InterAction provides multiple searches out of the box to help you identify contacts that are potential duplicates, companies without associated people, contacts with potential duplicate phones or addresses, and more.
This section also provides recommendations for numerous custom searches you should create to further enhance your data quality initiatives.
Out of the Box Data Quality Searches
By default, these searches look in all folders to which you have read access. If necessary, you can change this to limit the number of folders searched.
Out of the Box Data Quality Searches
| Search | Description |
|---|---|
| Companies in these lists with matching people in these lists |
For a list of selected folders (which together should contain both people and company contacts), return any companies in any of the selected folders that have one or more associated people in any of the selected folders. Use this search when finding companies based on the combined attributes of people who work at those companies as well as attributes of the companies themselves. For example, you have a working list in which you have linked all the firm alumni. You want a list of client companies that have these alumni currently working for them. To do this, run this search on the alumni working list and the folder that contains client companies. |
| Companies in these lists with no matching people in these lists |
For a list of selected folders (which together should contain both people and company contacts), return any companies in any of the selected folders that do not have associated people in any of the selected folders. Use this search when finding companies without associated people in a list. For example, you have a working list that contains a list of people that should receive a mailing. You want a list of client companies that do not have an employee in this list. To do this, run this search on the working list and the folder that contains client companies. |
| Contacts who are Known By one of our current employees or consultants |
For a list of selected folders, return any contacts that are in any of the selected folders who have a Known By relationship with any contacts in the Our Personnel and Our Consultants contact type folders. Use this search when finding relationships between employees at your firm and other contacts in a list. For example, you have a working list of contacts that need personal follow-up. Run this search to identify the people in the list who have a Knows relationship with a current employee of the firm. |
| Contacts who are not Known By one of our current employees or consultants |
For a list of selected folders, return any contacts that are in any of the selected folders who do not have a Known By relationship with any contacts in the Our Personnel and Our Consultants contact type folders. Use this search when finding contacts who aren't known by someone at your firm. For example, running this search on a marketing list with key contacts exposes where relationships should be created with those key contacts. |
| Potential Duplicate Companies by E-address | Finds companies with matching electronic addresses. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Potential Duplicate Companies by Name | Finds companies with matching names. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Potential Duplicate Companies by Phone Number | Finds companies with matching phone numbers. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Potential Duplicate People by E-address | Finds people with matching electronic addresses. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Potential Duplicate People by Name | Finds people with matching names. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Potential Duplicate People by Phone Number | Finds people with matching phone numbers. You can then use Multi-Contact Duplicate Merge to merge the contacts in the search results. |
| Contacts with Potential Duplicate Addresses | Finds contacts with similar or identical addresses. After running the search, you can clean up the phones and addresses directly from the search results or you can print the results and review the changes on paper before merging. The Detail Report, a standard report provided with InterAction displays all addresses and phone numbers for a contact and can be used to review contact data and determine which items should be merged. |
| Contacts with Potential Duplicate Phones | Finds contacts with similar or identical phones. After running the search, you can clean up the phones and addresses directly from the search results or you can print the results and review the changes on paper before merging. The Detail Report, a standard report provided with InterAction, displays all addresses and phone numbers for a contact and can be used to review contact data and determine which items should be merged. |
| Companies Without Associated People | Finds companies to which no person contacts are associated. This search may be useful when attempting to find inappropriately added contacts. |
| CDM - Contacts Known by Only One Active Employee | Identifies shared firm contacts (not user contacts) that are known by only one active person at the firm. Follow up to determine if there is a legitimate reason to keep the contact. |
| CDM - Contacts Known Only by One Alumnus | Identifies shared firm contacts that are known by specified alumni, but not by any active firm personnel. Follow up to determine if there is a legitimate reason to keep the contact. |
| CDM - Contacts not known by any Firm Personnel |
Use this search to identify contacts with whom no one at the Firm has a Knows relationship. Follow up to determine if there is a legitimate reason to keep the contact. |
| CDM - Contacts with Incomplete Address, Phone, and/or Email |
Use this search to identify contacts that have Business and/or Home addresses that are incomplete (e.g., missing street, state/province, etc.) and/or have no phone number or no email address. Parameters are provided to filter which elements to include in the search. |
| CDM - Contacts with No Activities in Date Range | Use this search to identify contacts that have zero activities within a specific date range. |
For more information on using the potential duplicate contact searches, see Tools for Finding Duplicate Contacts.
