CRM - Contacts

Modified on Wed, 2 Aug, 2023 at 9:42 AM

MERGING CONTACTS

1. We introduced a new feature, “Merge”, in CRM under Companies, Contacts and Candidates. To enable, go to Admin – User Management – Select User – Bulk Update Preferences

Users can be granted this privilege for Companies, Contacts and Candidates. In CRM, based on this setting, the link “Merge Records” will be visible on the main listing screens. However, users having access to Admin – Data Management module can access this functionality regardless of the above preference.

2) Introduced a new link, “Merge Records” in CRM Contacts - Manage Records Drop Down menu.

To merge records, initiate a search to identify duplicate records or select duplicates as they appear on the screen. Either the Keyword Search section at the top of the Contacts main listing screen, or the quick search boxes under the column headings can be used to search.

Once the search results display, select the duplicate records by clicking on the check boxes on the left-hand side of the screen next to the records and click on the link “Merge Records”.

This will launch a pop-up window with the same search results as displayed below:

The link “Remove from Merge List” will remove the record from the search results. If a record should be removed, click the check box on the left-hand side of the screen and click on “Remove from Merge List”.

The link “Mark as Master” will allow a user to select the primary record that will appear within AkkenCloud (all other records will be merged into the Master record, with only the Master record remaining). Select the check box on the left-hand side next to the record that will become the master record and click on the link “Mark as Master Record”.

The record that has been marked as the master record will then be updated with a grayed-out checkbox. To change the master record, select one of the other records in the screen and click on the “Mark as Master Record” icon again, which will update your selection.

Whichever record is selected as the Master is the record that will be displayed within CRM, and all other records displayed on the screen will be merged into the Master record.

Records can be opened within the Merge screen in order to view the summary data to select the appropriate records to remove, merge, or mark as the master record. Double click on any record to open the summary screen (see below). This gives an option to review the data on a record and determine to keep or merge by using the previous or next options to move through the records.

Once a master record has been selected, click on the “Merge” button at the bottom of the screen.

AkkenCloud will then request confirmation of the merge and provide the quantity of the records being merged into the Master.

After the user clicks on OK on the above pop-up, AkkenCloud will then merge the unselected records into the selected (master) record.

NOTE: This process takes between a few seconds to a few minutes. Please be patient as AkkenCloud processes the merge request. The amount of time the merge takes depends upon the amount of data being merged (activities, notes, documents, resumes, submission details, etc.).

A pop-up confirmation will be displayed upon successful completion.

The user will be brought back to the main Contacts listing screen with the original search retained and the master record visible.

To verify that a record is a master record and duplicate records were merged into that record, open the master record and there will be a denotation on the top left-hand side of the summary screen that states, “Merged Records: Yes”.

Click on the hyperlink “Yes” to view the details of the records that were merged or click on the documents panel.

If there are multiple merges into one record, there will be multiple merge documents shown in the documents panel (one document per each time a merge has occurred).

Notes, Documents, Tasks, Events, Appointments and Activities will be merged from the duplicate records into the master record selected and displayed under the Activities and Documents panels.

Exception: Contacts in CRM, when used on a Placement or Assignment are tied to an Accounting Customer record. These contact records cannot be merged. There is a column in the merge pop-up window named “Customer” which displays the values “Y” indicating there is a relation to a customer record in Accounting module or “N” indicating that only a CRM record exists in AkkenCloud.

A pop-up message will be displayed when such a record exists in the search results and the “Merge” button is clicked.

If there is a CRM Contact tied to an Accounting Customer Contact record and a CRM Contact record alone that need to be merged, Contact record tied to the Customer Contact record can be marked as the master and all duplicate CRM contact records can be merged into that record.

ALL JOB ORDERS

When in a contact record, Click on the “Job Orders” link, in the Job Orders section situated at bottom Right Section of the Summary Tab.

