If you’re an administrator who’s importing data for an Oracle CRM On Demand implementation, here are a few tips to avoid import errors and meet launch dates:
1. Make sure the field values for your import match your picklist values in CRM On Demand. Picklist values need to match exactly. If there’s no exact match found, the field value is left blank, the record is imported, and the error is logged. If the field is a required field and there’s no match, then the record is not imported, and the error is logged.
That said, keep these tips in mind:
- Don’t leave spaces at the end of values; they aren’t easy to catch visually. The value won’t make an exact match, and an error will be logged.
- If you have custom picklist values, keep in mind that each picklist value can have a maximum of 30 characters.
2. Stick to the address formatting requirements defined in the application. The CRM On Demand address block has several address fields, which display differently depending on the Country in the imported record. They are pre-defined and not customizable.
Here is some additional information about the address fields:
- The field value for State is the standard, two-letter uppercase abbreviation. No variations!
- Country field values are fixed and must match the picklist.
- ‘USA’ in uppercase is the only valid value; don’t use ‘U.S.’, ‘U.S.A.’, or the lowercase ‘usa’.
- Non-US addresses use two different fields instead of State: Province and/or PO Box Sorting Code.
Consult the Address Mapping Template and Phone Mapping Guide when formatting the address fields. You can find this in MetaLink 3 (Doc ID 556551.1). To get that guide, click here and sign into MetaLink.
If you’ve never used MetaLink, see our previous blog article, How To Search the MetaLink Knowledge Library.
3. Use the system-defined format for Owner. The ‘Owner’ field is an easy field to miss on the import files. The Owner field is defined as the User Sign In ID, for example, mycompany/loginid.
4. Invoke the “Delegated By” field when importing Activities. Put your User Sign In ID in a column labeled Delegated By, and map it to the Delegated By field on import. You will now be able to batch delete all of the Activities. This doesn’t impact any visibility to the owners of the Activities.
There are many more best practices to get you to the point where you’re ready for the actual import. To learn them all, take the Consulting Best Practices for Data Import Webinar and sign up for the Data Import Workshop.
For more Data Import resources, see our previous blog article, Importing Data – Where to Begin.
