Prep for RE 7.93 to 7.95 - cleanup for contact/org phones

Gina Gerhard

I've tried to find specific information on how contact/org phones will behave during the upgrade, but am coming up blank.  

I'm looking for specific information/guidance on what can be done to prepare contact records for the upgrade -- what's going to happen to the phone numbers on both the contact and the main organization record?


I'm still not clear on a number of things:


--> Let me use an example:  

• I have the Smith Company organization record.
  • There is a main business phone which is currently shared.
• I have 1 contact for Smith Company and it has its own individual records.
  • On this contact record, I see the shared Smith Company phone number.
  • But there is also an additional business phone number (with that contact's own extension).

After the 7.95 upgrade:

1. What's going to be on the Smith Company organization record?
   • Will it still just have the main phone number, or will it also (for some reason) have the contact phone as well?
2. What's going to be on the contact's individual record?
   • Will I see the main Smith Company phone number, and also the contact's additional business phone number with extension?

IS THERE ANY CLEAN-UP/RECONFIGURATION that should be done in order to control what is happening here?

• In 1. above, I really DO NOT WANT the contact phone numbers on the main organization record.
  • CAN I SOMEHOW PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING?
• In 2. above, that's OK.
  • I DO want to see the main phone number in addition to the contact's additional business phone number.

Can anyone clarify above?  I will be doing testing shortly but these questions are nagging at me!

Thanks ---



 

Jen Claudy

To be honest, our Phones were a hot mess when we upgraded (to 7.94 when we moved to Hosting and then 7.95).  They're still a mess, but I'm working on it.  So I can't say for certain what the answers are to your questions.  I was part of the Customer Technology Preview for 7.95, but we had already been on 7.94 and it (the CTP) was focused more on how 7.95 operates, or at least that's what my focus was.


I highly recommend that you screen shot/document a dummy record before and then after the upgrade, and then share your findings and screen shots in the Community.  I know this is not the first time someone has asked a question related to 7.95 Phones. 


I am fairly certain that, in your example, the Smith Company record will appear just as it does now, no Phones from any Relationships will be copied to the Org 1 Tab.  Any Relationships for the Smith Company who have Individual Constituent Records should have all of the Phones currently on Bio 1, plus any additional Phones from the Relationship Record (or Address Records for Alternate Addresses) copied to Bio 1.  The Relationship Record should still show those Phones as well.  Relationship Records for Nonconstituent Relationships of the Smith Company should appear just as they are now.  The Relationship Records Phones Grid does now indicate where that number is from, and there is some (at least for us) duplication there, but that is very likely due to the hot mess I mentioned above.


In other words, I don't think you'll have any cleanup to worry about.  So long as your data is currently clean (and it sounds like it is), you shouldn't see anything worse after the upgrade.


The bigger piece is that Phones attached to Alternate Addresses will be pulled up to Bio 1 (and marked Inactive).  Phones shouldn't be duplicated, and there should be text populating the Phone Comment Field that tells you where the data came from.  That's new, though, and only for those moving from 7.93 to 7.95 and skipping 7.94, so I'm even less clear on what that looks like.


I assume (since I know you know what you're doing!) that you'll have a full backup of your database before you upgrade.  So you could always upgrade, check it out, and if you discover problems with how your data is appearing in 7.95 then discard the upgraded version and go back to the 7.93 version.  Scrub your data until you're confident that what you didn't like will no longer happen, and try again.

Gina Gerhard

Thanks Jen - this brings a little clarity to the situation.  I'll be testing in a full sandbox environment, so will have the ability to analyze what's going on fairly carefully I think.


For the Alternate addresses, I've now cleaned off the phone numbers and made sure they only reside on the Preferred address.  But for the Alternate addresses that are 'Former' (old addresses that we don't mail to), I have NOT cleaned off the phone numbers.  

• Many of the phones on our old addresses are the same as the current phone numbers.
• Will these come over as 'Inactive' even though they're the same number as the current
• OR will the system not pull them over since they are a duplicate phone number?

I will set up some test records ahead of time, and then see how they behave when upgraded - great suggestion!  And I'll try to report out my 'findings' if it's helpful to others as well.

Jen Claudy

I am 99% certain that any Phones on former Addresses will be dealt with as follows:

• The Phone Number already exists on the Bio 1 Tab = discarded as a duplicate.
• The Phone Number does not exist on the Bio 1 Tab = pulled to new Phones Grid, marked Inactive, and Comment Field populated as to where it came from.

And, if you haven't already seen it, the Phones Grid looks like this (although I think I've rearranged the columns from the default...unfortunately, you can't hide any of the columns):




The red checks, like with the main RE Tabs, indicate the presence of data on that Phones Tab.  To see Inactive Phones, you must check the box at the bottom of the Grid, and it does not stick (so Save and Close, Open another Record, box is unchecked...cycle thru a Query using the Next/Previous Record buttons, checkbox sticks until you Close the Records).  What Phones Tab a Phone Type appears on is determined by settings in Config.  Just as you can tell RE:7 what Tab to Open to, you can specify which Phones Tab to Open to (I have mine currently set to Email).