When you click on the arrow it will show you the 20 most current Job Orders. To view a list of all the Job Orders of the contact, click on the “All Job Orders” link. The Job Orders pop up window will be displayed, showing all the Job Orders of the contact.

All Job Orders screen has two links: New and Close.

Click on the ‘New’ link to add a new Job Order for the contact. The Add Job order pop up window is displayed. See the Adding Job Orders topic for details.
Click on the ‘Close’ to close the pop-up window.

EDIT JOB ORDER

You can view, modify the Job Order details. You can also submit the candidates to the contact from All Job Orders screen. To view or modify Job Orders details, select the Job Order and double click it to open. The system displays the job order summary screen. Click on the Edit tab to edit the details of the job order.

CHANGE OWNER

AkkenCloud Staffing allows you to change the ownership of the records directly from the Contacts page.

To change the ownership of any contact record:

Select the contact(s) for which you are the owner and go to “Change Owner” under the “Manage Records” tab.

The system displays the Select Owner screen as shown below:

Select the owner from the Select Owner drop-down list and click “Done”. The system displays the following alert message as shown below:
Click “Close” link to close the Select Owner screen.

In the above message:

Click OK to change the owner of the contact.
Click Cancel to cancel the alert message and return to Select Owner screen.

Note: You can select multiple contacts and change their ownership. Only current owner of the records can change the ownership. When you archive a record

using ‘Archive’ link in the Contacts home page, the record is not removed completely from the application, but is transferred to the View Archive screen. This provision is made available to the AkkenCloud Staffing users as there is a possibility of deleting the record by mistake, or you may require the record to be used after it has been deleted. To provide ease of use in such situations, AkkenCloud Staffing provides the ‘View Archive’ feature where you can retrieve or permanently remove a record from the application.

Click on the Archive down arrow icon on the Contacts home page. You will see the menu listing:

Click on the ‘View Archive’ link to view the list of the records deleted temporarily from the menu listing. Result: The screen refreshes by displaying the View Archive screen. You can either make the record available or permanently delete the record from the application.

1. MAKE AVAILABLE A CONTACT

To make available a record from View Archive list:

Select the record and click on the “Make Available” link on the View Archive screen. You are prompted to respond to an alert message as shown below:

I. If the Contact that you intend to make available is connected to other roles/functions such as Candidate Record and Address Book Record, then the above screen will be displayed.

If you select the “Candidate Record” check box option and click on the ‘Available’ button. The screen refreshes by making available the Candidate Record along with the Contact Record and displays the record(s) in the home pages of Candidates and Contacts respectively.
If you select the “Address Book Record” check box option and click on the ‘Available’ button. The screen refreshes by making available the Address Book Record along with the Contact Record and displays the record(s) in the home pages of Collaboration->Address Book and CRM->Contacts respectively.
If you select both the check box options, i.e. Candidate Record and Address Book Record and click on the ‘Available’ button. The screen refreshes by making available the Candidate Record and Address Book Record along with the Contact Record and displays the record(s) in the home pages of Candidates, Address Book and Contacts respectively.

II. DELETE A CONTACT

To permanently delete a record from the View Archive screen,

Select the record and click on the ‘Delete’ link on View Archive screen. You are prompted to respond to an alert message as shown below:

I. If the Contact that you intend to delete is connected to other roles/functions such as Candidate Record and Address Book Record, then the above screen will be displayed.

If you select the “Candidate Record” check box option and click on the “Delete” button. Result: The screen refreshes by deleting the Candidate Record along with the Contact Record permanently from the database.
If you select the “Address Book Record” check box option and click on the ‘Delete’ button. Result: The screen refreshes by deleting the Address Book Record along with the Contact Record permanently from the database.
If you select both the check box options, i.e. Candidate Record and Address Book Record and click on the ‘Delete’ button. Result: The screen refreshes by deleting the Candidate Record and Address Book Record along with the Contact Record permanently from the database

ARCHIVE CONTACTS

This feature assists you in removing the contacts temporarily or permanently from your active contacts list. You can remove single, multiple, or all records. The contacts removed from the Contacts home page will be available in the Contacts View Archive page.

