After you have identified which information you want to bring into InterAction, you should determine how you want to clean the data in preparation for your initial deployment. Typically, this cleansing effort is performed to do all the following:
- Identify erroneous data
- Standardize data for consistency and accuracy
- Eliminate duplicate contacts
You have two options to go about cleansing this contact data:
- Using a third party to clean your data
- Cleaning your contact data using InterAction
The option you choose depends on the quality of your current contact information, how the information is structured, the timing of when you want to rollout InterAction, and your own resources. Use the following table to help you determine whether to cleanse your contact information yourself in InterAction or if you should get assistance from a third-party data cleansing service provider.
Choosing a Data Cleansing Strategy
| Use a third party to clean your data | Use InterAction to clean your data |
|---|---|
| You are bringing data together from multiple complex data sources. | You are bringing data into InterAction from one data source or from multiple simple data sources. |
| The format of the data and the structure in which the data is stored is not consistent across data sources. | You have multiple organization-wide data sources, but they are formatted and structured consistently. (When evaluating data sources, exclude user contact information stored in user’s PIM contacts.) |
| Many contacts are repeated across the data sources, meaning that you are introducing many duplicate contacts into InterAction. If your data is not formatted consistently, it may be difficult to identify these duplicates without first cleansing the data. |
If you are bringing data in from a single, existing system, you do not have many duplicates in your current data source. If you are bringing data in from multiple data sources, the contacts are not duplicated between the different sources. |
| You do not have many resources at your organization to identify erroneous data, determine standards for your data, and to perform the tasks necessary to cleanse the data. | Your organization has identified standards for how data should be entered. You have personnel that can identify erroneous data and perform the tasks necessary to cleanse the currently problematic contact information. |
| You want to rollout InterAction quickly and do not have time to review and cleanse contact information yourself before the rollout. Using a third party takes significantly less time overall than cleansing contact information in InterAction. | Your date for rollout is scheduled such that you have time to cleanse contact information before the rollout. |
| You have a large volume of contact information to be cleansed and you do not wish to divide the contacts up in order to load the data into InterAction in different phases. | You do not have a large volume of contact information to be cleansed. If you do have a large volume, you can divide this information up and load the contacts in phases. |
If you choose to use InterAction to clean your data, you do not necessarily have to do all the data cleansing in InterAction. For example, you may choose to use a program like Excel to open data files and spend some time cleaning and standardizing contact information before bringing the data into InterAction.
For details on each of the options you have, see the following sections:
Using External Solutions to Clean Your Data
InterAction has built-in data integration tools that enables organizations to work with third parties to externally cleanse their data. One option available to all customers is a services offering called Data Quality Services that is provided directly by LexisNexis InterAction's Consulting Services team. These Data Quality Services utilize the data quality and Data Change Management tools built into InterAction, as well as data cleansing methodologies and processes that have been developed over several years.
Our Data Quality Services include the standardization, cleansing, and merging of organization and user contacts. For more details, please visit our InterAction Support Web site.
Select LexisNexis InterAction Certified Partners have also developed offerings to externally cleanse data. To request more information about our Partners, please visit the Support Web site.
InterAction provides tools to both export your data from InterAction and then re-import the cleansed data, updating the existing contacts with the improved information.
Initial Data Load and Cleansing Process when Using Data Quality Services
If you are interested in learning more about LexisNexis InterAction Data Quality Services, contact your sales representative or see our Web site at InterAction Support Home.
If you choose to use LexisNexis InterAction Data Cleansing Services or the services of a business partner to help you with your data cleansing, your overall process to implement InterAction will be similar to the procedure below.
When using the assistance of LexisNexis InterAction Consulting Services or a business partner to help with your data cleansing, the consultant may employ a different approach and process to data load and cleansing than what is described here.
- Prepare for the initial data load by performing the following tasks:
- Identify data in external systems to bring into InterAction. For details, see Identifying Data to Bring into InterAction.
- Determine your data quality objectives and approach. For details, see Determining Data Quality Objectives.
- Determine your rollout strategy. For details, see Rollout Strategy Recommendations.
