Cloudy's Favorite Apps: DupeCatcher

The number one Salesforce.com data quality complaint at most organizations is duplicate accounts and contacts.  Without safeguards in place, it can be all too easy to add duplicate records.  When this problem reaches a critical threshold, is it impossible to trust your data and make the daily decisions that depend on it. 

Salesforce.com experts and developers have many strategies, tools, and apps to address this common issue, including proper search technique for users and good matching criteria for data uploads.  The third strategy used by many companies who are winning the battle against "dupes" is DupeCatcher from Symphonic Source.  This simple, free app stops dupes on their way in, based on rules that you define.  

If you have never installed an AppExchange app in your Salesforce.com org, DupeCatcher is a great first choice.  Start the process by going to the AppExchange listing and clicking the green "Get it now" button.  After you follow the step-by-step directions to install it in your org, you will find you have a new listing for Dupecatcher in the App menu drop-down in the upper right corner of your Salesforce.com.  If you click on it, you will have a new view of the collection of tabs that comprise the DupeCatcher App.  To start blocking dupes in your org only requires two steps:

Step 1: Create a Filter
On the "DupeCatcher Filters" tab, click "New" to create a new filter.  From the drop-downs, select whether the filter will apply to Contacts, Accounts, or Leads and define the action you want to occur when a duplicate is detected.  For instance, do you want the duplicate to be completely blocked, or just display a warning to the user?

Step 2: Define the Filter Rules
Once you have saved your filter, it is time to define the duplicate-matching criteria.  On the filter record, scroll down the the DupeCatcher Filter Rules related list and click the "New DupeCatcher Filter Rule" button.  You will probably want to add several rules to have a well defined filter.  

Here is an example of a good set of rules for one contact filter:

Resources:
DupeCatcher on the AppExchange <--Go here to download to your Salesforce.com org
www.DupeCatcher.com <--For more information and resources about this app
Cloudy's favorite: Quick-Start Guide from DupeCatcher
Cloudy's Step-by-Step Direction to install an app

For more of Cloudy's advise about Dirty Data:
Clean ALL the Data!!! Part I
Clean ALL the Data!!! Part II

If you would like help setting up DupeCatcher in your org, if you are struggling with duplicates and need help cleaning up the mess, or if you would like more resources and training on how to effectively manage your data, please Contact Us!

More of Cloudy's Favorite Apps:
FormAssembly
Rollup Helper
Conga Composer
FlipTop

Cloudy's Top Ten: About Salesforce.com User Groups

"None of us is as smart as all of us" - Ken Blanchard

10 - Salesforce.com helps organize User Groups all over the world.  Search for a meeting near you.

9 - If there is no User Group near you, Salesforce.com will help you start one by providing resources and training to help you get started.  Check out this ButtonClick Admin post and podcast for great additional information about leading a Salesforce.com User Group.

8 - User Groups are an excellent free way to develop your Salesforce.com knowledge and skills in an engaging, structured, and social environment.

7 - They are a great place to meet smart and enthusiastic Salesforce.com users.  The next time you want to brainstorm, you might have a new friend to call.

6 - User Groups are an excellent resource to find out about job openings and career opportunities in other organizations that are using Salesforce.com.  

5 - Speaking of other organizations, there is tremendous value to be found in building your professional network among other businesses that are using similar technology tools.  You will learn how other businesses are leveraging the cloud to enhance all their business processes, from Marketing, to Sales, to Customer Support.

4 - If you have trouble keeping up with the seasonal releases and new features of Salesforce, User Groups can be a place to get these updates in an easy format.

3 - While most User Groups attendees are regular users and admins, Salesforce.com Partner Consultants are often in attendance as well.  There are rules that make sure they don't use the opportunity to try to sell you anything, so it can be a great opportunity to get novel ideas and best practices advice from the experts.

2 - Salesforce.com AppExchange vendors are enthusiastic to demonstrate their products at User Groups, whether via a virtual presentation or by sending a representative to your group.  This is a great way to learn about powerful and interesting apps, and to learn how other businesses are using them.

1 - User Groups are run by other users on a volunteer basis, so they are likely to be very responsive if you would like to help or add your own ideas to the mix.  If you are interested in leadership opportunity to enhance your resume and grow your own Salesforce.com knowledge and skills, consider offering to do a presentation at your user group, or joining the leadership team.


Cloudy and the team at Redpath Consulting Group are involved in several Salesforce User Groups in the Twin Cities, MN area, including the general area user group, as well as smaller groups for nonprofit users and for Salesforce.com developers.  Contact us if you would like to find out when the next meetings of these groups will be held, or if you would like to get in touch with Twin Cities area group leaders.