To Archive a record from the existing records:

Select the record you want to archive and hover over the “Delete” icon to bring up the archive drop down menu.
Select the ‘Archive’ link from menu listing to archive the record temporarily. You are prompted to respond to an alert message as shown below:

I. If the Contact that you intend to archive is connected to other roles/functions such as Candidate Record and Address Book Record, then the above screen will be displayed.

If you select the “Candidate Record” check box option and click on the “Archive” button. The screen refreshes by archiving the Candidate Record along with the Contact Record and display the record(s) in the View Archive screens of Candidates and Contacts respectively.
If you select the “Address Book Record” check box option and click on the ‘Archive’ button. The screen refreshes by archiving the Address Book Record along with the Contact Record and displays the record(s) in the View Archive screens of Collaboration->Address Book and CRM->Contacts respectively.
If you select both the check box options, i.e. Candidate Record and Address Book Record and click on the ‘Archive’ button. The screen refreshes by archiving the Candidate Record and Address Book Record along with the Contact Record and displays the record(s) in the View Archive screens of Candidates, Address Book and Contacts respectively.

IMPORTING CONTACTS

AkkenCloud Staffing allows you to import Contacts from a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file format. This file contains the data you would like to import into AkkenCloud Staffing.

Contacts are anyone you will do business with, such as clients, prospective clients, partners, vendors, etc. They are not Candidates. Candidate information, such as work history, resumes, etc. is in the CRM/Candidates module.

II. What is a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file?

A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a computer data file used for storage of data structured in a table form. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each field belonging to one table column. CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spreadsheet program. It is common to create and modify CSV files in Excel. You can convert a standard Excel file into a CSV file by saving the file in CSV format. Most CRM and contact management programs, including Outlook, allow you to export your contacts in CSV format.

III. Setting up a CSV file

You can set up a CSV file in order to import Contacts into AkkenCloud Staffing by following these steps:

1. Open the workbook you want to save for use in another program.

2. On the File menu, click Save As.

3. In the File name box, type a new name for the workbook.

4. In the Save as type list, select the CSV (Comma delimited) file format.

5. Click Save.

Note: By default, some file formats save all worksheets in the workbook. If you want to save only specific worksheets, first hide each worksheet you don’t want to save. To hide the active worksheet, click Sheet on the Format menu, and then click Hide.

IV. AkkenCloud Import Template

AkkenCloud Staffing provides an Excel .csv template to easily import your CSV files. This template arranges all the column headings in a sequence to easily import into AkkenCloud Staffing. Simply copy/paste each column of information you want to import into this template (e.g. first name, last name, email address, etc.). Make sure you keep the first row of information that contains the column headers. The headers are used to map the information into the appropriate fields within AkkenCloud Staffing.

V. Maximum file size supported for Import

The maximum import file size supported by AkkenCloud Staffing is 10MB uncompressed. The number of contact records for a 10 MB CSV file will depend upon the number of fields a contact record has.

Note: The larger the file you import, the longer it will take. Depending on your computer and internet connection, it could take 3-5 hours to import a 10MB file. While processing the import, your AkkenCloud Staffing account will perform at a slower rate than normal. For this reason, we recommend you import files no more than 1-2 MB is size and import at the end of your workday.

VI. Best Practices – Create a Code Before Importing

Before importing the CSV file data into AkkenCloud Staffing, make sure to add the Codes and/or Search Tag columns in the CSV file. The Codes and Search Tags are great fields to map a unique ID for searching purposes and to verify accuracy once the data has been imported into AkkenCloud Staffing.

a. The Code(s) you enter into the file must be unique in order to search and display the exact list you imported in the future. This code can then be used to quality check your import as well as to use for search and marketing purposes in the future (e.g. you have a list of contacts you met at a conference – want to create an email group and market to them). To do so, type the code in the Keyword search box with parentheses around the code. For example: “impt090109″ or “jobfair090109″.

