Customer merge

From RPM Wiki

This feature is still in development.
Table of contents
1 Summary
2 UI
3 The Merge

3.1 Customer names, aliases
3.2 Accounts
3.3 Custom fields
3.4 Locations
3.5 Contacts
3.6 Commission history
3.7 Rep access
3.8 Notes
3.9 Process Management
3.10 Referrals
3.11 Files
3.12 Added date
3.13 Modified date

4 Security

4.1 Staff users
4.2 Agent users

5 History
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Summary

The customer merge helps cleanup the customers in a subscriber database. It allows the user to delete some customers and at the same time transfer their accounts and information into another customer.

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UI

  • New page: CustomerMerge.aspx
  • This wizard allows the users to indicate which customers are involved and select one of them to be the master customer.
    1. Warning and a link to the tutorial
      • Also has the location option (see Locations, below)
    2. Select customers
      • Selection is one by one with combo box on this page, or
    3. Text area that allows a line delimited list of customers
    4. Field conflict page that lists any custom field values that will be lost
    5. Confirmation and summary page
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The Merge

All of the customers except the master customer are erased (skip the trash). These are referred to below as "the other customers".

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Customer names, aliases

  • The names of the other customers are added as aliases to the master customer
  • Any aliases in the other customers are also added as aliases to the master customer
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Accounts

  • All accounts from the other customers are moved to the master customer.
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Custom fields

  • The master customer keeps all its data.
  • Custom field values from the discarded customers are only brought in if master customer has no value for that field. Going through the discarded customers in the order in the wizard, the first non-null value will be used.
  • The exception is multi-select fields. For these all checked options from all the discarded customers are checked in the master form.
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Locations

  • The master customer keeps its locations and primary location.
  • Primary locations from the other customers are added to the master customer.
    1. Always give the new location the name of the original customer
    2. Use the Progressive number suffix method if needed to make the name unique
    3. There are 2 settings that affect how this primary location merge is handled.
      1. First is to create a location even if the location is blank or duplicate. If true then every other customer results in a location in the master customer. If false, then only other customers that have a primary location that is unique (not counting name) and not empty (not counting name) result in a location in the master customer.
      2. Second is to link any accounts from the other customer to the new location
    4. Both of these options are handled by a single option in the wizard. They are either both set as false (default) or both set as true by the user setting a single yes/no that covers both options at once.
  • All other locations from the other locations are added to the master customer.
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Contacts

  • The master customer keeps its contacts and primary contact.
  • All non-empty contacts from the other customers are added to the master customer.
    • If a contact exactly matches a contact already in the master customer then discard it. In other words, don't create exact duplicates.
  • If a contact had a primary customer that is now discarded, their primary customer becomes the master customer.
  • If a contact had a primary customer that isn't involved in the merge, it isn't changed.
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Commission history

  • Comm items are linked to customers only by accounts so this doesn't change.
  • However, totals for the master customer will be recalculated and it will absorb all the net billed, commission, etc. of the discarded customers.
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Rep access

  • Rep access is by account so the merge doesn't need to change anything. The result will be the reps from the discarded customers will now all get access to this customer via the merged accounts.
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Notes

  • All notes and notes for staff are merged into the master customer
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Process Management

  • All customer references for customers that are part of a merge will be updated to point to the new master customer,
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Referrals

  • All references to the discarded customers in referrals are replaced with the master customer.
  • If this causes a duplicate reference within one referral then the reference can now be removed.
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Files

  • All file attachments from the discarded customers now belong to the master customer.
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Added date

  • If the added date of one of the other customers is older than the master customer, change the master customer's added date to the older date. In other words, the oldest customer among all the merged customers because the new added date.
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Modified date

  • The merge counts as an update to the master customer and so updates it "modified" date.
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Security

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Staff users

  • Requires the customer delete privilege
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Agent users

  • n/a
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History

Retrieved from "http://www.rpmsoftware.com/wiki/index.php/Customer_merge"
  • This page was last modified 21:31, 4 May 2010.
  • This page has been accessed 614 times.