Magento - Customer import slow - looking to optimise script - magento

Question

I have a cron that imports/updates 3000 customers everyday. This however takes approx 5 hours... I need to do this everyday so I'm trying to optimise my code for speed.
This is my current code:
// ~3000 customers
foreach($results as $customerRecord) {
// customer general data:
$customer = $customerModel;
$customer->setWebsiteId($websiteId);
$email = $customerRecord['cc_email'];
$password = $email; // set password same as email
$customer->loadByEmail($email);
$customer->setEmail($email);
$nameAr = explode(" ", $customerRecord['cc_name']);
$customer->setFirstname($nameAr[0]);
$customer->setLastname($nameAr[1]);
$customer->setPassword($password);
// custom attributes
$customer->setCustomerFromOw("Yes");
$customer->setCdOwAccount($customerRecord['cd_ow_account']);
$customer->setDiscountStructureName($customerRecord['discount_structure_name']);
$customer->setPriceListName($customerRecord['price_list_name']);
$customer->setCcdCreditLimit($customerRecord['ccd_credit_limit']);
$customer->setCcdtBalance($customerRecord['ccdt_balance']);
$customer->setAdditionalPriceLists($customerRecord['additional_price_lists']);
$customer->setOwDeliveryRates($customerRecord['ow_delivery_rates']);
// Netzarbeiter CustomerActivation - ensure set to true
$customer->setCustomerActivated(true);
try {
$customer->setConfirmation(null);
// Netzarbeiter CustomerActivation - ensure set to true
$customer->setCustomerActivated(true);
$customer->save();
}
catch (Exception $ex) {
Zend_Debug::dump($ex->getMessage());
Mage::log('FAIL: Customer with email '.$email.' - '.$ex->getMessage(), null, 'sulman.log');
}
// customer delivery address:
$_delivery_address = array (
'firstname' => $nameAr[0],
'lastname' => $nameAr[1],
'street' => array (
'0' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_address1'],
'1' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_address2']." ".$customerRecord['cd_invoice_address3'],
),
'city' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_town'],
'region_id' => '',
'region' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_county'],
'postcode' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_postcode'],
'country_id' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_country_code'],
'telephone' => $customerRecord['cd_invoice_telephone'],
'company'=> $customerRecord['cd_invoice_name'],
);
$customAddress = Mage::getModel('customer/address');
$customAddress->setData($_delivery_address)
->setCustomerId($customer->getId())
->setIsDefaultBilling('1')
->setIsDefaultShipping('1')
->setSaveInAddressBook('1');
try {
$customAddress->save();
}
catch (Exception $ex) {
Zend_Debug::dump($ex->getMessage());
}
}
I really can't see any other way of doing this - but if anyone can see a way to optimise this I would appreciate it!
Thanks

Answer 1

Use AvS_FastSimpleImport module for import customer fast below is like for module.
https://github.com/avstudnitz/AvS_FastSimpleImport
You need to pass data in array format for import customers.
require_once 'src/app/Mage.php';
umask(0);
Mage::app()->setCurrentStore(Mage_Core_Model_App::ADMIN_STORE_ID);
$data[] = array('firstname' => "test",
.....
);
try {
/** #var $import AvS_FastSimpleImport_Model_Import */
$import = Mage::getModel('fastsimpleimport/import');
$import->processCustomerImport($data);
} catch (Exception $e) {
print_r($import->getErrorMessages());
}