Converting from ACT! to Salesforce · 3 JLTechnical Group Migration_Summary.CSV – this is a list of the custom ACT! Fields. If you plan to transfer these, you will need to add them

Last updated September 29 2013 © Copyright 2010-2012 JL Technical Group.

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Converting from ACT!

to Salesforce.com®

Using the Exporter® software

Contents Getting Started .............................................................................................................. 1

Before you Begin ....................................................................................................................................... 1

Step 1 -- Export the ACT! data using Exporter ........................................................... 2

Start the Exporter ...................................................................................................................................... 2

Step 2 -- Add Fields to Salesforce ............................................................................... 5

Adding a custom field to the Salesforce Contact Record ......................................................................... 6

Adding a Custom Field for ACT! Notes and History data ....................................................................... 10

Step 3 -- Import your data ........................................................................................... 11

Start the Salesforce Import Wizard! ........................................................................................................ 11

Find the data file produced by the Exporter. ........................................................................................... 12

Check the field mapping .......................................................................................................................... 12

Step 4 -- Checking your data ...................................................................................... 13

Company/Account data ........................................................................................................................... 14

Advanced Topics – Activities, History, Notes and Opportunities ........................... 15

A bit about Record IDs ............................................................................................................................ 15

Why is this so complex? .......................................................................................................................... 15

Appendix A – Preparing your ACT! Database .......................................................... 16

Finding Duplicates ................................................................................................................................... 16

Remove the Old Data. ............................................................................................................................. 17

Appendix B – How the differences are handled ....................................................... 18

Account Assignment ............................................................................................................................... 18

Blank Contacts ........................................................................................................................................ 18

Account Addresses ................................................................................................................................. 18

Groups ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

Secondary contacts (ACT! 2005+ only) ................................................................................................. 19

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Getting Started

The following is a step by step guide to help you transfer your ACT! database into

Salesforce.com.(SFDC) This method allows you to use the Contact/Account Import Wizard

provided by Salesforce which will get you up and running quickly.

Using the standard Import Wizard, you will be able to import

All Contact data with custom ACT! fields

Notes from ACT!

Histories from ACT!

The Notes/History items will appear as merged fields containing up to 32000 characters on separate

lines. These fields are searchable in Salesforce; they contain the text of the note or history plus the entry

date; and they are sorted by date. See the Checking your data section for an example.

Group Membership information for each contact.

ACT! Company data which is converted into Salesforce Accounts.(ACT! 2005+)

Secondary Contacts linked to their primary contact. (ACT! 2005+)

If you need to import additional data or want the notes and history items to appear individually, you can

do this with the Informatica Data Loader or the Salesforce Apex Data Loader. Use of the Salesforce

Apex Data Loader is described in the Advanced Topics of this document.

Before you Begin

You need to make certain your ACT! database is free of duplicate records, does not contain blank

records and contains only the data you want to bring into Salesforce. The Salesforce Import Wizard

will only accept 225 fields. If you have added a large number of custom fields to your Contact and

Company tables, you will need to remove some of these. Appendix A contains instructions and tips

to help with this process.

.

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Step 1 -- Export the ACT! data using Exporter

Start the Exporter

There is a separate User Guide for the Exporter. It is recommended that you read it before proceeding.

Select the following options

1. Select the version of your ACT! database.

2. Select the Salesforce option.

3. Select the SQL Server Instance you are using to read the database (This is required for ACT!

2005+ and above. See Exporter User Guide for more information)

4. Browse to your ACT! database and select it

5. Browse to a folder to put the exported data and select it

6. Click the Export button

When the Exporter completed, there will be a folder named Salesforce_com located in the path

specified in Step 5. There will be four files, all with a .csv extension, and a folder named

DataLoaderFiles. .

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Migration_Summary.CSV – this is a list of the custom ACT! Fields. If you plan to transfer

these, you will need to add them to Salesforce.

There will also be a count of the fields to be added and the total fields.

If the Total Fields to be imported is greater than 199, you can not use the Salesforce ContactAccount

Wizard.

PickList.CSV– This files contains a list of fields that have pick list (drop downs) in ACT!.

If you want to use the pick list in Salesforce, you can copy the values and when you define

the field in Salesforce, paste the list into the Salesforce field.

If there are more than 200 items or the width is longer than 40, the list cannot be used as a Salesforce

Picklist.

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ACT_User .CSV – This file contains the user information from your ACT! database. It’s

very important that the ACT! user name matches the Salesforce user name. This will insure

that contacts and accounts will be assigned properly when you import the data.

CONTACT_ACCOUNT.CSV – this is the file you will use with the Salesforce Import

Wizard to import the ACT! contacts, accounts and notes into Salesforce.

DataLoaderFiles – this folder contains additional separate files which have been prepared

for use with the Salesforce Apex Data Loader.

All the files can be opened with Excel by double clicking on the file icon. We recommend that you print

the SF_Fields_to_create file so you can work with it when adding fields to Salesforce.

