Contact/Lead management/cleanup

[jeffdude]

I have just begun to implement sugar but am wondering how others manage their contacts/leads.

For example, I want to market to lists of people, so I will want to do the following:

1. Import only unique names. I have done this via email-duplication-checking so far.

2. Is there a way to pull simple reports on users like a) all the contacts/leads with duplicate emails b) all the contacts with the same last name, etc

3. How do I import updates to contacts? For example so far I see it can be done only by contact ID but what exactly is the contact id? When importing information how would I know what a contacts id is, if they even have one?

What is the workflow to manage and update data?

Two issues I have right now is that new lists are being supplied to me, and a live data set of existing contacts are on an Exchange server. I need to know how to get all the latest data onto Sugar before I send out mailers.

[sugarcane]

Hello jeffdude,

1. Import only unique names. I have done this via email-duplication-checking so far.

Yes, importing into a module and checking for duplicates based on email address is a good method, since the email address is unique.

2. Is there a way to pull simple reports on users like a) all the contacts/leads with duplicate emails b) all the contacts with the same last name, etc

If you are using the Sugar Pro or Ent versions, then you can easily create a report in the reporting module. if you are using CE, then you might want to take a look at a reporting plugin like Zucker reports. Zucker reports relies on the ability to write SQL queries, you can create a query which will pull records with the same email address or last name.

You can also check for duplicates and merge them. You can look here to read more about it, although this is a bit more of a manual process: http://www.sugarcrm.com/university/g...rge_Duplicates

3. How do I import updates to contacts? For example so far I see it can be done only by contact ID but what exactly is the contact id? When importing information how would I know what a contacts id is, if they even have one?

There is an 'import and update' selection in the import area. To pull the contact id, export the contacts from the contact list view (there is an export link). You can perform a search in the search panel and manually check off the contacts you want to update, or you can 'select all' and export. One of the fields in the export is the ID field. Alternatively, if you do have a reporting module, you can add the ID field to the report and export the report.

[jeffdude]

Yes, importing into a module and checking for duplicates based on email address is a good method, since the email address is unique.

This can be done via import, but it doesn't enforce email uniqueness. Also, if users add an individual contact it does not compare for duplication.

You can also check for duplicates and merge them.

I'm using CE. This seems to be very basic functionality which should be in the CE. How can you maintain any sort of CRM if you can not keep it clean?

There is an 'import and update' selection in the import area. To pull the contact id, export the contacts from the contact list view (there is an export link). You can perform a search in the search panel and manually check off the contacts you want to update, or you can 'select all' and export. One of the fields in the export is the ID field. Alternatively, if you do have a reporting module, you can add the ID field to the report and export the report.

So if I export all my sugarcrm contacts I will have a list with their corresponding Contact IDs. Then I will have my new second list of contacts (with some already existing in Sugar which I would want updating). So I now have 2 lists, one with Contact ID and one without. Now what?