Enjoy stress-free data management and cleansing with full control over deduplication, standardization, import, export, and even email verification.
Highlights
- Discover the ultimate one-stop shop for all your organization’s data-related needs.
- Say goodbye to duplicates with detailed rules, matching criteria, and granular field value selection across all objects.
- Import, export, and delete your CRM data with confidence.
- Process large amounts of data at record speed with a dedicated desktop app.
- Don’t lose sight of any activity with proactive notifications and monitoring mechanisms.
Data is foundational to most CRM processes, and with recent technological advancements such as Generative AI and Data Cloud, it’s more important than ever to ensure your data cleansing and maintenance strategy is up to par. Manually checking all records is not a scalable option, and while there are a few out-of-the-box solutions to help you along the way, these can often require a lot of work and be difficult to maintain.
Validity’s DemandTools has been around in different iterations for over two decades, always changing and improving alongside their customer’s needs. This comprehensive solution comes to your aid with an array of functionalities that can help you achieve a versatile, adaptable, and secure end-to-end data quality process. Sounds like a dream come true!
This in-depth review will showcase DemandTools’ main features, ideal use cases, and the setup effort you can expect, as well as how fast you and your colleagues can (and will) adopt this new product.
Features
DemandTools brings multiple data cleansing and maintenance functionalities under one umbrella allowing you to take full control of one of your most valuable assets – your data. There are twelve modules available in the DemandTools platform including DupeBlocker, a managed package that automatically merges duplicates as they enter your Salesforce Org.,
The modules, as you’ll find out, represent different processes and use cases that DemandTools can be used for – let’s take a closer look at what they entail.
Start With Your Assessment
Before building any scenarios yourself, you can quickly get started with the Assess module to take a closer look at your data. With a readily available default assessment that evaluates multiple key data points, this assessment takes the guesswork out of the most common problems organizations can face when it comes to their Lead, Contact, Account, and Opportunity data.
You’ll be notified via email when the assessment is completed and you can access the results through the link provided. These are displayed in MyValidity (the Validity customer portal) so that you can easily share them with other stakeholders, manipulate them through filters (such as object or timeframe), and go through the record breakdown for each of the issue types.
You then have the choice to schedule this assessment or customize it to the fields actively used in your org.
Deduplication
One of the hottest topics in Salesforce data management is duplicates – whether that is preventing them or cleaning up the ones that already exist. While Salesforce does offer out-of-the-box matching and duplicate rules, we’re all aware of their limitations, such as the settings being overwritten when records are inserted or updated using Salesforce APIs. However, cleaning data manually is very rarely a feasible option – it depends on how complex the criteria is and the volume of records to be processed.
DemandTools’ Dedupe module aims to resolve this pain point by offering a mechanism accessible to both admins and users alike that takes away most of the complexity of resolving the duplicate problem across all your Salesforce objects.
Criteria and Comparison Types
Matching criteria sits at the core of any deduplication process. While the actual deduplication can be automated using DemandTools, the duplicate identification criteria is something that you’ll have to come up with in the very beginning, following discussions with your business stakeholders. A straightforward example is the answer to the question “What’s considered to be a duplicate Account?”, which will lead you to the criteria that is to be used to find duplicates for Account records. Preconfigured scenarios are readily available within the Dedupe module to give you a starting point for these conversations.
After accessing the Dedupe module, you need to select the source. This can be any standard or custom CRM object, a Dedupe File, or results from DupeBlocker (covered below). If the CRM Object is your source you can choose to perform a reparented merge to identify and merge duplicate related records. Accounts and Contacts could be merged within the same process as everything can be efficiently configured in one place to account for all implications related records may pose.
It’s important to note that DemandTools supports five levels of upward relational lookup, meaning that when adding the selection conditions, you can also filter based on data from such fields. In this particular example, you could quickly filter the Accounts based on the Account Owner’s manager attributes.
Once the source and records are selected, the next step is to define the fields that are to be compared and the Comparison Type for each of them. These Comparison Types are used across multiple DemandTools modules, so make sure to take a close look at all available options here.
While there’s no limit to how many conditions you can add, all of them have to be met for potential duplicates to be identified.
Following the criteria being defined for both the parent and child records if needed, you can take a look at the results and perform your very first merge!
