In most organizations, users and groups have numerous lists and databases containing contact information. Depending on how your organization previously managed this information, lists of contacts might be stored in a number of different systems, such as database applications, printed directories, rotary files, word processors, spreadsheets, and personal information managers.
The first part of analyzing your existing data sources is to identify all the sources of contact data at your organization. The process of identifying the data at your organization includes the following:
- Identifying Data Sources at Your Organization
- Determining Which Data Sources to Use When Loading Contact Information into InterAction
- Determining Which Information to Bring into InterAction
- Determining Which Contact Types to Initially Support
- Identifying Your Most Valuable Contacts
Identifying Data Sources at Your Organization
To begin identifying the data sources, look at all the contact data collections that your organization already maintains and uses. Each department may maintain a database of important contacts. For example, your marketing department may have a system that maintains contacts to which they regularly send mailings.
When identifying data sources that are managed, ensure that you take note of who is currently responsible for managing the data in the data source. Use this information later when determining the following:
- The quality of the data - the current manager of the information should be able to identify if the data is updated regularly or if it is of questionable quality.
- The business processes for which the data is used - the people who manage this information can identify what contact data from the source is used in current business processes.
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Where the information is updated on a regular basis - for most contacts, updates occur on a regular basis in InterAction. However, if the updates occur in the data source from which it was brought into InterAction, use InterAction Application Collaboration to bring these updates into InterAction on a regular basis. For example, you may use Application Collaboration to populate additional fields for client contacts on a regular basis.
If user and group information is updated regularly in Active Directory, InterAction Active Directory Sync automatically updates the corresponding user and group information in InterAction.
- Who is responsible for maintaining the contact information - avoid bringing in information for contacts unless you identify a business process for keeping the data up to date and reliable.
With the assistance of personnel at your organization who manage the different contact data collections, record the information from these data sources that should be brought into InterAction, the current source of the data, and the data manager. The following table includes examples that may help you with this process:
Organization Managed Data Source Types
| Types of Contacts/Data | Typical System Source | Managed By | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alumni | Alumni database | Human Resources or Marketing |
Access database Excel workbook |
| Clients/client personnel/former clients/top clients |
Accounting system or Time and billing system |
Accounting |
CMS Elite VPM Practice SAP |
| Experts | Experts database | Marketing or individual practice groups |
Access database Excel worksheets |
| Personnel |
Human Resource system Accounting system Time and Billing system |
Human Resources
Accounting |
Peoplesoft Abra ADP SAP |
| Marketing list recipients and sponsors | Marketing database | Marketing |
Access database Excel spreadsheets |
| Prospects/prospect contacts | Marketing database |
Marketing Business Development Practice Groups Partners |
Apex Access database Act! Excel spreadsheets Goldmine LegalEase SalesLogix |
| Charitable organizations | Marketing database | Marketing or Human Resources | Excel worksheets |
| Colleges and universities | Marketing database | Marketing or Human Resources | Excel worksheets |
| Referral sources | Marketing database |
Marketing Business Development Practice Groups Partners |
Excel worksheets |
In the next steps of the process, you will examine these data sources to determine what information to gather, the quality of the information provided, and the complexity of the actual data source.
Determining the Complexity of Your Data Sources
For each data source you identify, determine its complexity. Depending on the complexity of how the contact information is stored in the data source, you may choose different methods to bring the data into InterAction.
The method you choose also depends on whether you maintain a persistent link between the original data source and InterAction.
Determining Data Source Complexity
| Type of Data Source | Level of Complexity |
|---|---|
| Spreadsheet, CSV file, word processing document | Low |
| Relational database—highly normalized, containing fewer than eight tables and managing less than 70 fields of contact information | Moderate |
| Relational database—highly normalized, consisting of many tables and managing more than 70 fields of contact information | High |
A highly normalized database uses multiple tables to store information for each contact record. For example, your organization's accounting system is most likely highly normalized.
Typically, low complexity data sources are the easiest to manage because you can open the files in programs like Microsoft® Excel®, make any modifications necessary, and then save them into the CSV file format for import into InterAction.
More complex data sources require more resources because you must determine how to extract the contact information from the data source, how to bring the data into InterAction, and if the contacts brought into InterAction from this database should be updated with information from the external system on a regular basis.
Another indicator of complexity is the one-to-many relationships. This includes activities, addresses, phone numbers, etc. When converting a database with this type of data, the conversion is more complex.
At this point in the process, you only need to identify the complexity of the data source. Later, in “Loading Data Into InterAction” on page 41, you will identify how you want to bring the data from each source into InterAction.
Determining Which Data Sources to Use When Loading Contact Information into InterAction
After you have identified all the data sources at your organization, examine the data in each source or talk to the users responsible for the data source. Determine if the contact information is of good quality.
