Extracting Contact Data from Data Sources

The first step in loading information into InterAction is to extract the contact information from the current data sources.

When you extract contact information from the identified data sources at your organization, include all the contact information you identified earlier, in Identifying Data to Bring into InterAction. Part of this process includes identifying contact types and key contacts. For details, see the following sections:

• Extracted Data File Types
• Specifying a Contact Type for Contacts
• Identifying Top Clients
• Managing Duplicate Clients
• Bringing in Most Valued Contacts
• Generating Relationship Information

Extracted Data File Types

If you are using the import feature to bring data into InterAction, create a comma separated value file (CSV file) that contains the contact information you are bringing into InterAction. When importing contacts, you must have at least a contact name defined. For more details on how the import feature works, see Importing Data into InterAction or Updating InterAction Contacts through Advanced Import.

If you are using Application Collaboration to bring data into InterAction, the process is different. For details, see How Application Collaboration Works.

Specifying a Contact Type for Contacts

InterAction includes several contact types out of the box into which you can add contacts during a data load. It is important to remember, however, that unless you have a process to clean and maintain the quality of the data, you should not bring it into InterAction.

You can identify contacts to populate some contact types based on the data source in which the contact is currently located. For example, a contact in the human resources system can either be a current employee at your organization or alumni of your organization.

Otherwise, consider the following methods to identify contacts that belong in each contact type. The following table identifies some recommended ways to populate the contact types provided out of the box with InterAction.

Out-of-the-Box Contact Types

Contact Type/Folder	How to Set Contact Type Automatically
Alumni	If your organization is not already managing alumni information, use your organization’s human resources system to extract the employment end date. Then, you can do either of the following: Before you bring the data into InterAction, you can search the data files for contacts with an employment end date and put the contacts into a separate file. You can configure your InterAction import to automatically add those contacts to the Alumni folder. After bringing the contact information into InterAction, perform a search to find all contacts in the Personnel Information folder with a Date Left Firm date before the current date. Link all the contacts found into the Alumni folder. On an ongoing basis, this can be done by defining folder dependencies in InterAction. If your organization does not manage an employment end date, then you can do the following: Bring in all records from the HR system into the Personnel Information folder through Import. Search for all contacts with a status of inactive or whose associated company is not your organization. Mark all and link to the Alumni folder. Mark all and remove the link to the Our Personnel folder. For more information on managing alumni relationships in InterAction on an ongoing basis, see the Managing Alumni Relationships best practices document on the Support Center Web site.
Charitable Organization	Manually apply the contact type to contacts on an ongoing basis. Alternately, you can import these contacts if you have a file containing these contacts available.
Client	From your organization’s accounting or time and billing system, import client information from the data source separate from other data sources. Configure the import to automatically link the contacts into the Client contact type folder and the Client Information folder. If your organization tracks client information elsewhere, this value should be listed as a folder in the import file into which the contact should be linked. Note, you should consider not bringing in all your clients at once if your organization has too many client contacts to cleanse in your initial data load and cleansing phase. Instead, consider limiting the number of clients as described in Identifying Top Clients.
Client Personnel	The first time you run Folder Dependency Analyzer, the Client Personnel contact type is automatically populated with people associated to companies in the Clients folder.  After the contact type is applied to people, review your top clients to ensure that their personnel are linked in the folder.
Colleges and Universities	A data file is available from LexisNexis InterAction containing contact information for many colleges and universities. For more information, see the Support Center Web site. If your organization is already maintaining information about colleges and universities, you can import these contacts from a separate file and automatically link the contacts into the Colleges & Universities folder.
Deceased	Manually apply the contact type to contacts on an ongoing basis. For more information on managing deceased contacts in InterAction on an ongoing basis, see the Managing Deceased Contacts best practices document on the Support Center Web site.
Former Client	From your accounting or time and billing system, identify contacts with any of the following: Clients with status of inactive or closed Clients with no billing within the past three years Then, you can do either of the following: Extract the contacts identified as former into a data file and automatically link all contacts from this data file into the Former Clients folder. Import all the contacts that are clients and values for these fields into InterAction. Run a search in InterAction to find clients with a status of inactive or clients with no billing within the past three years. Link the contacts found into the Former Clients folder. Folder Dependency Analyzer can be used to do this on an ongoing basis.  Additionally, you should link these contacts into the Client Information folder.
No Marketing Communications	From your Marketing database, identify contacts with a field or flag that indicates remove from list or no communications. In the import file, set a column to No Marketing Communications and map this file to link the contact into the mailing list. Alternately, you can manually update appropriate records before your first mailing.
Our Consultant	From the internal accounting system, extract service providers, consultants and other partners that have delivered services within a specified number of months past.
Our Personnel	From your organization’s human resources system, identify personnel with an indicator of active, such as no employment end date set. Set InterAction to automatically link the contact into the Our Personnel folder and the Personnel Information folder. The file used to populate the Our Personnel contact type can be modified when creating your import file for creating user accounts in InterAction.
Out of Business	Manually apply the contact type to contacts on an ongoing basis.
Professional Organizations	From your organization’s Marketing database or human resources system, extract a list of professional organizations into a data file. When importing this file, automatically link these contacts into the Professional Organizations folder.
Prospect	From your organization’s Marketing database, identify contacts with any of the following applied: Companies with a field of Prospect, Target, or other Companies with a specific industry designation that is important to your organization Former clients Then, you can do the following: Extract these contacts into a data file and automatically link all contacts from this data file into the Prospects folder. Import the contacts and values for these fields into InterAction. Run searches to identify contacts with the criteria specified above. Link the contacts into the Prospects folder.
Prospect Personnel	The first time you run Folder Dependency Analyzer, the Prospect Personnel contact type is automatically populated with people associated to companies in the Prospects folder. For details, see the Configuring InterAction guide.
Top Client	For details on how to do this, see Identifying Top Clients.