Winner Rules
While you can select the surviving record manually (as I did above), what if the volume is much higher and therefore not manageable? Meet DemandTools’ Winner Rules – a way to automate how winners are identified instead of spending time manually going through each group, you can simply take a final look at the end before publishing the merge into Salesforce.
DemandTools includes a few out-of-the-box rules that you can use, however, you can also create your own bespoke ones. Additionally, depending on the way you choose to work with the results, you can apply the rule to all of the duplicate groups or to a subset you’ve already selected on the results screen.
Field Rules
In addition to the Winner Rules above, you can leverage Field Rules to determine which record-specific field values are retained on the surviving record. Note that these rules override field values in the winning record as defined by a Winner Rule.
Within each field rule, you can select the behavior for choosing all fields at once or determine a different way of taking the value for each field. For example, you could default to the value from the newest or oldest record, do a sum or average between the fields from all identified duplicates, or even use a constant if needed.
DupeBlocker
DemandTools also includes a native Salesforce app called DupeBlocker, for real time prevention of duplicates as they are entered by end users, web forms, or other system integrations.,
In addition to managing the duplicates across any standard or custom object directly within your CRM, DupeBlocker allows you to customize your matching rules and have more than one set of rules evaluating records to maximize your chances for accurate duplicate identification. If a duplicate match is found, then users are presented with a few options, such as: Do Not Insert, Redirect to Existing Record, Report Duplicate to Admin, Do Nothing, or Auto-Merge/Auto-Convert depending on the action the user is attempting (either insert or update).
Also, there are customizable matching types for greater flexibility, within the Clean Account Name Settings, you can quickly define if any characters or keywords should be replaced, and what prefixes and suffixes should be considered. All these settings are up to you, and though multiple common ones are already added out of the box, you can pick and choose what you need.
Modify
Field value standardization and mass-changing field data are popular use cases among DemandTools users as the platform allows them to pick and choose, field by field, how each field value on any object should be updated. There’s no limit to the combinations you can make, and you’ll be able to obtain the exact result you’re looking for.
While you can input a static value in free text format for any of the fields, chances are that you’ll need the value to be dynamic. The replacement value can also be set via a formula which you can build within the DemandTools formula editor. For all available functions and what they do, make sure to take a look over the formula dictionary.
Keep in mind that almost every formula you may use in Excel is supported, with the added bonus of syntax checking and guidance, as well as examples that go way beyond Excel, such as IntlPhoneFix which standardizes phone numbers while also including the country codes accordingly.
On top of using formulas and predefined values, there are a few more options worth considering depending on the use case. Field Aggregate allows you to aggregate information from child objects just like you would with a rollup summary field, but this is not limited to Master-Detail relationships. \
For example, you could easily display the sum of Open Opportunities on an Account field of your choice, but you could also do the same thing for a custom Object that has a lookup relationship to the Account. You don’t even need to create a field unless needed, since the information can simply be exported – cool, right?
Other options include Field to Field for when the value you’re looking for is already stored in a different field, Record Count if you’d like to obtain the count of child records, or even Touch Records which triggers an update on LastModifiedDate to start Salesforce Flows and other automations without changing actual field values.
Match
The main use case for the Match module is to help you match information from external files with information from your Salesforce records.
For example, this will ensure you don’t create duplicates when working with marketing lists, and even more so, there will no longer be a need to use separate sheets to compare data, as you can do so directly within this DemandTools module – goodbye v-lookup and outdated information! If it’s not your first time using this module, you may choose to load an already saved scenario, especially for an exercise or comparison that you have to run often.
Similar to what you would do when defining how duplicates are identified, you’d map the fields from your source document to the Salesforce record fields and choose the comparison type. It’s your choice how rigid or open you’d like to be when it comes to these, but more often than not the match won’t be exact.
After taking a look at the results, if needed, you also have the option of exporting the data or subset of data you need, or continuing with an insert, update, or upsert in Salesforce depending on the scenario at hand.
Import, Export, and Delete
One of the most used DemandTools modules is the Import module – which is also included in the free version of the app. You can choose either an org or a file as the source, and regardless of which option you’re going for, you’ll be able to either match using a Key Field (the record ID) or other criteria.