- Create user accounts and user contact lists for each InterAction user. For details, see Process for the Initial Rollout to Users.
- Bring data from identified external systems into InterAction. For details, see Loading Data from Your Organization's Data Sources.
- Identify valued contacts, ensuring that the appropriate contact types are applied and profile information is entered.
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Standardize, clean, and de-duplicate contact information.
In this step the following occurs:
- Contact information is exported from InterAction
- The information is cleansed using external data cleansing tools
- The cleansed data is reviewed, and feedback is incorporated
- The cleansed information is brought back into InterAction, updating the contacts from which the information was exported
- Additional manual cleansing (that cannot be done by automation) takes place in InterAction
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Roll out InterAction to users, allowing them to contribute their contacts to the firm list.
Work through cleansing contact information contributed to the firm list from user contacts. This is a gradual process that spans the entire rollout of InterAction to users.
- Proceed with ongoing tasks to improve the quality of your InterAction contact data.
Should I Cleanse My Contacts in My PIM, Prior to the Initial Sync With InterAction?
It is easier to cleanse and reformat data in InterAction once duplicate contacts have been merged since the volume of contacts is more manageable. Any changes made to a single instance of a contact can then be updated in the users’ collections.
Any changes made within the user’s PIM tend to be reformatting changes and because InterAction cannot distinguish between reformats and updates, better data could be overwritten in InterAction.
Organizations that want to get a head start on cleansing should focus on developing a data formatting standards guide. This guide should be developed and distributed by leaders in the organization.
Using InterAction to Clean Your Data
If you choose to use InterAction to clean your contact data, you may use many of InterAction’s data quality tools including the following:
- Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge
- Data Minder
- Phone, Address, and Email Merge features
- Find and Replace
These tools can be used in addition to the regular editing functionality for managing contacts in the Windows Client.
Initial Data Load and Cleansing Process when Using InterAction to Clean Your Data
- Prepare for the initial data load by performing the following tasks:
- Identify data in external systems to bring into InterAction. For details, see Identifying Data to Bring into InterAction.
- Determine your data quality objectives and approach. For details, see Determining Data Quality Objectives.
- Determine your rollout strategy. For details, see Rollout Strategy Recommendations.
- Extract the contact information from the current data sources. Before bringing this information into InterAction, perform any pre-import cleansing necessary. This may include the following:
- Parse fields, if necessary. For example, if the names of person contacts are exported into one field, you should parse each value out into different fields for import.
- Make sure contacts have basic contact information required for InterAction. For example, if the contact does not have a name, consider removing the contact from the import file or correcting the issue.
- Add any information necessary to automatically add contacts to contact types, where necessary.
- Bring data from identified external systems into InterAction. For details, see Loading Data from Your Organization's Data Sources.
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Perform initial cleansing of contact data in the firm list.
This includes doing the following:
- Identifying and merging duplicate contacts
- Assigning relevant contact types to contacts
- Entering/verifying important information such as client numbers
For details, see Using InterAction to Cleanse Contact Data.
If you are cleansing contact data in InterAction, it is necessary for you to do some data cleansing before bringing user contacts into the system. This is important to ensure that the process of connecting user contacts with firm contacts can occur with the fewest possible ambiguous decisions. After user contacts have been connected to firm contacts, you can continue with the data cleansing effort.
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For the contacts you have identified as your most valued contacts, standardize and clean the contact information.
This includes doing the following:
- Standardizing addresses
- Merging duplicate phones and addresses on contacts
- Completing additional profile information for important contacts
For details, see Using InterAction to Cleanse Contact Data.
- Create user accounts and load each user’s contacts into the InterAction contact lists. For details, see Overview of Loading Each User's Information.
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Roll out InterAction to users, allowing users to contribute their contacts to the firm list. As users contribute contacts, manage the data cleansing tasks required to ensure data quality. This typically includes the following:
- Resolving data conflicts
- Merging potential duplicate contacts
- Reviewing new contacts added by users
The process of rolling InterAction out to users occurs over time and each group of users to which InterAction is rolled out affects the data quality of contacts in the firm list. Because of this, you should continue working to standardize and clean contact information throughout the entire rollout phase.