When determining which data sources to use to populate InterAction, do the following:
- Identify the sources containing the best quality contact information.
- Rank the data sources containing information you wish to bring into InterAction from the best quality data to the lowest quality.
When identifying the data sources, factor in the data sources that contain valuable relationship and profile information for each contact. Although the basic contact information may not be as clean as what is found in other systems, you should not rule the source out. Instead, recognize that the contacts from that data source may require a focused cleansing effort later.
This information is helpful when cleaning contact information. In some situations where there is conflicting contact information, you may choose to use the information from the source with the better quality information. Avoid the temptation to bring contact information in from every data source at your organization. When initially deploying InterAction, the quality of the contacts available to users is more important than the quantity of contacts available.
Determining the Quality of Each Data Source
When reviewing each data source, consider all the following criteria when determining the quality of the source:
- Has the contact information in the source been used in the last six months?
- Has the contact information been cleansed within the last 12-18 months?
- Is the information updated on a regular basis?
- Are the same contacts contained in another data source that may have better contact information?
- What happens if the data from this source is overwritten by the data from another source?
Determining the Importance of Each Data Source
When determining the contact information to bring into InterAction, avoid the temptation to bring in every item of information available for every contact in all your organization’s data sources. Instead, concentrate on data sources that provide the following:
- Core contact information including name, employment, and address and phone information as well as the contact’s relationship to your organization
- Information that is necessary to perform the business processes you have identified are key to your implementation of InterAction
- Information that users need, but do not currently have access
Limiting the Data Sources Loaded
You should limit the number of data sources you bring in on your first data load to data sources that contain the best quality contact information, and provide relationship and profile information needed for the business processes that InterAction supports. Later, you can load contact information from other data sources. This lets you concentrate your data cleansing efforts on smaller groups of contacts at a time. For details about determining your data cleansing approach, see Determining Data Cleansing Strategy.
Determining Which Information to Bring into InterAction
Before you decide to bring contact data into InterAction, ensure that you have a business need for maintaining the data in InterAction. Avoid bringing data in that you do not have a plan to use or maintain. This data becomes outdated quickly and affects user confidence in the system.
Never bring in contact information that you do not have a business use for or a plan to maintain, for example, additional fields, relationships, and other data outside of addresses, phones, and electronic addresses.
For each item you bring in, determine the following:
- For what business processes is it necessary for users to have access to this information.
- How is the information displayed to users - consider the profiles and folders you are including in your configuration. The information you bring in should fill in the items you have configured.
- Who is responsible for maintaining the information - Determine if the information is updated in InterAction or updated in an external system and brought into InterAction through Application Collaboration.
Do not rely on end users alone to update contact information. Relying on professionals to update information often results in data becoming out of date and unreliable.
Review the contact information in each of the data sources you want to use. Identify the information to bring into InterAction from each source. The information most customers tend to choose to bring into InterAction is described in the following three sections:
Basic Contact Information
Basic contact information, such as name, company, phones, and addresses, is an essential part of your InterAction implementation. A user’s first experiences with InterAction typically involve basic contact information. When users find that InterAction provides them with good contact information, they grow more confident in the system and typically contribute more information to InterAction.
The firm sets minimum required fields for all new contacts in the InterAction system in Data Minder. Last name is always required. An email or phone number may be selected. New contacts which do not meet the minimum requirements cannot be saved and added to the system. If any of those fields are marked Confidential, they will be treated as missing.
Examples of Basic Contact Information
For all contacts, you should bring in the following information:
- Contact name
- Company name
- Business addresses
- Phones (includes direct, company, fax, etc.)
- Electronic addresses (includes Web sites, email addresses, etc.)
- Any other basic contact information, such as the following:
- Job Title
- Department
- Assistant
Contact Type Information
For each contact in the InterAction database, users should be able to quickly identify what the contact’s relationship is with your organization. This information provides tremendous value to users because it conveys the contact’s primary relationship to your organization for all users. The contact type is a fundamental attribute for each contact.
Only set contact types that you will maintain with a specific business process.
When you have identified contact types for contacts, you can build rules around these contact types to help manage contact information. For example, you can do the following:
- Identify the most valuable contacts and most important contact information for your organization.
- Configure Data Change Management rules for the contact types to manage updates to contact information for the contacts you have identified as important.
- Configure Smart Connect rules to help users easily contribute important contacts to the firm list.
Wherever possible, automatically apply contact types to contacts when bringing them into InterAction. For details on how to do this, see Specifying a Contact Type for Contacts.
Additionally, attempt to identify any other information that can be used to categorize contacts according to their relationship with your organization. For example, you can identify customers and prospects based on information currently maintained in your organization’s accounting or marketing systems.
