Data Duplication is a problem that is faced by almost every business organization. Especially in case a firm is handling their database using a CRM, duplication of data can cause major problems. For example, two of your sales staff members got intact with a same person, both of them generated two different contacts of the same person in the CRM and both of them started to pursuit the same opportunity separately. Firstly, it gives a bad impression to the client that the people of same organization are persuading him/her independently for the same opportunity. Moreover, it is a wastage of resources and time of the business as two of the staff members are working on the same lead. Similarly, data duplication & Vtiger CRM go hand in hand
Problems that data duplication causes
Data duplication causes following threats
- Inefficient business processes: Duplicate data makes the business process inconsistent. It makes the processes slow and poor in performance. For example a firm have 1,00,000 original records and for the 20% of records the duplicate exists. This means that the total record are 1,20,000. So, it means your CRM will process the 20% of the records twice which is totally unnecessary. thus making the business processes slow and inefficient.
- Communication Problem: Data Duplication also causes hinderance in the process of communication. For example, their is a contact named Sam, a duplicate of the contact exists. So, the process of communication with Sam is taking place at two different instances and it is quite possible that the duplication causes miscommunication and results in a bad customer experience.
- Faulty Reporting: Another major problem caused by the data duplication is faulty reporting, which act as a base of bad decisions. For example, duplication of data causes false forecasting and resulting into poor quality of decision making based on that forecast.
- Customer Service Issues: When a duplicate of a record of customer exists, getting into the bottom of that customers problem becomes quite difficult.. Customers have to face the delays, hence causing poor customer service.
- Increased Cost: Data duplication causes inefficient use of resources thus increasing the overall costs of a business.
Data Duplication is a real threat, some organizations do not consider it as a major problem . But, it effects the business aspects like productivity, costs,, customer satisfaction greatly. It is better to deal it on time and almost every CRM provides a solution for data duplication.
How VTiger prevents Data Duplication
VTiger CRM has a built in feature where it checks for the duplicate data and the prevents the duplication. VTiger’s feature stops the duplicate record creation by default, it helps in avoiding the data duplication and issues related to it. but if you need a more advanced and comprehensive data duplication solution then take a look at VTExperts Duplicate, Check and Merge extension 
What is VTExperts Duplicate, Check and Merge Extension
VTiger has an extremely useful extension, by the name of VTiger Duplicate Check and Merge to find and merge any duplicate records that exist. It can put an end to any potential duplicate. Not only VTiger Duplicate Check and Merge can assist in ALL Standard and Custom Modules but it can also work as a duplicate check fields for any configurable Standard and Custom fields. On all the possible points like Summary View, Create and Edit Views, Quick Create and Detail View, duplicates are checked, hence, eliminating any possibility of errors.
Duplicate, Check and Merge Extension
- Real Time (As you type) potential Duplicate Record Check
- Ability to manually query any field for duplicates from the detail view
- Full Edit & Create views supported
- Duplicate checking on Quick Create
- Real Time (As you type) duplicate prevention on Summary View
- Duplicates displayed in an easy to understand popup
- Ability to view possible duplicate records from the record view
- Cross Module Duplicate Check Support (e.g Contact.Phone > Lead.Phone)
- Do not allow to create/save duplicate records (New feature)
- Duplicate notifications on the Summary view
- Works ANY Standard & Custom VTiger Module
- It can also check the standard as well as custom field for the duplicates
- Ability to Merge duplicates on the fly
- Flexible Configuration Panel to control every field & module
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