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Converting from Business Contact Manager to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Every once in a while I hear about a company wanting to move from BCM to CRM. This can make sense in a number of cases, especially for a growing company. Below are couple of migration solutions to consider when thinking about migrating from BCM to CRM.

Method 1: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Manager

Using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Manager, you can convert and upload data from another customer relationship management (CRM) system to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

The Data Migration Manager includes default data maps to convert source data from several common CRM systems to the data format expected by Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. During the conversion and migration process, you can create any necessary custom entities or attributes to ensure that you do not lose legacy data during the migration process.

Method 2: Data Migration Wizard for Microsoft Office Outlook

Migrate data from Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager If you’re switching from using Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager to using Microsoft CRM, you can use the Data Migration Wizard for Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager, part of the Data Migration Pack. The wizard guides you through mapping data from Outlook with Business Contact Manager to Microsoft CRM. It must be run by a person with the Microsoft CRM System Administrator security role and is designed to be run only once.

Cheers,

Tirumal Boppana (KUMAR)

Published Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:04 AM by crmblog

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# microsoft contact manager

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Thursday, June 19, 2008 7:11 PM by microsoft contact manager

# re: Converting from Business Contact Manager to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Hi Boppana:

I am currently involved in a project where we are migrating from BCM 2007 to CRM 4.0. I do not see how a complete transfer with the above solution is possible.

1) From BCM, you can only export contacts and companies in CSV format. (even that import did not work in the migration wizard, data mapping had to be done manually)

2) The BCM Format (.bcm) is really an XML export. So it was possible to extract the individual tables, which however did not all have a sensible Key/Foreign Key, but rather were associated with other tables by their node position. So even when exporting these tables to CSV (as this is the only format the Data migration manager will accept) does not work easily.

It took us a lot of time to figure all this out, and we are still haveing problems with some imports.

Either we missed something here or this import wizard for Outlook is simply not working.

Thomas

Thursday, June 26, 2008 3:53 AM by Thomas

# re: Converting from Business Contact Manager to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Well Thomas, you haven't missed anything, it is just that microsoft missed the point and introduced a kind of useless data migration tool, no matter how hard you try, you will have to import most of your data from BCM to CRM 4.0 manually, it makes sense, it gives you an opportunity to do some data cleansing ...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 6:01 AM by Jad

# re: Converting from Business Contact Manager to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

I too have am in the same environment that Thomas is in.

Changing from BCM to CRM.

I am also finding the migration quite complex.

Going by Thomas's post he seems quite IT savvy and if he is having issues then the rest of us are in fro a stressful ride!

Jad, I agree with you that the migration tool is pretty much useless, however saying that it makes sense to manually enter data for the opportunity of data cleansing is a fairly blanket and non specific answer and to be quite honest a "cop out" statement. Whilst cleansing may have its benefits, companies moving to CRM are doing it for a few reasons. 1) they are growing steadily and need more control for their relationship software in access rights etc. 2) They probably have a data base of huge proportions that they want to have more control over reporting and/or analysing.

I set KPI's for my sales staff at minimum 50 new business calls a day. It doesnt take long for these contacts to add up and do you really think I want to manually put information in because Microsoft are too lazy to create a good enough migration tool from one of their own relationship programs to the next level one?

Going from BCM to Dynamics is a fairly common transition i would think for growing companies so if Microsoft want companies to stick with their software then a simpler and more efficient migration tool needs to be made.

Thought?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 8:21 PM by jaykers

# re: Converting from Business Contact Manager to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

I too have am in the same environment that Thomas is in.

Changing from BCM to CRM.

I am also finding the migration quite complex.

Going by Thomas's post he seems quite IT savvy and if he is having issues then the rest of us are in fro a stressful ride!

Jad, I agree with you that the migration tool is pretty much useless, however saying that it makes sense to manually enter data for the opportunity of data cleansing is a fairly blanket and non specific answer and to be quite honest a "cop out" statement. Whilst cleansing may have its benefits, companies moving to CRM are doing it for a few reasons. 1) they are growing steadily and need more control for their relationship software in access rights etc. 2) They probably have a data base of huge proportions that they want to have more control over reporting and/or analysing.

I set KPI's for my sales staff at minimum 50 new business calls a day. It doesnt take long for these contacts to add up and do you really think I want to manually put information in because Microsoft are too lazy to create a good enough migration tool from one of their own relationship programs to the next level one?

Going from BCM to Dynamics is a fairly common transition i would think for growing companies so if Microsoft want companies to stick with their software then a simpler and more efficient migration tool needs to be made.

Thought?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 8:22 PM by Jayjers

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