Identifying Top Clients

As discussed in Identifying Data to Bring into InterAction, it is important that when you are initially loading contact information into InterAction, you manage the amount of information you bring in at a time. The quality of the contacts you introduce into InterAction is much more important than the quantity of contacts.

In your initial data load, consider reducing the number of contacts you bring into InterAction by identifying only the contacts that are most important to your organization’s business. Typically, these are your organization’s clients. However, your organization could have many clients entered in your accounting or time and billing system and not all these clients are equally important. In your initial data load, focus on the clients that are key to your organization’s business. The following procedure should be used to identify these clients.

Identify Top Clients

1. In your accounting or time and billing system, identify clients that meet the following criteria:
   • Clients created in the last 12 months
   • Clients with billed engagements in the last 12-24 months
   • Clients with fees collected in the last 18-24 months
   • Have billings of greater than <specified number> in the past year
   • Have at least <specified number> ongoing engagements
   • Have some designation of service offering/product mix
   • Have realization of <specified number>%
   • Have profitability of <specified number>%
   • Are the clients of an important practice group or department at your organization
2. Query the managing partner for each office or practice area to gather a list of the top 50 clients for each practice area and/or office location.
3. Compare the lists of top clients with the clients identified in step one. If any clients identified by managing partners are not on the list of contacts identified in the accounting or time and billing system, add those contacts to the list of contacts to extract from the system.
4. Set the contact type for these contacts in InterAction. You can do either of the following:
   • Extract these contacts into a data file and automatically link all contacts from this data file into the Top Client folder.
   • Import the contacts and values for these fields into InterAction. Run searches to identify contacts with the criteria specified above. Link the contacts into the Top Client folder.

For more information on managing top clients in InterAction on an ongoing basis, see the Managing Top Clients best practices document on the Support Center Web site.

Managing Duplicate Clients

In your accounting or time and billing system, you may have numerous instances of duplicate clients, all assigned different client numbers. Some systems allow you to assign a master client number to duplicate clients so you can tie all these clients together. At most organizations, however, this is typically not used.

In InterAction, it is important to have a single instance of a contact; merge all duplicate clients. Merging duplicate clients is a bit more involved than merging most duplicate contacts because you often want to use Application Collaboration to update clients with information from your accounting or time and billing system on a regular basis. To assist with this, InterAction includes the All Client Numbers field for client contacts. This field supports multiple values, so when the contacts are merged, all valid client numbers are maintained on the merged contact. When you then set up Application Collaboration to update contacts on an ongoing basis, the All Client Numbers field is used as the key to link additional data from your accounting or time and billing system.

To support this feature, when bringing contacts into InterAction, do the following:

• Populate the Primary Client Number field with a single client number value.
• Populate the All Client Numbers field with all client numbers for the contact including the client number added to the Primary Client Number field.

Note that these fields are folder-specific additional fields for the Client Information folder. Therefore when bringing in clients, these contacts should be linked into the Client Information folder.

Bringing in Most Valued Contacts

Earlier, in Identifying Your Most Valuable Contacts, you identified which contacts are your organization’s most valued contacts and should be reviewed manually. Based on the criteria you determined for identifying your most valued contacts, you should be able to search your data sources for all contacts that meet the specified criteria. In the data files of contacts extracted from the data sources, note the most valued contacts with a special column for the Most Valued Contact indicator.

If you are cleaning your contact information in InterAction, do the following:

• In the data file, specify contacts by entering Most Valued Contacts in the field.
• When bringing the contact information in, map the column from the data file to link the contacts into the Most Valued Contacts folder.

If a third party is assisting you to cleanse your contact information, the consultant who is working with you can help you set the most valued contact information.

Generating Relationship Information

Some relationship information is generated automatically for contacts. For example, when users add contacts from their contact lists to the firm list, a Knows relationship can be created automatically. Additionally, using company association, person contacts are automatically associated to the company contacts for whom they work.

Typically, it is difficult to find any other relationship information to bring into InterAction during your initial data load because other systems do not maintain this information. If you do have relationship information to bring into InterAction, Application Collaboration offers a feature to create relationships between contacts based on information from external data sources. For example, if you track referrals, map the referral field value to the Referred by relationship type.

For more information, see Overview of the Related Contact Data Set.