Import your Outlook contacts into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0
Published: January 18, 2006
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For any business to succeed, it must have viable contacts. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 includes a wizard that you can use to bulk import data from auxiliary sources, such as Microsoft Office Outlook contacts.
To import Outlook contacts into Microsoft CRM 3.0, you must first export your Outlook contacts to a comma-separated value (CSV) file format. You can use the Import and Export Wizard in Outlook to quickly prepare contacts for import into Microsoft CRM in this format.
In this article, the following contact attributes will be exported from Outlook and then imported into Microsoft CRM 3.0:
First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Job Title, Business Street 1, Business City, Business State, Business Postal Code, Business Country, Business Phone, Mobile Phone, E-mail Address
Export Outlook contacts to a CSV file
1. | Start Outlook. |
2. | On the File menu, click Import/Export. The Import and Export Wizard opens. |
3. | Click Export to a file, and then click Next. |
4. | Click Comma Separated Values (DOS), and then click Next. If you receive a message that the feature is not currently installed, click Yes to install it. |
5. | In the Select folder to export from list, select the Contacts folder that you want, and then click Next. |
6. | In the Save exported file as box, type a file name that has a CSV file name extension, such as mycontacts.csv, and then click Next. |
7. | Click Map Custom Fields. |
8. | By default, Outlook exports more fields than are necessary. Therefore, you must remove some of the fields before you export to a CSV file. For this example, keep only the fields listed in the table. |
First Name | Middle Name | Last Name | Job Title | Business Street 1 | Business City | Business State | Business Postal Code | Business Country | Business Phone | Mobile Phone | E-mail Address |
To remove a field, such as Billing Information, in the right column under the Field column, drag the field to the Value column that is on the left. |
9. | Continue removing fields until you have only the fields that you want to export. For this example, only the twelve fields that are in the previous table titled “Column Headings to Export” will be exported. |
10. | Click OK. |
11. | Click Finish. |
Import the Outlook contacts into Microsoft CRM
1. | Start the Microsoft CRM Web client. |
2. | On the Tools menu, click Import. |
3. | In the Source import file box, click Browse, locate and select the mycontacts.csv file, and then click Open. |
4. | In the Record type list, click Contact. |
5. | Make sure that the Field Separator list has Comma (,) selected, the Field Data Delimiter list has DoubleQuote (") selected, and First row contains column headings check box is selected, and then click Next. |
6. | The Bulk Import Wizard selects the first row of data to display target field (Microsoft CRM) and source field (mycontacts.csv) mappings. Because not all the Outlook contact fields automatically map correctly to Microsoft CRM Contact attributes, you must remap some of them. The following table displays the correct mappings for each Outlook contact field and each Microsoft CRM Contact attribute. |
Last Name | Must map to | Last Name | This typically does not need to be remapped | Business Phone | Must map to | Business Phone | this typically does not need to be remapped | First Name | Must map to | First Name | This typically does not need to be remapped | Job Title | Must map to | Job Title | This typically does not need to be remapped | Middle Name | Must map to | Middle Name | This typically does not need to be remapped | Mobile Phone | Must map to | Mobile Phone | This typically does not need to be remapped | Business Street | Must map to | Address 1: Street 1 | This typically must be remapped | BusinessCity | Must map to | Address 1: City | This typically does not need to be remapped | BusinessState | Must map to | Address 1: State/Province | This typically must be remapped | Business Postal Code | Must map to | Address 1: ZIP/Postal Code | This typically must be remapped | Business Country | Must map to | Address 1: Country/Region | This typically must be remapped | E-mail Address | Must map to | E-mail | This typically must be remapped |
To remap a field click the field that is in the Target Field column that you want to remap, and then select the attribute that you want. In the following image, the Outlook contact field named Business Street is remapped from Address 1: Address Type to Address 1: Street 1. |
7. | Verify that all mappings between the Target Field and Source Field columns are correct, and then click Next. |
8. | Click Import. |
9. | Click Finish. The bulk import is submitted for processing. |
10. | To review the status of the bulk import, in the Microsoft CRM Web client, in the Navigation Pane, click Workplace. |
11. | Under My Work, click Activities, and in the Activities area, in the Type list, click Bulk Import. |
12. | To review the import information, such as the number of contacts imported and any failures that occurred, double-click the mycontacts.csv bulk import record to open the bulk import. |
