After a user’s contact has been added to the firm list, the contact is connected to the firm contact. When a contact is connected, information for the contact can also be connected if the user has not chosen to keep the information confidential. For contact information that is connected, updates can be sent to the firm contact or back to the user contact. For example, if Ed Roberts edits the address for a contact, that address change is also made on the firm contact. Similarly, if a phone number is changed on the firm’s version of the contact, the phone number on Ed’s contact can also be updated.
A user’s updates to contact information may not immediately be applied to the firm version of the contact. This is because the change may be subject to review by Data Change Management. For more information, see How Does Data Change Management Handle Updates to Information Users Contribute to the Firm List?
For more information, see the following sections:
- Updating Firm Contacts with Changes from User Contacts
- Updating User Contacts with Changes from Firm Contacts
- Handling Changes to Contact Information
Updating Firm Contacts with Changes from User Contacts
When a user connects a contact in his or her contact list with a contact in the firm list, any updates the user makes to his or her contact are sent to the firm, unless the user has chosen to keep that information confidential.
Editing User Contact Information from the InterAction Web Client
If a user changes contact information for a user contact from the InterAction Web Client, the change is immediately sent to the firm. InterAction Data Change Management rules then determine if the change can be made immediately or if a data steward must approve the change before it is applied. A user can choose to keep a piece of contact information confidential if he or she does not wish to contribute the contact information to the firm list.
Editing User Contact Information from Outlook
If a user edits contact information for a user contact from Outlook, these changes do not appear in the user’s contact list until the user’s Outlook contacts have been synchronized with the user contact list. After this occurs, another synchronization process, called User to Firm Contact Sync is used to send any updates the user made to contacts while working from Outlook to the firm contact with which the user contact is connected. Once these changes are sent to the firm through User to Firm Contact Sync, InterAction Data Change Management rules determine if the change can be made or if a data steward must approve the change. For more information on User to Firm Contact Sync, see User to Firm Contact Sync Process.
Users can choose to keep a piece of contact information confidential if they do not wish to contribute the contact information to the firm list.
Updating User Contacts with Changes from Firm Contacts
For contacts in their contact lists, users can choose if they want to review updates from the firm before they are applied to their contacts or users can have the updates automatically applied to their contacts. When a user first adds a contact to the firm list, the user’s new contact default settings determine if the contact automatically receives updates.
After a user has contributed a contact to the firm list, the user can change how updates are applied to contacts. For example, after reviewing updates for a contact, the user may decide he or she no longer wants to have to go through the review process and may choose to automatically keep the contact up to date.
Users can change their update settings for all contacts in their contact list by changing the new contact defaults for contact updates and selecting to update all contacts in their contact lists.
Additional options are available with receiving updates to facilitate the passing of quality data between user contact lists and the firm list. For example, users can configure their InterAction settings to:
- Automatically apply updates that are just changes to the formatting of contact information.
- Automatically fill in information fields that are blank for the user’s contact, when the firm version of the contact has a value.
- Show updates available for information the user has chosen to keep confidential when the user is manually reviewing contact updates. Updates are never automatically applied to information a user has chosen to keep confidential.
Users may often choose to manually review updates to their contacts when InterAction is first rolled out because they may not trust the information coming from others in the firm. Over time, however, users often realize that the updates are correct and may wish to begin receiving updates.
For details, see Handling Changes to Contact Information.
Administering a User's Contact Update Settings
Using InterAction Administrator, you can maintain the contact update settings for each user’s contact list. You can manage all of the following:
- The update review setting used when the user adds a contact to the firm list
- Whether minor updates are automatically updated, including formatting updates and filling in blank fields on user contacts
- Whether updates to confidential contact information are presented to the user for review
You cannot administer the update setting a user has specified for an individual contact.
For instructions, on how to administer a user’s contact update settings, see Configuring Contact Update Settings.
Can I Require Users to Have Updates Automatically Applied to Contacts?
Your organization can configure InterAction to always automatically apply updates to a user’s contact information. When this option is selected, the user cannot manually review updates for any contact information he or she is contributing to the firm list.
For more information, see Reducing the Updates to Review.
Handling Changes to Contact Information
The following sections explain how updates to contact information flow between user contacts and firm contacts. The way in which updates are passed between two connected contacts depend on all of the following:
- Whether the change is made to the firm contact or the user contact
- Whether the user has chosen to contribute the information or keep it confidential
- Whether the user has chosen to automatically apply updates to his or her contacts or if the user has chosen to manually review updates
All changes made to a firm contact’s information through User to Firm Contact Sync are subject to Data Change Management for the firm contact. If the firm contact is updated with a value from a change a user made to his or her contact, the change may not immediately appear if the change must first be approved by the data steward.