Cloudy's Favorite Apps: Rollup Helper

Last week, Cloudy demonstrated how to set up a simple Roll-up Summary field in your Salesforce.com org.  If you are already using Roll-up Summary fields, you know how useful they are for understanding your data and creating meaningful reports.

But if you are a fan of Roll-ups, then you are probably frustrated by their limitations as well!

Roll-up Summary fields can only be created on Master objects in Master-Detail relationships, and there are tight limits on the numbers and configurations of Master-Detail relationships in an org.  If you have run into these limits, you have probably wished that Roll-Up Summary fields could be set up on simple Look-up relationships.

Well now they can!  Rollup Helper, from Passage Technology has created an App that allows you to create Roll-up Summaries almost anywhere.  Not only that, it also expands the concept of Roll-ups beyond counts, sums, and min/max to include concatenated text and formulas.  Consider these cases:

-Display an aggregated count and description of all products purchased on an account record.
-Count the Events or Tasks of a certain type on account or contact records.
-Display the number of campaigns that a contact has participated in.
-Count the numbers of contacts of certain types on accounts.
-Calculate membership renewal dates and amounts, based on information in related records.

The list could go on and on, but perhaps these ideas have sparked your imagination!

Rollup Helper is available in a FREE Community Edition, or as a paid, supported app.  The version that is right for you will depend on your organization's needs.  The free version is not supported beyond helping you set up your first roll-up, and there is some lag-time on the roll-ups, especially for very large amounts of data.  The paid version includes unlimited tech support to set up your roll-ups and answer questions, as well as fast-paced, real-time calculations on large quantities of data.

Cloudy recommends that anyone who is interested in more roll-ups with more flexibility start with the free version of Rollup Helper.  As your organization gains value from the tool, you will be able to gauge whether you require the additional support and processing power of the paid app.

Cloudy always recommends trying an app for the first time in your Sandbox!  

Read Cloudy's reviews of other popular apps:
Conga Composer
FlipTop Social Profiles
FormAssembly

Cloudy's Chalkboard: Create Roll-up Summaries

Roll-up Summary fields are a way to view accumulated data from Detail records on a Master Record in Salesforce.  The Roll-up can calculate sums, counts, minimums or maximums.

A Rollup Summary on an Account (Organization) record could calculate the total of all related Opportunities (or Donations).  It could also show the maximum or largest sale on each account.  Your salespeople would have a quick gauge of how much a customer has bought and might be willing to buy, and you can run reports showing your best customers.

A Roll-Up Summary field can be created on any Master record in a Master-Detail relationship, including any custom objects.  Follow Cloudy's instructions to create a Roll-Up Summary in your Salesforce Org, and you may soon wonder how you lived without them!

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For this example, we will create a Roll-up Summary showing the total value of all Closed-Won Opportunities on an Account record.  You can follow the same steps to create a Roll-up on any Master record with related detail records.

1) Go to Your Name > Setup > Customize > Accounts > Fields




2) Click the "New" button in the "Custom Fields and Relationships" area.

(Click on any image to view larger)

3)Select "Roll-Up Summary" as the field type and click "Next".

4) Name your field.  For this example, let's name it "Account Sales Total" and in the Help & Description fields, we will indicate that only Closed-Won Opportunities are summed.  Click "Next".

5) From the "Select Object to Summarize" picklist, select "Opportunities".

Under "Select Roll-Up Type", choose "SUM", and from the "Field to Aggregate" picklist, select "Amount."

In the "Filter Criteria" section, we will set the parameters to only include Closed Won Opportunities.  Select the "Only certain records..." radio button, which opens up the Filter Criteria picklists.  For our example, we will set a filter of "Stage + Equals + Closed Won".

6) Click "Next", "Next", and "Save" to finish creating the field.  Go to the page layout for Accounts to set the placement of the new field, and then view it on your Account records!

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Roll-up summaries are a great way to get better insight into your data, both at the record-level and for reporting.  As you start to leverage the power of roll-up summaries, you might find you wish you had greater flexibility than Salesforce roll-ups allow.  For instance: the ability to roll-up from activities, or between Look-up related objects.  For these cases, Rollup Helper, on the Salesforce AppExchange might be just the ticket.  Tune in next week for a Cloudy's full review of this powerful App.

If you would like more help with creating and reporting on Roll-up Summaries in your Salesforce.com org, Contact Us!

Read more Cloudy's Chalkboard tutorials:
Creating Dashboards
Grouped Bar Charts