Duplicate Appointments
Maximizer has features which allow end users to schedule meetings and appointments with other Maximizer users and Address Book entries. Calendar appointments can be associated with Address Book entries; Campaigns; Customer Service cases; and Opportunities; or they can be personal. If you see same appointment; with same subject; description; date/time and attendees then it is a duplicate.
There is specific way Maximizer stores each individual appointment in the back-end (MS SQL tables) and if that process is compromised then end user will see a duplicate in their Maximizer calendar and Outlook calendar. Maximizer store Data_Machine_Id (1); Sequence_Number (2);Owner_Id along other data fields (date/times; description etc..)
Duplicate Hotlist Tasks
The Hotlist is a timeless to-do list of tasks and reminders. Tasks include calling and writing to customers. They contain almost the same information the appointment has. If you see same task recorded multiple times in Hotlist task windows then it is duplicate.
Duplicate Contacts
Contacts are database entities and they contain series of relationships amongst appointments; tasks; notes; documents etc... Contacts also have Data_Machine_Id; Sequence_Number; Client_Id; Contact_Number which makes them unique. Usually duplicate contacts don't have any notes; documents; and other UDF fields. If you see same contact recorded twice or more with no notes and documents then they are duplicates.
How Outlook-Maximizer Synchronization Works and Source of Duplication
The key thing to know here is that in order to keep your contacts; appointments; and tasks in sync; Maximizer stores a mapping between entries in Maximizer and entries in Outlook. As mentioned above; Maximizer will store unique Data_Machine_Id (1); Sequence_Number (2); Client_Id (3); Contact_Number (4) for each appointment; task or contact accordingly. When you first synchronize an entry; let's say a contact; Maximizer stores the unique Data_Machine_Id of the Address Book entry in Maximizer along with the unique Client_Id of its corresponding entry in Outlook. This mapping is stored for each and every entry that is synchronized; and lets Maximizer's synchronization engine know which Outlook entry corresponds to which Maximizer entry and vice-versa.
Now lets say; if you have created separate Outlook profile; your exchange server is different or you moved to new computer; some of the information that your Outlook will provide to Maximizer will be different (different Data_Machine_Id; different sequence number etc...). This will enforce Maximizer to create fresh entries in Maximizer's back-end for those specific records although they already exist in Maximizer.
The main sources trigger that duplications are:
- Synchronization from multiple computers.
- Your outlook profile has changed; your domain id is different now; your mail server or exchange server is different now
- Past corrupted sync sessions. Sometime it is trigger by old corrupted sync sessions as Maximizer keeps the track of each sync you made with Outlook.
Good practices to avoid or remove duplication in appointments; tasks and contacts
Appointment and Tasks
You can avoid the duplication in appointments and tasks by turning off sync from multiple computers. If you have to move your Outlook profile or use a different computer then try to keep same domain ID; same exchange profile and confirm this option is checked. Ignore computer name under Maximizer-Outlook preference.
Maximizer support will help you with removing the duplicate appointments and tasks if you're on valid maintenance via back-end. If you don't have valid maintenance or running unsupported product you can ask our business partner in your area.
Contacts
You can not stop the duplication of contacts even if you keep the same domain ID and exchange server profile during sync process. It will occur and the only way to remove them is manually. There are some good practices which can help you to lookup for duplicate contacts in your Maximizer and then sort them and delete.
- Pull all your contacts first using Advanced Search; then go to the option to Find Duplicates in Selected under Search menu (if you're using web-version).
For desktop go to Search tab and click Check Duplicate under Validation section. It will pull all the duplicate entries based on your duplicate checking criteria under Admin module.
You can either merge your entries one by one by selecting them and go to Edit Menu and combine entries. - If you don't want to combine the entries and just want to delete them; find the Creation date and Creator by selecting a particular duplicate contact and click System information under the Details tab of that contact in web version or right click the entry and click Properties on the desktop version of Maximizer.
- Once you find the Creation Date and Creator; run Advanced Search to include Creation Date and Creator field in your search; provide your Creation Date (the one from the duplicate entry) and Creator Name (user).
- Set both to Must match all under search condition; select Individual and Contacts; and set to Narrow List.
Once you get the list; you can sample few entries to confirm they are actually duplicate and don't have any Documents and Notes associated and then delete them. Cleaning up the duplicate entries in Maximizer is only half the story though; you still need to get rid of the duplicate entries in Outlook as well. Just as in Maximizer; this is a mostly manual process in Outlook; but Microsoft has created a help article with some suggestions for how to clean up duplicate entries in Outlook. Once you have cleaned up the duplicate entries you can resume synchronization between Maximizer and Outlook and get back to business as usual.
- Data_Machine_Id (1) :System-generated unique database ID used for MaxExchange synchronization in previous versions. This field is read-only unless accessed This field cannot be updated.
- Sequence_Number (2) : System-generated unique record ID used for MaxExchange synchronization in previous versions. This field is read-only unless accessed. This field cannot be updated.
- Client_Id (3) : Unique client identification string
- Contact_Number (4) : Unique client identification number for contacts.