For more information on using the potential duplicate phones and addresses searches, see Finding Duplicate Phones and Addresses.
You can create your own data quality searches to help find contacts that may need additional clean up. For more information, see Recommended Data Maintenance Searches.
Giving Users Access to the Out-of-the-Box Searches
The nine data quality searches and the five Contact Data Management (CDM) searches are only visible to members of the Data Administrators group and the InterAction Administrator (IAADMIN). The recommended means of giving users access to these searches is to add the users to the Data Administrators group. For instructions on how to add users to a group, see the Administering InterAction guide.
Alternatively, you can grant access to these searches to other groups or individual users. Additional access to the searches is only available to one group or individual at a time, unlike folder access rights. For more information, see Access to the Potential Duplicate Searches.
Prioritized Data Quality Searches
The Data Quality searches search specifically for duplicates in a specific folder that also exist in the Firm List. These searches are found in the Windows Client's Saved Searches as DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate [Companies/People ...].
In these searches, you must always choose the Firm Contacts folder as well as another folder for duplicate search.
There are five Prioritized Data Quality searches:
Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate Searches
| Search | Description |
|---|---|
| DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate Companies by Name |
If only the the 'Firm Contacts – Companies' folder is selected, this will list all company contacts with names. If a second folder is added, this will list only those contacts that have duplicate names AND which are in both folders. Parameters: @company_name: # of characters to use in the duplicate search on Company Name. 0-150. @ignoreNotADupRelat: Y = Ignore contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results; N = Include contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results. |
| DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate Companies by Website |
If only the the 'Firm Contacts – Companies' folder is selected, this will list all company contacts with duplicate websites. If a second folder is added, this will list only those contacts that have duplicate websites AND which are in both folders. Parameters: @person_company: Enter “C” for default Value field Duplicate search of companies in 'Firm Contacts - Companies' by Website. @ignoreNotADupRelat: Enter a “Y” for the default value. Y = Ignore contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results; N = Include contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results. |
| DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate People by Name |
If only the the 'Firm Contacts – People' folder is selected, this will list all contacts with duplicate names. If a second folder is added, this will list only those contacts that have duplicate names AND which are in both folders. Parameters: @company_name: 0-150: # of characters to use in duplicate search on Company Name. @first_name: 0-60: # of characters to use in duplicate search on First Name. @last_name: 0-60: # of characters to use in duplicate search on Last Name. @ignoreNotADupRelat: Y = Ignore contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results; N = Include contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results. |
| DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate People by Phone |
If only the the 'Firm Contacts – People' folder is selected, this will list all contacts with duplicate phones. If a second folder is added, this will list only those contacts that have duplicate phones AND which are in both folders. Parameters: @phone_type: Pick the desired value: (0) Everything / All Types, (1) Phone, (2) Fax, (3) Pager, (4) Computer, (5) Other, (6) Mobile, (7) Assistant @phone_rel: Pick the desired value: (0) Everything / All Types, (1) Business, (2) Home, (3) Alternate Business, (4) Alternate Home, (6) Other, (8) Business2 @ignoreNotADupRelat: Y = Ignore contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results; N = Include contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results. |
| DQ - Prioritized Cleanup Potential Duplicate People by Email |
If only the the 'Firm Contacts – People' folder is selected, this will list all contacts with duplicate email addresses. If a second folder is added, this will list only those contacts that have duplicate email addresses AND which are in both folders. Parameters: @person_company: Enter “P” for default Value field. Duplicate search of people in 'Firm Contacts - People' by Email @ignoreNotADupRelat: Enter a “Y” for the default value. Y = Ignore contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results; N = Include contacts that have the "Not a Duplicate of" relationship with another contact in the search results.
|
Custom Data Quality Searches
The following searches should be created for use in executing your organizations ongoing data maintenance plan. The complete list of search definitions and search criteria are included here. See Recommended Data Maintenance Searches by Contact Type Schedule for details on contact types and the frequency with which these searches should be used.