In situations when users ask for data to be imported but don’t have the record ID in the file, the option to match anything using match conditions becomes really useful. This criteria also becomes the identification mechanism used to prevent the import of duplicate records even though the Id is not the key being used.
Before proceeding with the import, you can leverage the powerful built-in formula editor in order to modify fields using a formula rather than the value from the source. This option removes the need to manipulate data in Excel before the import and also empowers less technical users to apply standardizations to their field values during import.
Within the preview window, you can check all fields that are to be updated and also choose to enable assignment rules if needed. This checkbox refers to Lead, Case, and Account Territory assignment rules if you are using Sales Territories.
The Export and Delete modules are quite self-explanatory, each having a few dedicated options which you can choose from. When it comes to exporting data, you need to choose your object, narrow the data, and decide if you need to also export archived records. Export of Attachments and Content Documents is also supported.
The Delete module on the other hand needs you to choose if you’d like to soft delete, hard delete, or undelete from the recycle bin, depending on what you’re looking to do.
Tune
Data discovery has never been easier – the Tune module allows both admins and users to explore Salesforce records in a spreadsheet-style view with in-line editing available out of the box. On top of this, there’s a switch to enable pivot mode, which will allow the data to be visualized in a pivot table. While records can be quickly edited, they can also be merged or even deleted right from this page.
Email Verification
Make sure that all your team’s communications are properly delivered by verifying if email addresses from Leads, Contacts, and Person Accounts are correct and ready to be reached out to. The Verify module leverages Validity’s BriteVerify product, and similar to other DemandTools modules, you can choose to only apply the verification to a subset of the Lead and Contact records.
When it comes to the actual verification, you will need to create two fields where the verification results will be stored prior to running this scenario, but can choose any available Email field to verify. The results will also be nicely displayed in a chart and are available to export for further analysis.
Automation / Schedule
Jobs can include one or more scenarios, and all of them can be automated to run on a schedule of your choice (the most frequent being every five minutes). Every scheduled automation also supports notifications over Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email.
If you choose to add more than one scenario, these can be reordered so that they’ll run exactly as they need to, especially if one is using part of the output of another.
Report Actionable Records
Staying true to their commitment and effort to constantly improve their products, Validity has taken into consideration customer feedback, and there is an amazing new DemandTools feature just released!
In order for DemandTools users to further rely on Validity as their trusted advisor, DemandTools can now be set to check on records and alert you if changes are found, eliminating the need for you to monitor data with even the most specific update parameters. This pain point applies to the jobs that are very specific and require a final manual review before data alterations are published to Salesforce.
This game-changing new feature is called “Report Actionable Records” and is available as a new operation type when scheduling any scenario. Instead of actually publishing, changes will send email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams notifications so that users can go about their day without having to check anything before they’re alerted to do so.
These notifications will be sent out as soon as the scheduled job is finalized and will contain the number of records that are to be actioned for scenarios such as Lead conversion, deduplication, or even standardization. What may seem like a small change will increase the efficiency of your data management process extraordinarily.
Auditing Your DemandTools Jobs
Once you start using DemandTools you’ll surely have quite a few one-time and scheduled jobs to be monitored, so the Run History is a nice-to-have functionality that can empower you to easily review the results at a glance. While the embedded high-level widget on the homepage shows the activity from the last 30 days, clicking on “View all history” will surface what happened over the last 12 months.
A list of all scenarios will be displayed alongside the data it was executed on, the module, and who triggered the run. You can also see the breakdown of records that were actioned by each scenario as well as if it’s scheduled or not.
A nice addition to this extended list is that even if you choose not to publish to Salesforce, the scenario will still show as run and will tell you how many records it found. Depending on the type of scenario and other considerations (such as it being run in the last 15 days), the ability to natively undo will become an option. You can easily trigger this with the click of a button rather than having to create a new job, set criteria, and publish.
Use Cases
It should come as no surprise that DemandTools aims to cover all of your data quality and management needs, as long as you and your team agree on which ones should be automated and the criteria to explore, identify, and successfully schedule them. While we’ve already covered a few use cases earlier in the article, there are a couple more that shouldn’t go unmentioned.