Gina Gerhard

Jen - So I think I'm starting to get this -- but have there been other forum posts about difficulties querying on Inactive phones/emails?  


Since I'm not up on 7.95 yet I wasn't paying close attention, but wondering if it might be worth considering changing the phone type for those phones that will be pulled in as Inactive? 


So let's say I have an org record that has a current and former business address.  

On the grid, it might look like this:

        

Business   (603) 555-1212              

Business   (603) 744-5512      Inactive


Would it be better like this?

Business                (603) 555-1212

Business-Inactive   (603) 744-5512    Inactive


Then, could you more easily query on the Inactive phones by the phone Type (and not the Inactive indicator)?



 

Jen Claudy

There are other Threads about this...you can probably search "7.94 Phone" and "7.95 phone" and find them.  I believe there are also blog posts out...probably from late 2015, which is when Hosted clients were upgraded.


That's what I've done...  If you use the Do Not Call button/icon, then you can probably use Inactive in the same way.  I never cared for DNC, and I don't care for Inactive either.  So I've done exactly what you mentioned.  Here is a Query showing my Phone Types:




I unchecked all of the Inactive boxes so I don't have to fuss with the Show Inactive checkbox at all, and I just use the Phone Type to Query, etc.  So far, it's working for me.  And the Phone Type gives information as well, without typing it into the Phone Comment Field (which is, as shown above, tied directly to the Phone Number, rather than like DNC and Inactive that are not).


Phone Types are only available for their specific Phones Tab, so typing "X" in Phone Type on the Telephones Tab pulls xCell but on the Email Addresses Tab pulls XeHome (removed) (I'm working on sorting those out so we know who actually unsubscribed, what address is hard bounced and might have a correctable typo, etc).

Gina Gerhard

Jen - Thanks, that's very helpful and validates my instincts on this.  Also, I've found that most people don't pay attention to checkboxes (even the important ones!) so I think it's better to make the Inactive 'readable' and very obvious.  I'll work on this before our conversion.


Thanks!!

Gina

Gina Gerhard

So I did some cleanup of my phone numbers prior to upgrading and am now testing the upgrade to RE 7.95 in a sandbox -- so I can see how my data is behaving in the new version.

• I meticulously cleaned off any old phone/email data that I didn't want to come over -- but when my data converted it's pulling over 'old' data from the relationship records.
• So it's sticking back in there phones/emails that I carefully had removed.

So my question:  

• Is there any way after the fact to globally remove specific phone numbers?
  • I've poked around in global change and import, but am not finding a way to target in to remove specific phone numbers from the phone grid?
• Has anyone successfully done this?

For example, in the screenshot below:

• I want to remove the 3 Inactive phone numbers that have the Comment 'From relationship with ...."
• I want to keep the legitimate 'Inactive' phone number (that's 3rd from the top) but want to get rid of the 'junky' ones (that are 4th through 6th from the top).

Is there any way to do this? (I'm hoping the answer is YES!)

Jen Claudy

There is a Plug In (Delete Phones) that works on Phone Type.  I've used it before, but well before 7.95 (or 7.94).  As I recall, I used Import to export the Phone data, updated the Type to zDELETE, removed any other records, Imported my changes, and then used the Plug In.  It appears you can only get the Phone Import ID by Creating an Import File in Import.  But I think this might be your best bet.


However, check the Relationship Record to see if that Phone is also still there...does it move both Phones from Relationships to Constituents AND Nonconstituents?  Will you also need to clean out Phones from those Relationship Records?  (Again, our data was/is such a hot mess, I can't really tell....)


For reference, since I had to go check, here's the Import Fields window in a screenshot:



 

Gina Gerhard

Jen - 


Thanks for the info. I'm going to request the Delete Phone plug-in be installed in our sandbox and then I can see if I can remove the phone numbers I don't want that way.

I did play around with exporting the file (for reimporting) and was able to get it to work, but what I actually need to do is delete the phones, not adjust them. So I'll give it a try and hopefully I can remove the phone data I no longer want.


I really want to take this opportunity during this upgrade to remove old/unneeded phone data from records, so that when someone opens the constituent record they only have data that is useful.  

• So I am deliberately keeping SOME inactive data (if I think it might be helpful as reference)
  • Like some old business addresses, old email addresses (in case someone has these in lists, gets these numbers from others, sees these on websites)
  • So the can say "nope, they're old" so don't enter them as active again.
  • And I'm changing the Phone type on these that I'm keeping so I can easily see there's a reason why I'm keeping them.
• But I'm also deleting a huge number of phone/emails that I don't think are useful as reference
  • Like old Business numbers from 15 years ago, old Fax numbers, old website addresses, etc.

