Participant
The University of Manchester
Industry
Education
Target
Address duplicate contact records in Microsoft Dynamics through a structured SSIS-based approach that supports accurate record handling and stronger data quality controls.
Challenge
- Removing over 100,000 duplicate contact records in Microsoft Dynamics
- Identifying and merging records accurately at scale
- Establishing stronger controls to help prevent future duplication
KingswaySoft Solution
Value Delivered
Supported a structured duplicate management process in Microsoft Dynamics, enabling the university to identify duplicate contact records, carry out record merges accurately, validate the solution through a proof of concept, and strengthen data quality controls within the system through a more dependable and configurable SSIS-based approach.
Overview
The University of Manchester is a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities in the UK. As a large institution with a broad and established technology landscape, it relies on an extensive integration environment to support ongoing academic and operational activities. Andy Lea, Integration Specialist, manages more than 600 integrations across over 50 IT systems, supporting both real-time and batch processes.
Within an environment of this scale, maintaining high-quality data in core business systems is essential to operational consistency and effective system management. As part of a broader Microsoft Dynamics project, the university needed to identify and merge duplicate contact records while also strengthening data quality controls within the platform.
The Challenge
The university's Microsoft Dynamics environment contained over 100,000 duplicate contact records that needed to be removed as part of a broader initiative. The team’s objective was not only to identify and merge existing duplicate records, but also to establish an alternate key for contacts to help prevent future duplication.
In this case, duplicate identification was relatively straightforward because records could be matched through the alternate key. The challenge came from the number of existing contact records that already shared the same value. The university needed a dependable solution that could support the required record handling steps accurately and within its existing SSIS environment.
The Solution
The University of Manchester utilized KingswaySoft's SSIS Integration Toolkit, including Duplicate Detector and its Dynamics CRM/Dataverse components, to configure the full duplicate management process in Microsoft Dynamics. The solution supported identifying duplicate records, selecting a master record, calling the built-in Dynamics merge process, resending contact information into Dynamics, and moving alternate key information off records that had already been merged. KingswaySoft also enabled the team to read and update Dynamics data while monitoring job progress during execution. To validate the approach early, the team used a downloadable sample SSIS solution from KingswaySoft as a proof of concept, which helped confirm the design and support further refinement.
The Results
By implementing KingswaySoft for this initiative, the University of Manchester was able to cleanse duplicate contact data in Microsoft Dynamics and execute the required record management process effectively. The project helped the team address a significant data quality issue while also supporting stronger controls to reduce the risk of future duplication.
KingswaySoft's configurable functionality, product reliability, and strong documentation helped the team move efficiently from proof of concept to execution. For the university, the value extended beyond duplicate removal to ensuring the process was completed properly.
Delivered Improvements
100K+ duplicate records addressed
600+ integrations in the environment
50+ IT systems across the university
Production run completed successfully
"KingswaySoft provided the reliable and easily configurable functionality we needed to complete the project properly. The documentation was strong, the proof of concept worked the first time, and we were able to refine the process as needed before running it successfully in production."
Andy Lea
Integration Specialist
University of Manchester
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