Lead Conversion
As an out-of-the-box Salesforce process for organizations using the standard Lead object, the Lead conversion is a one-time action and cannot be reverted. This means that ideally, the Lead conversion is done well the first time around, right?
DemandTools has a dedicated module for this well-known action, which can come in handy especially when working in an environment where Leads are created for each interaction. Leads can be selected based on criteria from your entire database, from a file, or even from within the Campaign Members of an existing Campaign.
Additionally, you can narrow down the Contacts and Accounts that the Leads will be compared against.
You’ll continue by choosing the matching criteria for Contacts and Accounts. You’ll also define more settings such as who the ownership will defer to in case of inactive users, if notifications or Tasks should be created, and if an Opportunity should be automatically created or not.
Another helpful option worth exploring, especially if you already have a lookup field to the Account, is using DemandTools to perform the Lead to Account matching logic without actually changing the Salesforce process (if you already have one in place). After the Leads are processed, if Accounts are identified, you can simply add the Account Id in a Lead field to show sales teams where relationships may already exist between your organizations.
Once ready and happy with the output, you can bulk convert all Leads in the list with the click of a button – overall, a simple, straightforward, yet powerful feature that can also be automated if needed.
Manage Large Data Volumes
Regardless of the number of records that you need to deduplicate, standardize field values on, or even convert when it comes to the Lead scenario above, DemandTools has got you covered!
The advantage of having an on-premise application is that operations can run in the background while you continue your day-to-day either in Salesforce or other tools, as the processing power comes from your machine’s RAM. This way, operations can be executed in a shorter time than using other alternatives. Another added benefit is the security concerns a cloud-based product presents for industries such as the government.
From the DemandTools general settings, you can tweak the batch sizes for each of the operations, as well as for Bulk API, when working with large datasets.
Impact
From mass changes to Salesforce records, to accurate deduplication, standardization, and full control over all your data-related processes, DemandTools can become your reliable partner in crime to combat bad data in no time.
Setup
Considering the sheer amount of features DemandTools V is packed with, the installation and setup are nowhere close to what you might expect. You simply have to install the desktop app after you either sign up for a trial or purchase the product.
The app is available for Windows, MacOS, and even Linux. Once downloaded and installed, you continue by logging in with the Salesforce org(s) of your choice, and you can get started. Remember that if you choose to connect multiple orgs, you can always switch between them and even move data between them if needed.
If you opted for an initial free trial to discover what DemandTools has to offer, it’s worth noting that sandbox orgs allow users to publish changes to records such as merging or importing with no limitations. Production orgs don’t allow changes to be published, but users can get to the final step of every module and preview the changes that would be made by their scenario.
Support
DemandTools has been around for two decades, so naturally, their help center is not only very extensive but also well-organized for anyone to quickly find exactly what they’re looking for. The best place to commence your journey, however, is the Get Started guide, which covers everything you and your users might need to understand the tool and all its capabilities.
If your question is somehow not covered in the documentation, there’s nothing to worry about. You can quickly submit a support request and the team will work with you to quickly find a solution. Alternatively, you could also post your question on the community – either way, rest assured that your query will be resolved!
Once you’re comfortable using the tool and functionalities, Validity has a dedicated Academy where you can test your knowledge across individual modules and get certified in using DemandTools, earning shiny badges along the way!
Pricing
With so many features included in the full offering, DemandTools is priced competitively when considering all the advantages it can bring to your Salesforce implementation. With DemandTools Elements focused on deduplication starting at almost $3/seat/month and the full suite at $11/seat/month, both can easily be considered a steal.
Additionally, when it comes to data import, export, delete, and even verification, DemandTools Free can help your organization quickly get started at no cost. The free subscription is available as soon as you sign up.
Summary
Overall, DemandTools is a reliable data management platform trusted by many Salesforce customers due to its versatility, reliability, and continuous improvement. If you’re looking forward to supercharging your Salesforce data quality across any Standard and Custom object and seamlessly deduplicating and easily manipulating millions of records, then look no further than this one-of-a-kind product!
There’s nothing like trying a tool yourself in your very own environment in order to see how it works for your particular data problems. Request a free trial of DemandTools and enjoy 14 days of the entire functionality at absolutely no cost, schedule a call with one of their experts and they can show you a bespoke demo to ensure you get the most out of your trial.