The criteria listed in the table is the information you should specify on the Criteria tab when creating your search in InterAction Windows Client. Some of the Saved Searches provided in the Windows Client [for Data Administrators] cover many of the issues in the table below.
See "Searches in the Windows Client" on page 1 for information on creating searches.
Recommended Data Maintenance Searches
| Definition | Criteria | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Incomplete Information | ||
| Contacts with no mailing address but at least one business address | The contacts do not have at least one mailing address and the contacts do have at least one Business, Business2, or Alternate Business | This search provides a list of all contacts in the selected folders that have business address information for the contact, but no designated mailing address. |
| Contacts with no address information | The contacts do not have at least one address. | This search provides a list of all contacts in the selected folders that do not have any address information for the contact. |
| Contacts with incomplete addresses | The City, State, or Zip/Postal Code are empty. | This search provides a list of all contacts in the Firm Contacts - Companies and Firm Contacts - People folders that have addresses that are missing the city, state, or zip code. |
| Contacts with no email address | The contacts do not have at least one electronic address. | This search provides a list of all contacts in the selected folders with no email address. |
| Contacts with no phone number | The contacts do not have at least one phone number. | This search provides a list of all contacts in the selected folders that do not have at least one phone number for the contact. |
| Contacts with no phone number, email address, or mailing address | The contacts do not have at least one mailing address, electronic address, or phone number. | This search provides a list of all contacts in the selected folders for whom the organization has no means of communication. |
| Contacts missing company information | The Company Full Name is empty or the Company Common Name is empty. | This search provides a list of all people in the Firm Contacts - People folder that do not have any company entered. |
| Suspect Information | ||
| Contacts with suspect Name information - person | The contacts have suspect characters in the name fields: numbers (0-9), symbols (for example, @, #, /), the word test, etc. See “Creating Searches for Contacts with Suspect Name Information” on page 197. | This search includes a list of person records that may have suspect name information based on various criteria. |
| Contacts with suspect Name information - company | The contacts have suspect characters in the name fields: numbers (0-9), symbols (for example, @, #, /), the words Mr. or Mrs., etc. See Creating Searches for Contacts with Suspect Name Information. | This search includes a list of company records that may have suspect name information based on various criteria. |
| Company Association | ||
| Contacts with no company association | The person contact is not associated with a company, and the Company Full Name has any value. | This search includes a list of contacts that are not associated with a company within InterAction. |
| Archivable Contacts | ||
| Contacts that are archive candidates |
• Person vs. Company is Person • Contact is not linked into any folder • Contact does not have at least one related contact • Contact Creation Date is not after Today -12 months • Address Last Edit Date is not after Today - 12 months • Phone Number Last Edit Date is not after Today - 12 months • E-Address Last Edit Date is not after Today - 12 months • Activity Last Edit Date is not after Today - 12 months |
This search provides a list of contacts that may be candidates to be moved to an archive folder due to lack of use or activity. |
Creating Searches for Contacts with Suspect Name Information
When creating custom data quality searches, the following search syntaxes are useful:
- To search for all numbers 0-9, enter [0-9] as the search value. Be sure to include the brackets and the dash.
- To search for multiple values, separate the individual values with semicolons and enclose the entire search condition in brackets. For example, to search for @, #, /, enter [@;#;/] as the search value.
- Create separate conditions to search for Mr., Mrs., or test.