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Step 2 -- Add Fields to Salesforce

You will probably not want to add all ACT! fields to Salesforce. However, we strongly recommend

that you add the following fields ACT_CONTACTID (Contact Object), ACT_ACCOUNTID

(Account Object) and ACT_OPPORTUNITYID (Opportunity Object). This will insure that you

can link back to your ACT! Database if you want to use the Data Loader to add the tables that the

Import Wizard does not support. There are other fields created by the Exporter that you may want

to add to Salesforce. These are

GroupMembership This is a list of the groups a contact belongs to. You can use this to build views in Salesforce to emulate the ACT! groups. (Mapped to Group Membership)

X_History This field contains all the history items for the contact. (Mapped to a custom field)

X_Notes

This field contains all the notes for the contact. (Mapped to a custom field)

X_Activities This field contains the next four activities scheduled for the contact. If you choose not to import the activities separately, you can use this field to rebuild your calendar in Salesforce.

If you are planning to import the notes and history as separate items as described in the Advanced Topics

section, we recommend that you do NOT import them with the Salesforce wizard. And, if you have a lot

of notes, you might want to exclude them from being added to the Contacts table by selecting this option

in the Export Custom Controls tab. This will make the upload of your data more efficient.

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Adding a custom field to the Salesforce Contact Record

Start Salesforce and select the Setup option

From the App Setup section select Customize and click the Customize your Contacts tab

Select Add a custom field to contacts

Select New

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Select the type of field you want to add

The SF_Fields_to_create list produced by the Exporter will contain this information.

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Add the field information exactly as it appears in the list produced by the Exporter

Type the Field Name exactly as it appears in the list from Exporter. This will allow the Salesforce import

wizard to map the field automatically.

For the ACT_ContactID, ACT_AccountID and ACT_OpportunityID, select the “External ID” checkbox.

Specify who can change the field

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Finally specify where you want the field to appear

Repeat the above steps until you’ve added all the fields from ACT! that you want to use

in Salesforce.

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Adding a Custom Field for ACT! Notes and History data

If you will be adding the Notes and History records as separate items using the Salesforce Apex

DataLoader, you can skip this step.

Otherwise you can create new Salesforce fields to hold the merged note and history records. You

can either add separate fields – x_notes and x_history or the combined x_note_history field.

Since the Import Wizard can have “issues” with large records, we recommend that you export only the

merged fields that you plan to import. You can exclude the merged fields you will not be using. By

selecting the Exporter Option Control tab and specifying which fields to exclude.

Follow the steps above; but use the Text Area (Long) field type for the notes and history merge

fields.


Step 3 -- Import your data

Start the Salesforce Import Wizard!

On the Salesforce Setup page, select Import Accounts/Contacts

These instructions are for loading your data as Contacts. The data can be loaded into Leads using the

same procedure. However, there are some features that contacts have that are not included with Leads.

So, before proceeding you should have a good idea how you want your Salesforce database structured.

Exporter maps the ACT! Record Manager to the Salesforce Record Owner. Unlike ACT!, you CANNOT

have inactive users in Salesforce. Any ACT! Record Manager that does not match an active user in

SFDC will be assigned to the user who is doing the import.


Find the data file produced by the Exporter.

The name will be CONTACT_ACCOUNT.CSV

The Exporter will populate the Account information. It uses the following rules:

If the Contact belongs to a Company in ACT! (2005+), the data is taken from the Company record in ACT!

Otherwise, the Company information is taken from the Contact record and used to create a Salesforce

account.

Check the field mapping

Since the field labels were set to match the Import Wizard, all ACT! fields should be

automatically mapped. At the end of the mapping display sequence, Salesforce will provide a list

of fields that were not mapped. Check this to be certain that you haven’t missed any important

data. If all is OK, Click the Import Now! Button and your data will load.

Even though the fields are pre-labeled by the Exporter, similar names of user fields can cause the Import

Wizard to select the wrong column to map. Before clicking the Import Now! Button,

CHECK AND RECHECK HOW EACH FIELD IS MAPPED!


Step 4 -- Checking your data

Because the structure of Salesforce is different than ACT!, your data will appear a bit different than

it did in ACT!.

We recommend that you use the Salesforce Page Layout tool to move the ACT! data into sections so it

will be easier to view.


Company/Account data

If you are using ACT! 2005+, ACT! companies will become Salesforce Accounts and ACT! contacts

assigned to companies will be assigned to the Salesforce Account.

If you are using ACT! 4-6 the company information from the contact data will be used for the

Salesforce Account information.


Advanced Topics – Activities, History, Notes, Opportunities and

Attachments

After you have loaded your Contact_Account data into Salesforce, you can now load the other

pieces of the ACT! database. In many cases this won’t be necessary. However, if you need to

import extended data from ACT!, this section describes how to do it. This can be quite complex.

