New version of Duplicate Detection Addon has been released, version number is 2017.01.
Background service has been added, it is now possible to run bulk detection and bulk merge jobs in background and foreground, the choice is yours.
Blog
‘Background’ service coming soon
We have developed duplicate detection addon with lot of features that default duplicate tool don’t have, but we have always missed one feature, that is to run bulk detection and bulk-merge in the background/inside CRM.
Those who haven’t tried the addon by now, to run bulk detection or bulk-merge, you need to have your browser open while it is running.
This was not what we wanted to develop in the beginning but we couldn’t develop bulk detection and bulk-merg to run “inside” the CRM because of limitations of Dynamics CRM and we have tried every workaround that you can think of.
We spend some time thinking about an external service that can run bulk detection and bulk merge, one of the questions was if we should develop it to run online/Azure or tool/service that customer can host where they want.
We have customers that are running their CRM on-premise with no internet access, on-premise with internet access and Online/365 customers.
Some customers have data policy where external access is not an option.
Because of this mix of customers, we have decided that best solution will be to develop windows service that you can install on any server, this service will connect to your CRM and check if there are any bulk detection or bulk merge jobs to run.
There will be new options when creating bulk detection and bulk merge in CRM, you will be able to schedule it and service will take care of the rest.
Release of the background service is planned in January and I will write more details when we are closer to release.
Over 40 Features in Data Quality App With Latest Release 1.16
I’m glad to announce that version 1.16 has been released and Duplicate Detection Addon has now over 40 features and we will not stop here.
Many features that has been added have been requested by customers, if you have an idea for new feature, we would like to hear from you.
New features:
Bulk Detection – Data Target Filtering
This feature can be used to filter records which you want to check duplicate against.
Using this feature with Source Data Filtering, you have many options how you want to detect duplicates.
Bulk Merge – Merge Options
There are more options now to select master record
You can select master record by using created date or modified date and select if it’s the newest record or oldest that is master record.
Second option is to select master record based on how many activities the record has.
You can select if the master record should be the one with most activities or one with least.
Third option is where you can select master record based on how many fields on the record has data, you can select master record with the most filled fields or least.
Read This Before Enabling New Grid Feature in Dynamics 365
Hello,
I had some time today to check out new features in Dynamics 365 version 8.2 and one of the features that I was excited to try out, is the new grid function, where you can edit data directly from the view.
Because Cowia Solutions has Duplicate Detection Addon for Dynamics CRM, I wanted to test how grid editing is working with default duplicate detection and the addon.
In my testing, I have found several issues and that is why I’m writing this blog to let you know until Microsoft fixes these issues.
Issue 1: When activating or deactivating grid feature for an entity, it will deactivate duplicate rules for that entity.
(It will not deactivate duplicate rules for the Duplicate Detection Addon)
Before enabling:
After enabling grid feature:
Issue 2:
After re-enabling default duplicate rules and if you edit directly in the grid, it will not prompt with duplicate warning if there are duplicates, for example, you have account named ‘Cowia’ and another ‘Cowiaa’, if you edit ‘Cowiaa’ to ‘Cowia’, it will not warn you for duplicate.
This is also the case for the Duplicate Detection Addon, but if you have set the duplicate rule to not allow duplicates, it will not allow the user to save and create a duplicate.
Issue 3:
When creating new record for an entity that has grid enabled, the default duplicate warning will show up but it will not show the duplicate records:
Here is example:
Duplicate warning of Duplicate Detection Addon works fine:
If you want to give Duplicate Detection Addon a try, here is link to AppSource: Click here
Two New Features & Updated Interface
We have added two new features for Duplicate Detection Addon for Dynamics CRM.
First new feature is ‘Ignore Words’
Using this feature, you can now ignore words or letters for your duplicate rules.
For example, ignore words like Inc, Ltd, A/S, ApS, LLC
If you have record named ‘Cowia Solutions’ and other named ‘Cowia Solutions ApS’, it will detect them as duplicates.
