Duplicated data is a very common problem and often underplayed by many would be suppliers. Irrespective of how much automation introduced, users will always find ways to create duplicated information. Also some caution is needed with the automation rules, as this could make the system become very difficult to use!

Caspian provides built-in rules and alerts to significantly minimise duplication of data and when it comes to checking the central CRM database, Caspian has a very sophisticated de-duping tool available for your use.

Examples of such rules might be:

• account names sound similar and the post codes match
• account names sound similar and the cities match
• account names sound similar and the first line of the address match
• account names sound similar and the accounts are in the same categories

The user will select the rule they wish to apply and De-Dupe will build a list of accounts that match the criteria for the user to visually review.

Once a group of prospective accounts to be de-duped has been built the next question is which account should be the "master" account. The new de-dupe also includes rules to automatically identify the master account. These might be (in order):

• Any account in a "customer" category
• Any account in a "lead in progress" category
• Any account in a "prospect" category
• The account where the last logbook date is most recent will take precedence and become the master account

The de-dupe rules and the master account rules are all controlled through an xml plug-in technology that allows anyone technically familiar with the Caspian database to write the rules. These rules are given friendly names so the user is able to select and use them within the application.