A number of different InterAction features are used in the process of loading each user’s contact information into InterAction. This section lists all the features that may be used in this process.
InterAction Administrator
Administrators of InterAction use the Administrator software to do all the following:
- Configure new user contact list defaults
- Create user accounts
- Configure synchronization settings
- Set other global rules and configuration settings including Smart Connect rules and new contact rules
Microsoft® Outlook® to InterAction Sync
Outlook to InterAction Sync is used to bring contact information into user contact lists from the users’ Contacts folders in Outlook.
An InterAction Administrator is responsible for configuring the synchronization and enabling the sync for individual user contact lists.
User Contact Import
If your organization does not use any of the PIMs identified above for managing contact information, you can bring each user’s contacts into InterAction through the User Contact Import feature.
Using this feature, you can import a users contacts from a CSV file that can be exported from most contact management software. For details, see Importing User Contacts into User Contact Lists.
InterAction Web Client and InterAction Application Server™
The InterAction Web Client is the tool used by users to walk them through the process of contributing their contacts to the firm list. For details on this step, see Contributing Contacts.
New Contact Rules
When rolling out InterAction to users, New Contact Rules define how contacts contributed to the firm list from a user’s contact list are handled. These rules are used to determine all the following:
- Whether the contacts are added directly to the firm list or if they are sourced in a New Contact Review folder, or if the contacts should be linked into a New Contact Review folder
- If a company contact should be created automatically for person contacts being added to the firm list for which no associated company contact can be found
- How contact information should be handled during the initial load of a user contact’s information into the firm list
- Whether Data Change Management tickets are created when contacts are added to the firm list
InterAction provides several different new contact rule sets that meet the needs of the various phases of a typical InterAction rollout. Additionally, you can customize these rule sets to meet your needs.
For more information on New Contact Rules, see Overview of Data Change Management New Contact Rules.
Smart Connect Features
The InterAction Smart Connect feature can be used to simplify the process of determining which contacts to contribute to the firm list. Your organization can define rules to recommend contacts that should be contributed to the firm list, or even automatically contribute contacts to the firm list without any user intervention. For details about Smart Connect, see Configuring Smart Connect Rules.
User To Firm Contact Sync
User to Firm Contact Sync is responsible for connecting a user’s contacts with contacts in the firm list. When a user chooses to contribute a contact to the firm list, it is User to Firm Contact Sync that handles the addition of that contact to the firm list.
User to Firm Contact Sync, along with the Application Server, work to manage contact updates sent to the user’s contacts from the firm list and updates from the user’s contacts to the firm list.
For details about User to Firm Contact Sync, see User to Firm Contact Sync Process.