You will need to have technical knowledge of the structure of both the ACT! and Salesforce

databases. These instructions use the Apex Data Loader from SFDC. We do not offer support for

the Apex Data Loader. There is documentation on the Salesforce web site.

The Salesforce API (Application Program Interface) must be turned on for your account to use the Apex

Data Loader. This is normally only available for the Enterprise Edition but your Salesforce Sales Rep can

request courtesy access while your data is loaded. There are other programs you can use if you cannot

get access to the API. These include Jitterbit, Dataloader.io and Informatica. Information about these

can be found on the Salesforce.com website.

A bit about Record IDs

The database in divided into several tables (Contacts, Notes, History etc). Both ACT! and

Salesforce have a field in the records which is called a Record ID. This field allows different types

of records to be linked together i.e. contacts with notes. In the case of contacts and notes there will

be a CONTACTID in both the Contact and Note tables. So when you view a contact record, the

computer program (ACT! or Salesforce) will search the Notes table to collect all the Notes that have

a CONTACTID that matches the one you are viewing.

Why is this so complex?

Unfortunately, the Salesforce DataLoader cannot interpret Record IDs and/or user names from

other programs. So the Record IDs from ACT! must be converted into Salesforce IDs. Salesforce

IDs are assigned when the record is imported. This means you need to import the data (which

includes the ACT! Record IDs) into Salesforce and then export the newly created Salesforce Record

IDs and the ACT! Record ID field to create a cross reference lookup table. It is possible to use

Excel’s VLOOKUP function to do this. However, it’s pretty complex and if your database is large –

it can get very cumbersome. Adding to the complexity, ACT! Record IDs contain upper and lower

case letters which VLOOK does not handle well. So, we have supplied a utility named

SFDC_FixID to help you do this.

You will find detailed information about this utility in the SFDC_FixID User Guide which is

supplied with the Exporter Software and available at www.jltechnical.com in the Resources section.

The SFDC_FixID User Guide contains step by step instructions for loading Notes, History, Activities,

Opportunities, Secondary Contacts and Attachments.

http://www.jltechnical.com/


Appendix A – Preparing your ACT! Database

Finding Duplicates

ACT 2005+: You can use ACT! to find these records. To do this, select Scan for Duplicates

from the Tools menu.


Remove the Old Data.

ACT! allows you to save a lot of “stuff” . Unfortunately, a lot the the “stuff” is really junk. So, you

might want to take some time and get rid of the data that you will never use.


Appendix B – How the differences are handled

There are many differences in structure between the ACT! and Salesforce databases. The following

explains how the Exporter deals with these:

Account Assignment

In Salesforce.com, if a contact is not assigned to a company, then the record owner is the only user

that has access to the contact. Therefore, when the import files are prepared, each contact is

assigned an account using the following rules.

If a contact belongs to an ACT! Company, the account information for that contact will be taken

from the ACT! Company data. The UniqueID for the company will be placed in the Salesforce.com

Site field.

If a contact does not belong to an ACT! Company and the Company name is present in the

contact’s record, then this company name will be used to create a Salesforce.com account.

If a contact does not belong to an ACT! Company and does not have a company name in the

record, the contact will be assigned to a Salesforce.com Account called “ACT! Blank Company –

Reassign”

Blank Contacts

If the Contact name is blank and there is a Company name, then the contact will be named Contact

at companyname.

Account Addresses

ACT! Companies can have three address fields. Salesforce.com only has two. When ACT! company

data is used to populate the Salesforce.com Account addresses the following rules are used:

If the ACT! Company Billing Address field is blank, the Address is moved to the Salesforce.com

Billing Address.

If both the ACT! Company and billing addresses contain data, the ACT! Company address is put

into a field which will need to be created labeled, ACT_Company_Address.


Groups

There are no groups in Salesforce.com. However, they can be simulated using Salesforce views.

Exporter provides a field labeled Group Membership which contains a list of all the groups the

contact belongs to. To use this in Salesforce, do the following:

1. On the Contacts home page, click the Create a New View option.

2. Give the view a name –e.g., the name of your ACT! Group

3. Specify the filter for the group

a. In the Field dropdown, select the Group Membership field.

b. In the Operator field, select contains

c. In the Value field, enter the name of the group.

Secondary contacts (ACT! 2005+ only)

Salesforce does not have a similar function to ACT!’s secondary contacts. If you want to include

secondary contacts, you will need to load them separately using DataLoader. Secondary contacts

will be linked to their primary contact in Salesforce. You will see the primary contact ID in the

Reports To: field of Salesforce. The secondary contacts data is found in the Secondary_Contacts

file within the Dataloader Files folder and will be transformed with the SFDC_ID Fix program.

Documents

Converting from ACT! to Salesforce · 3 JLTechnical Group Migration_Summary.CSV – this is a list of the custom ACT! Fields. If you plan to transfer these, you will need to add them