InterAction’s centralized database lets everyone contribute information. This approach is optimum for keeping information current and maintaining high quality. However the contact information from users may not always be the most current or high quality information. For example, when initially rolling InterAction out to users, those users’ collections of contacts are loaded into InterAction. Many of the contacts added may not have been updated in a long time, so the contact information is probably out of date. When these contacts are added to the firm list, you want to control how they are added and how contact information already in the firm list is updated.
New contact rules can be defined to determine what happens when a user adds a new contact to InterAction. Typically, the rules needed for an organization break down into three categories:
- When a new user’s collection of contacts is added to his or her contact list and subsequently contributed to the firm list
- During ongoing use of the system, as users add new contacts to their contact lists and contacts are mined by InterAction IQ
- When, at specified periods of time, your organization decides to engage in a concerted data cleansing effort on the entire collection of contacts in your firm list
When determining your needs for new contact rules and defining them for your environment, keep these needs in mind.
What Do New Contact Rules Define?
New contact rules define exactly what happens when a user adds a new contact to InterAction. This includes all the following settings:
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Where the new contact is sourced. In most situations, you want to add the contact directly to the firm list. However, if you are concerned about the quality of the contact information being added, you may choose to add the contacts to a New Contact Review folder where contacts can be reviewed for accuracy before they are added to the firm list. When the contact is sourced in the New Contact Review folder, it is not available to all users, but is still available to the user who added the contact and all data stewards.
It is required that all users have Read access to the New Contact Review folder. This is the setting out of the box.
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How contacts are matched. In most situations, you should attempt to match new contacts with existing contacts by using the contact’s name information. However, you can configure InterAction to use other matching methods or no matching at all. Other matching methods should only be used for data load and cleansing initiatives.
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How suspect contact information is handled. If a new contact is matched with an existing contact and some of the values for the contacts do not match, new contact rules define how the information is updated.
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How data stewards are notified of new contacts. Using new contact rules, you can configure InterAction to proactively notify data stewards about any data quality issues that may occur because of new contacts added to InterAction.
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How person contacts that do not have an associated company are handled.
Who Do New Contact Rules Apply To?
New contact rules can be divided into two categories:
- Default
- User-specific
Default rules are used on an ongoing basis to manage contacts added by nearly all your user population. In some situations, such as when a new user joins the organization, you want data stewards to spend more time managing the contacts being added by that user and the effect that user’s information has on your organization’s firm list. For these situations, you would define a rule set that applies only to that user.
Components of New Contact Rules
New Contact Rule Sets
New contact rule sets are used to determine all the following:
- When the rules defined are used
- Which user is managed by the rules defined
- Which user or group is assigned any Data Change Management tickets created
- Which rule collection is used to manage what happens to the user’s contacts
- The duration for which the rules apply to a user’s new contacts
For more information on rule sets, see Managing New Contact Rule Sets.
New Contact Rule Collections
New contact rule collections define what happens to a contact when a user contributes a contact to the firm list. New contact rule collections define all the following:
- If InterAction attempts to match the contact with a contact already in the firm list
- How InterAction should manage situations where there is conflicting contact information
- How InterAction should manage situations where potential duplicate contacts are identified
- If the contact should be sourced or linked into the New Contact Review folder
- If InterAction should create company contacts for person contacts that are not associated to a company in the InterAction database
For more information on rule collections, see Managing New Contact Rule Collections.
Data Change Management
When new contact rule collections are defined, you can specify that InterAction create Data Change Management tickets if any of the following situations occur:
- A new contact is added to the firm list
- One or more possible duplicate contacts are found in the firm list when attempting to match contacts
- A user contact has been connected to a firm contact, however the contacts have conflicting information
For details on configuring these options, see Managing New Contact Rule Collections.
For details on managing Data Change Management tickets created by New Contact Rules, see Data Quality Processes and New Contact Rules.
User to Firm Contact Sync
New contact rules process contacts added to the firm list through User to Firm Contact Sync. These contacts typically include contacts added in the user’s PIM and synchronized to his or her contact list. User to Firm Contact Sync also manages the process of adding contacts to the firm list after a user has gone through the process of reviewing a list of contacts to contribute to the firm list.
Web Client/InterAction Objects/Application Server
New contact rules process contacts added to the firm list through the new contact wizard available in the Web Client or from InterAction desktop integration tools.
InterAction IQ
If your organization is licensed for InterAction IQ, new contact rules process contacts added to the firm list through InterAction IQ contact mining.