Thanks Sid.

The transform where I require the maximum of the string is connected to a merge join and then further transforms are performed. Using a destination is not appropriate.

I’m...

thanks everyone for your input.

Thanks Catherine & Chris.

Catherine … I’m going down the OLE DB Provider for Exchange path.  I’ll let you know how I go.

Thanks everyone for your input.  We’ve come up with a reasonable solution.  It’s not best practice … but it works and it’s not too nasty.  In short...

Ian,

I appreciate the need to share solutions ... but our solution is tooooo nasty.  We have implemented a high maintenance solution which is not scaleable … but we will revisit! 

Cheers

Thanks Robert & Andrew for contributing to this thread.

We’ve found a rather nasty way to get around this problem.

Thanks Ijaz

That it's!  It's working.

Thanks Nathan.

Yes ... of course.

Thanks Wanderer

Thanks for the advice.  I'll seek alternatives.

Cheers

Thanks Bob

I have set ValidateExternalMetadata = False, and this does remove the Column Mapping error.  However I now get the...

Thanks Jo, Andy & Jeff.  I’ve been out of action … hence my delayed response. 

I have improved the performance significantly by implementing each...