Name and Employment Information Changes
Most changes users make to name and employment information must be contributed to the firm contact from the user’s contact. Because all name and employment information fields are single-value, the updating of this information is relatively simple.
For example, consider the following: Jane Tarnoff is both a user contact and a firm contact. Jane’s department changes from “Accounting” to “Finance.” The following flowchart illustrates how this change is handled, depending on where the change is made, and whether the user has chosen to keep the information confidential.
If information changes for both the firm contact and the user contact, the User to Firm Contact Sync does the following:
Phone Number and Address Changes
When a user adds a new phone number, address or electronic address to his or her contact, the new item is added to the firm contact unless it matches an existing address, phone number, or electronic address on the firm contact. If there is a match with an existing phone number, address, or electronic address on the firm contact, it is connected to that item.
Phone numbers and addresses for the user’s contact that are connected to phones and addresses for the firm’s contact use the following rules for updates:
- Edit - Changes made to addresses, phone numbers, or electronic addresses on a user contact are applied to the address, phone number, or electronic address to which the changed item is connected.
- Delete - If a user deletes a phone, address, or electronic address for a contact in his or her contact list, the item in the firm list to which the phone number, address, or electronic address is connected is also deleted.
Sharing Phone Numbers and Addresses from a Company Automatically
When phone numbers and addresses are added or edited for person contacts, InterAction checks the firm contact’s associated company information for matching information. For example, consider the following:
Sharing Information from a Company
| Before the Synchronization | After the Synchronization | |
| User Contact Information | Firm Contact Information | Results |
| The user adds a new Business 2 Phone of 555-1400 to a person in his or her contacts. | The person’s associated company has a business phone of 555-1400, but that phone number is not shared by the person contact. | The user contact’s phone number (555-1400) is connected to the phone number (555-1400) that is now displayed for the firm contact and shared from the person’s associated company. |
What Happens if Both Sides Change During a Sync Cycle?
Depending on which of the following types of synchronization is used, the way conflicting changes are handled is different:
- User to Firm Contact Sync
- Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync
User to Firm Contact Sync
If information is changed for both the user contact and the firm contact, the user’s change is used during User to Firm Contact Sync. This processing is on a field-by-field basis, not on a contact-by-contact basis. For example, if the business phone number is changed for both the user’s contact and the firm’s contact, the user’s change to the phone number is sent to the firm. However, if the user changes the name for a contact while the firm changes the phone number, the user’s name change is sent to the firm, while the phone number change made to the firm’s contact is sent to the user contact.
Microsoft Outlook to InterAction Sync
If information is changed for both an Outlook version of a contact and a contact in the user’s InterAction contact list, the change from InterAction updates the Outlook version. This processing is done on a field-by-field basis. For example, if the business phone number is changed for both the user’s contact in InterAction and the Outlook version of the contact, the change to the phone number from InterAction updates Outlook. However, if the name for a contact is changed in Outlook while the phone number for a contact is changed for the user contact in InterAction, Outlook is updated with the phone number change from InterAction while InterAction is updated with the name change from Outlook.
How Does Data Change Management Handle Updates to Information Users Contribute to the Firm List?
Firm contacts can be managed by Data Change Management rules that determine whether a change that a user makes to a contact’s information can be automatically accepted or if it must be approved by a data steward before the change can be applied. When a user changes information for a user contact, the user is essentially editing the information for the firm contact unless the user has chosen to keep the update confidential. If a Data Change Management rule determines that the edit a user made requires a data steward to approve the edit before it is applied to the firm contact, the user’s change does not automatically update the firm contact. Instead, a ticket is sent to the data steward responsible for managing the contact’s information. When the data steward approves the change, the firm contact is updated with the information.
What Happens if the User's Change is Rejected by the Data Steward?
When a data steward rejects a change, the data steward can email the user and explain why the change was rejected. If the change was sent to a data steward for review or approval and the change was rejected, InterAction displays the original value that was kept for the firm contact as an update to the user contact. If the user is automatically accepting updates, then the user’s contact is reverted back to the original value.
For more information on Data Change Management, see the InterAction for Data Stewards and Marketing Users guide.