MS CRM 2011 - Cool New Data Import Wizard

Yesterday, while trying to import some data into my dev system, I stumbled upon a cool new feature built inside the MS CRM 2011 Import Wizard - The ability to create an "Entity" and all it's attributes right during the import.
This means that I no longer have to create an entitty and then import the data into it. I can do this in one shot. Thats an AMAZING feature considering I am doing a whole bunch of mock-ups  in order to present to the client :-)

Let us walk through the steps below:

1. I have an excel sheet with some data in the following format. Let me call this "TIMETABLE"

July	Accounts	Management A/c
5	Corporate Financial reporting	Project Planning & capital budgeting
6	Corporate Restructuring	Project Planning & capital budgeting
7	Corporate Restructuring	Project Planning & capital budgeting
8	Corporate Restructuring	Project Planning & capital budgeting
9	Corporate Restructuring	Project Planning & capital budgeting
10	Consolidated Fian Stats	Project Planning & capital budgeting
11	Consolidated Fian Stats	Project Planning & capital budgeting
12	Consolidated Fian Stats	Project Planning & capital budgeting
13	Consolidated Fian Stats	Project Planning & capital budgeting
14	Consolidated Fian Stats	Leasing decisions
15	Consolidated Fian Stats	Leasing decisions
16	Consolidated Fian Stats	Leasing decisions
17	Consolidated Fian Stats	Dividend decisions
18	Consolidated Fian Stats	Dividend decisions
19	Consolidated Fian Stats	Indian capital market
20	Consolidated Fian Stats	Indian capital market
21	Consolidated Fian Stats	Indian capital market
22	Consolidated Fian Stats	Indian capital market
23	Consolidated Fian Stats	Indian capital market
24	Consolidated Fian Stats	Security Analysis
25	Consolidated Fian Stats	Security Analysis
26	Consolidated Fian Stats	Security Analysis
27	Consolidated Fian Stats	Portfolio theory
28	Consolidated Fian Stats	Portfolio theory
29	A/c & reporting of financial instruments	Portfolio theory
30	Revision	Revision
31	Revision	Revision

Now, let's use the Data Import Wizard to create and Import the Time-Table entity into CRM 2011.

2. Open CRM 2011. Click on Tools -->Import Data
3. Click on "Browse" and choose the above excel sheet which was saved in ".csv" format.

4. Click on Next.
5. Verify that the file is uploaded and click on Next again.
6. Choose the Default Automatic Mapping and click on Next

7. Now this is where the real fun begins. Choose "Create New" in the Map Record Types Screen.

8. Specify a name for this entity. In this case I call is Time Table. Click on Next

9. As you can see below, the wizard automatically recognizes the columns from the excel sheet and is asking us to specify the field names in CRM.

10. Since there are no fields yet created, I selected "Create New Field" from the dropdown list.

11. Specify the Field Name and also choose the data type for the field and then click on OK.

12. Perform the same for all the other fields that you want and then finally, click Next.

13. Verify the "Review  Mapping Summary" and click on Next.

14. Specify if you want to allow duplicates and also choose the default owner for the Imported Records. Finally click on Submit.

15. CRM will start creating the entity and the attributes for you as shown below

16. If everything is successful, it should display the screen as shown below.

17. The import job should complete successfully and after that we just need to go to the customization and customize the form and the views as per our requirement.

18. Publish the entity and voila! - we have a new Time Table entity with all the data in it.

I am going to love this feature as creating demos for customers is going to be a lot more easier from now on.

Thanks!