When users create new person contacts in InterAction, the new contact wizard uses the last name and company name entered on the first panel to search the database for any exiting contacts that match the new contact. Matching contacts are then displayed on the next wizard panel.
If one of the matches is the contact the user intended to create, he or she can select the matching contact and add additional information to it as needed. This helps keep duplicates out of your system and saves users time when creating new contacts.
First Panel of New Contact Wizard (Web and Windows Versions)
[A] First panel of the new contact wizard in the Web Client.
Note that the InterAction new contact wizard available from Microsoft® Outlook® looks similar to this one.
[B] First panel of the new contact wizard in the Windows Client.
[C] The last name entered here is used to check the database for existing contacts. This prevents the user from entering a duplicate if someone else has already added the contact.
Matching Contacts Displayed in the New Contact Wizard (Web and Windows Versions)
[A] Matches panel in the new contact wizard in the Web Client.
[B] Possible Duplicates panel in the new contacts wizard in the Windows Client
[C] The user can review the matching contacts. If one of these matches is the contact the user intended to create, he or she can select it and add information to the contact rather than creating a duplicate.
In this example, InterAction is configured to do a full name match when looking for matching people.
Similar search processing takes place when a Web Client user adds a contact in his or her list to the firm list, or when a Windows Client user promotes a contact to the firm list. As with the new contact wizard, InterAction searches for any matching contacts to ensure that the user does not create a duplicate.
You can configure the search used in these situations to do either a full match or partial match search. Note that you can only configure the search used when creating or promoting person contacts. Although the new contact wizard for companies also does a search for duplicates, the company search is based on the company name and cannot be configured.
You set type of search to use in InterAction Administrator. See the following topics:
- What is the Difference Between a Full Match and a Partial Match Search?
- Set the Type of Search Used for the New Contact Wizard
What is the Difference Between a Full Match and a Partial Match Search?
In a full match search, the new contact wizard searches for people whose last names exactly match the information entered in the wizard. In contrast, in a partial match search, the wizard searches for people whose last names contain the name entered. Typically, using the partial match option yields more possible duplicates.
For example, assume you entered Jane Smith in the new contact wizard. In this case, InterAction needs to check the database for an existing Jane Smith contact. Your results would be similar to the following:
| Type of Search | Sample Results |
|---|---|
|
Full Match (Only contacts with the last name of "Smith" are found) |
Jane Smith John Smith Jonathan Smith Tina Smith |
|
Partial Match (Any contacts with "Smith" anywhere in the last name are found) |
Jane Smith John Smith Jonathan Smith Jane Smith-Reynolds Tina Smith |
In both cases, the first names of the contacts are not a factor in the search.
InterAction uses the selected full match or partial match search when checking for duplicate contacts in the following situations:
- When a user creates a new person contact using the new contact wizard. Note that this wizard is available from the Web Client, Windows Client, and Outlook.
- When a user adds an existing person contact in his or her My Contacts list to the firm list (Web Client only).
- When a user promotes an existing person contact (Windows Client only).
The User to Firm Contact Sync automated process also checks for duplicate contacts. Since the process runs without any user available to select the matching contact, it always uses the full match search rather than the partial match search.
For most organizations, the full match search option is the best option. This gives users a smaller set of possible matches when creating new contacts.
The partial match search is useful if your organization’s users frequently enter partial names when creating new contacts. For example, if many people in your database have multiple or hyphenated last names, users might find it easier to enter just one part of the name rather than the full name. In this case, the user needs the larger set of possible matches in order to avoid creating duplicates.
Keep in mind that the option applies to all users in your environment; you cannot set the search to use partial matches for some users and full matches for others.
Set the Type of Search Used for the New Contact Wizard
- Log on to InterAction Administrator.
- Double-click Configuration in the entity list to open the InterAction Configuration dialog box.
- Select the New/Edit Person tab.
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Under When searching for matching contacts, select the search option you want to use.
To Select Set the new contact wizard to always do a full match search Perform a full match Set the new contact wizard to always do a partial match Perform a partial match For a description of the difference between these options, see What is the Difference Between a Full Match and a Partial Match Search?.
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Choose OK to save your changes.