Second new feature is for lookup fields, ‘Compare Lookups As Text’
You can now select if it should match on the GUID value of the lookup or the text value of the lookup.
Updated Interface
Interface colors and style has been updated to match the default colors and style of CRM 2016.
Many new features are planned for upcoming versions.
Merging Quotes
Quick Post About Merging Quotes
Quote entity in Dynamics CRM is different then other entities, it is different how the status works and because of that you can’t bulk merge on all types of status.
When quote is in draft, this is the only status where the quote is still opened for editing, when status is active, the quote is read-only and can only be edited if you revise it, then it will change status back to draft.
Unlike other entities where status = active means that the record can be edited, it is different for quotes.
What it means for merging quotes, is that you can only bulk merge on quotes that are in status ‘Draft’ because the duplicate detection can’t revise the quote, merge it and then activate it again.
If you need to bulk merge active quotes, you will need to manually revise them before running bulk merge.
Try the addon in unlimited time
We have changed the trial policy, before you had 14 days to try the addon
Now you can try the addon unlimited time and no license required.
You can download from here: Free Trial
These are limits until valid license is purchased:
- Bulk merge limit up to 10 records per. bulk detection
- One duplicate detection rule
For questions or help with setup, write to: support@cowiasolutions.com
Solving challenge #1 – Duplicate in Business Units
Solving challenge #1 – Duplicate in Business Units
Why is this a challenge?
Let me explain.
Default duplicate detection in Dynamics CRM can only match duplicates on those records that the user is allowed to read. It makes sense, but this can be a problem for some companies where the same record already exists in another business unit that user is not allowed to read/see.
Default duplicate detection won’t detect this duplicate and user will create a new record.
Let’s say that the record was named ‘Company A’. This record is now duplicate in the system where each record is in the own business unit.
If the users are only allowed to read from their business unit, then this is not duplicate for them. They can only see the one from their business unit. So, what is the problem?
First problem: if you have parent business unit that can read from child business units, this record will be shown twice for users from parent business unit. This would be a duplicate record for them.
Second problem: ‘Company A’ can be contacted by different users because the user didn’t know that someone is already working in this company from another business unit.
Third problem: how can the user know if there is existing record in another business unit, so the user doesn’t create a duplicate?
One solution for these problems is to use duplicate detection addon for Dynamics CRM. If you have duplicate detection addon, then it will work like this:
For this scenario, I will use the company that has HQ in Italy and offices in DK, UK, and DE. Business units set up in CRM is like this:
Louise, Abbie and Anna can only read/see data from their own business unit.
Jasmina can read/see all the data in the system.
We have the account in CRM that is named ‘Company A’. The owner is Louise, and the company is in DK business unit. Abbie and Anna can’t read/see this account because they are not in the same business unit.
‘Company A’ is an international company and for some reason, Abbie receives a call from the company. She searches in CRM but can’t find the company. Therefore, she wants to create the company and clicks ‘Save’ but the warning window pops up showing Abbie that the same record is already in the CRM, and who the owner is. She can read that Louise is the owner. Abbie will send an e-mail or call Louise regarding this phone call from the Company A. She will also ask Louise to share the account, so they work on the same account in CRM.
Simple!
How was this achieved? Here is how:
You can control for each duplicate detection rule how it will detect duplicates, search for duplicates on the records that the user can read, search records that one specific user can read or scan the whole system.
Note: This is only for detecting duplicates. The user won’t be able to open records that she/he is not allowed to.
With the second feature to achieve this, you can select which view to use when showing duplicates. In this scenario, it is critical to see the owner of the record. I created a new view in CRM and added field Owner in columns, saved it as ‘Owner View’ and used it on the duplicate detection rule.
Example:
Example of settings:
If you want to try the addon, there is free trial,
sign up here: http://duplicate.cowia.com/