몇 일전 나는 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 에서 대형 사용자 지정 엔터티를 만들어야 했다. 이 엔터티는 여러 종류의 150 개이상의 사용자정의 속성을 가지고 있었고, 내 머리와 손가락은 벌써 수동으로 이 엔터티 만들 생각에 욱씬욱씬 거렸다. 나는 레거시 시스템에서 추출한 각각의 필드가 정의되어 있는 excel 스프레드시트를 가지고 있었고, 그것을 직접 입력 할 생각에 질려버렸다.

Then I remembered a tool in my CRM tool chest that I rarely use—the CRM Data Migration Manager. If you read the Customer Effective blog regularly, you probably know that we typically use Scribe Insight for integrations and migrations. The standard CRM import tools are good for simple data imports, but lack the depth of features to do updates or scheduled migrations.

However, there is one feature of the Data Migration Manager that doesn’t exist in any other import tool (as far as I know). That’s the ability to create new entities or attributes. And while you may use other tools, such as Scribe, for the actual data migration, this functionality of the DMM can make it a very useful tool to add to the mix.

Using the Data Migration Manager I cut what otherwise would have taken and hour and a half down to 10-15 minutes. My fingers thanked me.

So here is how you would use the CRM Data Migration Manager to create a new entity:

Step 1: Create a spreadsheet of your data. The columns should be the database/schema names you want your attributes to have. Include at least one row of sample data.

Step 2: Launch the Data Migration Manager and create a new mapping.

Step 3: Select “Create a custom Microsoft Dynamics CRM Entity.

Step 4: Define the Entity, including the name and the primary attribute. 

Step 5: The wizard will guide you through creating the new attributes. Select the field type for each field.

Step 6: When finished, the Data Migration Manager will create the entity and attributes for you.

Ready to go!