VII. Admin Preferences for Importing Contacts

AkkenCloud Staffing does not provide the Import option by default in the Contacts home page to all users. To display this option, you must have the Import privilege enabled in Admin – User Management.

To enable the Import link on Contacts home page, you can follow these steps:

1. In Admin – User Management click on the Preferences icon next to the desired employee name.

2. The screen refreshes by displaying the User Management Preferences screen.

3. Select the Import check box option under Contacts menu in CRM preferences column.

4. Click on Update link.

5. Now the Import link will be enabled and displayed on the header strip of the Contacts home page.

VIII. Importing Contacts

The process of importing Contacts into AkkenCloud Staffing is described below.

1. Go to CRM – Contacts home page and click on Import. The system refreshes by displaying the Import screen, as shown below:

2. In the above screen:

Select the file format you want to import from the File Format drop-down list. The application supports importing of Comma Separated Values and Broad look Comma Separated Values files.
Click on the Browse button and select the CSV required file and finally click on Import link. The screen refreshes by displaying the Contacts (mapping) screen, as shown below:
The above screen associates the fields to be mapped in the data file (CSV) to appropriate fields in AkkenCloud Staffing. In the above screen, assign each importing data field with the existing data field, by selecting from the drop-down lists for each field.

Note:

○ In order to associate the fields, the data file (CSV) must have column headings in the first row of the date file.
○ If you select the Broad Look Comma Separated Values option under File Format drop-down list, the system automatically associates the fields in the CSV file with the fields in the Import screen. This is used when importing files from Broadloom’s suite of internet search tools.
○ Fields like Category, Department, Source Type, Contact Type, Company Type and Company Source will have three options in their drop-down lists. The options are: New (field name), Select (field name) and Select from CSV.
○ If you do not find the drop-down options displayed properly, then the file you are importing is not in CSV format, or you do not have column headers in the first row of the CSV file. If this is the case, open the excel sheet and follow the process detailed in Setting up a CSV File section
○ Selecting the New (field name) option, displays a new text box below the drop-down list to enter a new entry in the drop-down list. For example, New Category option in the Category drop-down list.
○ Selecting the Select (field name) option, displays another drop down list below the drop-down list, with the list of already present entries in AkkenCloud Staffing to select and choose for mapping. For example, Select Category option in the Category drop-down list.
○ Selecting the Select from CSV option displays another drop-down list below the drop-down list, with the list of field names from your import file, to select and choose for mapping.

When you have assigned the fields correctly, click on Continue link to continue with the import process. The mapping screen refreshes by displaying the Matching Criteria Formats shown below (Simplified for example purposes):
In the Matching Criteria Form you can:

Verify you have mapped the fields correctly from the CSV file to fields in AkkenCloud Staffing.
Select the Add to Address Book check box if you want to save the imported Contact information into your Address Book in Collaboration module as well as CRM (only do this if you want the email address to auto-populate when typing in a contact record. Use caution, it is easy to send an email to the wrong person).
Perform duplicate checking. If you select any check boxes next to a mapped field, if the exact same information is already saved in AkkenCloud Staffing, the information will not import. If you want to update existing records in AkkenCloud Staffing based on the check boxes you select to find duplicates, then select the Update the existing record with the importing Data check box if you want to update existing contact records in CRM and/or the Address Book with the information contained in the CSV file (e.g. select the check box next to “Update the existing record with the importing data” and select the check box next to “Email”. When you import the CSV file, if the same email address if found, that record will be updated with the information mapped from the CSV file. This is an advanced feature. It is a great way to update lots of records at once).
Select the Select All/Clear All check box if you want to select/clear all the fields in the Mapping Criteria Form.

Click on Change Mapping link if you want to change any mapped fields criteria. The system refreshes by displaying the Contacts (mapping) screen.
Click on Continue link if the mapping criteria of the fields to be mapped are correct. The system displays the following message:

In the above message:

○ Click on OK button to continue with the import.
○ Click on Cancel to cancel and return to Mapping Criteria Form.

