in this article, use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to bulk-assign the records to specific users. For an example of using Advanced Find to find and bulk-assign records, see Don't lose customers when a salesperson leaves your organization.
Instead of ignoring the Owner column during mapping, map the Owner column for accounts and contacts to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Owner attribute. You will also need to create and migrate a Users.csv file that includes a record for each user used in the source data.

You will be prompted by Data Migration Manager to match each Owner value with a Microsoft Dynamics CRM user, and will be given the option to create a new user, if needed. For more information on migrating ownership data, see the topic "How Ownership Data is Migrated" in the Data Migration Manager Help file.

² For user defined fields, you have a choice on how to map the data. Select the option that makes sense given the information contained in your source data file. If you need to create custom attributes, see the topic "Custom Attributes" in the Data Migration Manager Help file.

³ For fields that exist in ACT! 2005, version 6, but do not exist by default in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can either ignore the data or create a custom attribute. Review the data in your source file to see if you have useful data in this field that needs to be preserved.

Migrating the data

On the Start menu, click All Programs, click Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and then click Microsoft Dynamics CRM Data Migration Manager.
Click Start a migration.
Select the Start a new migration option, and then on the Get Started page, click Next.
Click Start a Migration.
On the Specify Migration Name page, specify the migration name, enter ACT6 as the source system, and then click Next.
On the Select Files page, click Add, select the .csv files you created: Accounts.csv, Contacts.csv, and optional Users.csv, click Open, and then click Next.
Specify the delimiters:
1. Select the delimiter used in the source files, and the character that is used to enclose fields that contain the delimiter.
2. Select the First row of each file contains column headings checkbox.
3. Preview each file to make sure it displays correctly, including using the horizontal scroll to check all columns.
4. Click Next.
  
  Note
  
  If errors are found while validating files, such as finding newline characters, a separate error page will be displayed. Troubleshoot any errors.
On the File Mapping page, click Next.
On the Map File page, for the Contacts.csv file, select Map this file to an existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM entity, select Contact, and then click Next.
On the Map File page, for the Accounts.csv file, select Map this file to an existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM entity, select Account, and then click Next.
On the Map File page, if you have a Users.csv file, select Map this file to an existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM entity, select User, and then click Next.
On the File Summary page, click Next.
On the Column Mapping Results page, click Next.
For each column in the Accounts.csv and Contacts.csv files, on the Map Column page, select the needed option based on the mapping shown in the Account and Contact mapping table, and then click Next.
The Column Summary page appears. Click Next.
The User Summary page appears. Unless you created a Users.csv file and mapped ownership of the records, all records will be assigned to the current user. Click Next.
The Review Summaries page appears. Click Next.
The Start Migrating Data page appears. Click Migrate Data.
The Converting Data page appears,converting your data to the required format, and uploading it to your server. If no errors are found, the wizard will continue to the Migration Completed page.
- If no errors are found, click Next.
- If errors are found, the first 50 are displayed. To view additional errors and error details, click Export Errors.
Click Finish.

Your ACT! 2005, version 6 data is now migrated. If you need to do another migration from ACT! 2005, version 6, you can reuse these mappings by selecting the migration name you specified in step 5 when you start your new migration.

Migrate data from ACT! 2005, version 6 to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Preparing the data

Review the account and contact mapping table

Migrating the data

Related Links