Thanks again Jen for the tip ---

Gina Gerhard

So I just got the Delete Phone Plug-in installed and looks like (surprise) it will NOT do what I need it to do  


It only lets you use the Criteria of Phone Type -- I need it to actually be based on either the Comment field or as a query!!


Is this yet another 'under-engineered' function that leaves us just frustrated....!!!???


 

Gina Smith 2

I wonder if you could create a query that included all the phone records you want to delete.  Query by comment field.  Then globally change the phone type of all phoen records in this query to something like "Delete."  Then run the plug-in to delete the "Delete" phone type.

Gina Gerhard

Oh gosh, I think you're absolutely right!!  If I reimport them with a unique Phone Name then I could run the plug-in.


Please excuse my previous whining reply..!!

Gina Gerhard

Just did this -- exported out the Phone numbers, changed the Phone Type on the ones I wanted to delete to 'Delete'.

Then using the Plug-in could in one easy step remove the phones named 'Delete' --


So now I'll be able to remove all the phone numbers that came over from the Relationships ...

Whew .. THANKS SO MUCH!!

 

Jen Claudy

This is what I did...be careful with Global Change, because it might change more than what you want (i.e. you have 2 Home numbers, one with a Comment and one without, I believe GC will change both if the Const Record is in the Query, not just the one with the Comment, even if that's your Query Criteria).  So I used Import to Create an Import file and then manipulate the data and Import Updates.  Then use the Plug In.


On a related note, you can now have duplicate Phone Types on a Record...or not.  It's a new Config > Business Rules option.  And with the Tabs in the Phones Grid, it only allows you to choose from Types set for that Tab's Format, which makes for a shorter list.  (Now if RE would let us sort the Table by Format and then Type...!)




So a Record can have (depending on the settings in Config) the following:

• Home 555-555-1234   AND   Home 555-555-6789

or:

• Home 555-555-1234   AND   Work 555-555-1234

but not:

• Home 555-555-1234   AND   Home 555-555-1234  (regardless of the Inactive checkbox)

Gina Gerhard

Jen - Does the duplicate setting apply to Inactive phones?


So if you want to restrict duplicates for active phones, but allow duplicates for inactive phones -- does it work that way?

• Wouldn't you want to allow for multiple occurrences of inactive phones -- so over time you could show they had 3 old Home phone numbers?

Lauren Schler CFRE bCREPro

Hi Jen,

 

I recently did a large import project for a client that required me
to import phones, some of which already existed in RE (they are on
7.95). I did a lot of work outside of RE, to find an remove
duplicate phones from the import file and to indentify additional
phone numbers with a HOME 2 phone type. Do you know if RE will pick
up a duplicate phone numbers if the phone number is the same but
the format is different? This would have saved me a lot of
time.

 

For example:

Home
555-555-1234   AND   Home
(555)5551234 

 

Thanks,

 

Lauren

 

Jen Claudy

Lauren Schler
For example:
Home 555-555-1234   AND   Home (555)5551234


Lauren, I believe if you Imported these Phones as they are formatted here, RE would Import the first and return the second as an Exception.  Because RE is really only storing the data/digits, not the format (i.e. you can type "5555551234" and RE will convert to whatever Format you've chosen in the Phone Type Table).  I can't test this without running an Import, and I don't have time to do that today.

Jen Claudy

Gina Gerhard:

Jen - Does the duplicate setting apply to Inactive phones?


So if you want to restrict duplicates for active phones, but allow duplicates for inactive phones -- does it work that way?

• Wouldn't you want to allow for multiple occurrences of inactive phones -- so over time you could show they had 3 old Home phone numbers?

 

Does this answer your question?  I changed my Business Rule to Do Not Allow.  The error shown popped up when saving the record due to the last Phone entered.  Prior to that, I saved the record with no errors.  So three Home Phones with two marked Inactive was not a problem.  And a duplicate Number with different Types, neither marked Inactive is not a problem.  This error does pop when entering a duplicate Type based on my Business Rule setting of Do Not Allow so long as they are both Active (it just says "Duplicate phone types are not allowed.").


As you can see (and I think I mentioned that I don't like the Inactive box to begin with), I have a set of Phone Types for Inactive or Bad Phones.


Also, to see Inactive, you must (every time you open a Record, unless you're scrolling thru a Query using the Next/Previous Record controls) click the Show Inactive Phones box at the bottom of the Phones Grid.  And all of this applies to every Phone Tab.

Gina Gerhard

Jen - 


So that's good it only applies to Active phone types -- where you probably do NOT want to permit duplicate values.


I did notice that the selection to see/not see Inactive doesn't stick -- that's really annoying, maybe they'll fix that in a future version...

Jen Claudy

Go vote for one or all of: Idea 1184, Idea 158, and Idea 886.  Which all revolve around making this a sticky box...although most don't put it quite so simply.    Just like Show Inactive Addresses or Show Spouse Addresses on the Address Tab.


There is, however, a new User Options setting to choose which Tab is open/on top when you open records (Org, Ind, Relationship).  Same spot where you choose which Tab to open to on other record types.