Profile Information
After you have identified the contact types you can bring into InterAction and determined which types are most important, you can begin identifying profile information for those contacts.
Profile information is used to provide more information about a contact and to allow you perform searches to list contacts with similar characteristics, for example, clients in the Health Care industry where Client is the contact type and Health Care is part of the profile information.
Information profiling your organization’s clients can be found in your time and billing system. Additionally, information profiling your personnel can often be found in your organization’s human resources system.
Load profile information for the most important contacts being brought into InterAction. Attempting to load profile information for all contacts can be overwhelming. Start with what you have already recorded in your existing data sources. Over time, work to fill in the remaining fields.
Examples of Client Profile Information
Most profile information is found in your time and billing system.
- Client Number/Ids
- Open/Close Date
- Person in charge of the contact:
- Billing/Handling Attorney
- Engagement Manager
- Responsible Partner
- Status
- Vendor ID
- SIC Code
- MTD and YTD Billed or Collected
- Previous Year Billed
- Notes and Activities
Examples of Profile Information for Your Personnel
- Office
- Department/Practice Group
- Accounting/Billing ID
What Information Should I Bring In?
It is important that you only bring in data that serves a purpose in InterAction and that you have a plan for maintenance of that data. Remember, you can always bring in more fields for the contacts later, after the initial rollout has passed.
Bring in the following three fields from your external system. They are important for establishing context, integration with other systems, and many other features:
- Unique Contact Identifier - bring into InterAction for all contacts. This value is used with the Advanced Import feature to update contacts with information from the external data source. For example, it can be used later, if you realize that you have forgotten a key piece of data from an existing system.
- Client ID - bring into InterAction for all client contacts. This field can be used for integrating with your existing time and billing system using Application Collaboration.
- Accounting/Billing ID - bring into InterAction for all personnel that have accounting/billing IDs in your organization’s time and billing or accounting system.
Determining Which Contact Types to Initially Support
When planning your initial implementation of InterAction, it is important to realize that some contacts are more important than others. Users get more value from having a core set of contacts fully profiled with quality data than from having tens of thousands of contacts available with poor quality data.
If your organization has a list of contacts that are all a specific type that is well structured and accurate, you should bring this information into InterAction, even if it is not a contact type provided out of the box with InterAction. Having good quality data that is already used on a regular basis and kept up to date improves the value of InterAction to users during the initial implementation.
InterAction provides several contact types out of the box. When planning your implementation, evaluate each of these contact types to determine which contact types should be included in your initial data load. Use the following criteria when evaluating the contact types:
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Can you identify contacts of the type in your existing data sources?
Important contact types such as Top Clients or Our Personnel can usually be identified and have the most profile information available.
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How useful is it for users to have access to profile information for contacts of the type?
When bringing in contact types, you must weigh the value of accessing the contact information against the amount of work it requires to ensure the contact has accurate contact information. Remember, you do not have to fully profile every contact in InterAction, but you should profile the most important contacts in the database.
Review the list of contact types included out of the box and the fields displayed in the Web Client to determine which contact types and profiles to use. When determining the overall configuration of your InterAction environment, determine which of the contact types you want to use at your organization and remove any contact types that serve no use. For example, if your organization does not track professional organizations, there is no need for you to keep this contact type in your database.
Later, in Extracting Contact Data from Data Sources, you will learn how to automatically set contact types on the data you are extracting from other systems.
Identifying Your Most Valuable Contacts
Most valued contacts are contacts that are most important to your organization and should have all contact information and profile information manually reviewed as a part of the initial data load and cleansing process. Because of the time commitment required to manually review the data for each contact, you may need to set specific, narrow criteria for which contacts are identified as most valued. For example, if you are loading several thousand or more clients into InterAction, do not set all clients as most valued contacts. Instead, limit it to only your organization’s top clients.
Most valued contacts are not the same as top clients. Your top clients should be included in the most valued contacts, in addition to other contacts important to your organization.
Consider the following suggested most valued contacts:
- Clients on which your organization has current projects, have annual billings over a certain amount, or are clients of important professionals at your organization.
- Prospects from your Marketing data source that have a high priority (hot, Tier 1, Level A, etc.).
- Person contacts brought into InterAction that have job titles such as CEO, President, etc.
- Contacts contributed by specific, high-powered professionals at your organization such as managing partners, practice leads, rainmakers, etc.
When most valued contacts are brought into InterAction, you can add them to a Most Valued Contacts folder. This folder can be used as a task list of contacts to review prior to the rollout. After you have finished reviewing the contact, you may remove the contact’s link into this folder.
If your organization currently has a data source where the data is of high quality, the manual review of the contacts takes much less time, or may be skipped.
For details on how to bring most valued contacts into InterAction, see Bringing in Most Valued Contacts.