Once you click on the OK button, the Matching Criteria From refreshes by displaying Contacts home page with the new contact details.

Note: This process may take several minutes or several hours depending on the size of the file.

To verify whether the contacts have been imported successfully into AkkenCloud Staffing, go to Contacts home page and enter the unique tag or code you entered into the CSV file prior to importing in the Search for Keyword(s) field. OR

Specify Contact Name, Company Name, Phone, State, Owner, Created Date or Modified Date in the respective field in the Contacts home page and press Enter. If the import was successful, the system displays the contact record containing the data you specified in the above fields.

Note: It should be noted that the user who has imported the contacts into AkkenCloud Staffing becomes the owner of the contact records.

EDIT TAB

Clicking on the Edit tab in a contact record displays the selected contact details to modify and update, as shown below:

The Contact Edit Tab screen has 4 check boxes at the top of the window:

Do Not Call – Select this checkbox if the contact prefers not to be called at the provided phone numbers.
Do Not Email – Select this checkbox if the contact prefers not to be emailed at his provided email addresses.
Left Company – Select this checkbox if the contact has left the company, with whom he was associated and is no more attached to that company.
Display as Main Contact for Company – Select this checkbox if you want to display the contact as a Main Contact on the Company Summary screen.

Below the above 4 checkboxes, the Contact Edit Tab screen has three sections: Contact Information, Company Information and Company Opportunity Information.

Modify the contact details in any of the sections except company information.
Click on the ‘Update’ link to save the details. Result: The Edit Contact screen refreshes by saving the modifications and a message is displayed at the top of the screen in red font, Contact has been updated successfully.
The Company field in the contact information section displays the ‘Company Name’ in a link form. Click on the ‘Company Name’ link. The system displays the summary screen of that company.
You can also have an option to change the company by clicking on the ‘Change’ link. The system displays the company search screen allowing you to select the required company. See the Search for Company topic for more details.
You can also edit or create a new company by clicking on the corresponding ‘edit’ or ‘new’ links.
You can click on the ‘remove’ link to clear the company information. The system clears the data in the text inputs fields of Company Information section.
To close the window, click on the ‘Close’ link.

ALERT FOR UPDATE COMPANY

When you edit the company information in the Company Information section and click on the ‘Update’ link. The system displays the following alert message as shown below:

Click on the Yes Button to save the changes made to the Company record as well as Contact record.
Click on the No Button to save the changes to the Contact fields only.
Click on the Cancel button to close the alert

ALL CANDIDATES

In the Candidates section situated at bottom Right Section of the Summary Tab, Click the candidate’s arrow to view a list of all the 20 most recent candidates associated with the contact.

Click on the “All Candidates” link to open a pop up of all candidates associated or attached to the contact.

The “All Candidates” screen has two links: New and Close.

Click on the ‘New’ link, to add a new candidate for the contact. The Add Candidate pop up window is displayed with 12 tabs. See the Adding Candidates topic for more details.
Click on the ‘Close’ to close the pop-up window.

Edit Candidate

To edit the candidate details, highlight the required candidate and double click it to modify. The Candidate Screen pops up with 11 tabs, with Summary tab displayed. See the Edit Candidate Details topic for details.

REPLACEMENT DOCUMENT

To replace a document, when in the contact page, go to the “Documents” arrow in the summary tab. This will open a list of documents currently attached to a contact.

Then click on the document to open the replace document pop up

Enter the title of the document in the Title text box.
Click on the Browse button and locate the document on your computer.
Enter any specific information about the document in the Notes text area.
Click on the “Save” link to upload the document file. The old document is replaced, and the new document is added in the Documents Section.
Note: If the document to be replaced is not present in Documents Section, then it will be added as a new document. If the document to be replaced is already present in Documents Section, then it will be replaced with the new uploaded document.
To close the pop-up window, click on the ‘Close’ link.