Data Integration: Common Ground Connector & Partition Enhancements

Melissa Ugiansky

Feature Summary

Release: Fall '09

Author: Kevin Suer

Overview

This feature provides the ability to limit the scope of data integration for the Common Ground Connector to a Partition of constituents and their corresponding constituent records, interactions, and transactions. Further, this feature expands the criteria available for defining Partitions to be based on a Convio Query.

Key Features

• Common Ground Connector – Use a Partition: Fall ’09 supports using a Partition with the Convio Common Ground Connector. When a partition is configured for use with the Connector, the following sequence occurs:
  • Only the contact records of members of the selected Partition are synchronized with the Connector. Only interactions and transactions (that are transferred within the existing scope of the Common Ground Connector) associated with those constituents who are members of the Partition are synchronized.
  • New contact records from Common Ground will be added to Convio Online Marketing, but not to the configured Partition unless they meet the Partition criteria.
• Define Partition based on Query Criteria: Specify a saved Convio Query that will define which contact records to include in a Partition.
• Define Partition based on Survey Response: Administrators cannot include the “Submitted a Survey” interaction type in the Partition criteria definition. Relabeled User Interface: In Fall ’09, the “Data Sync WebServices” tab (under “Import/Export”) is more accurately labeled as “Partition Management”.
• Common Ground Connector: Option to synchronize all contact records with non-null Member IDs: When a Partition is configured for the Common Ground Connector, the Connector will also synchronize all contact records in Convio Online Marketing, in addition to the contact records (and their corresponding Interactions/Transactions) in the selected Common Ground Connector Partition, with a non-null value for the Member ID value. As a result, any Constitutent360 contact ever synchronized with Common Ground will continue to synchronize, even if they no longer match the Partition criteria logic.

Use Scenario: Synchronize only donors with Common Ground
Claire, an administrator with the American Health Society (AHS), is launching her organization’s data synchronization project between Convio Online Marketing and Convio Common Ground using the Common Ground Connector. Rather than synchronizing all contact records in Constituent360, she wants to include only those contact records who have donated online. Working with Convio Services, she enables that configuration for the AHS Common Ground Connector.

1. Convio Support creates on the AHS site a new Partition that only includes contacts who have donated online.
2. Convio Support configures the Convio Connector to use that newly created Partition.
3. Claire runs the Common Ground Connector for the first time.  It bidirectionally synchronizes those contact records in Constituent360 who have a donation interaction in Convio and downloads their corresponding transactions and interactions from Convio.  Contacts who do not have a donation interaction are not synchronized with Convio Common Ground.
4. With the Connector now synchronizing all contact records with non-null Member IDs, the Connector will in the future only synchronize those contacts who have donated, or those contacts who have been synchronized in the past.

Screen Captures

Figure 1: New step 3 in defining Partition enables using a saved Query.

Figure 2: New option to include “Submitted a Survey” as part of Partition definition.

Client Impacts

• The Partition enhancements outlined in this document will be available for all clients.
• Common Ground Connector enhancements will be available to all Common Ground Connector clients.

FAQ

What is a Partition?

A partition defines the set of constituents in the Convio database to synchronize with a client system. In the most common scenario, all constituents are synchronized; in some cases, the exchange of constituent information must be restricted to a specific subset. For example, if you are synchronizing a donor database with Convio, you may synchronize only those constituents who have a mailing address or who have made at least one donation, as did Claire in the Use Scenario of this document.

The Convio system automatically tracks partition membership according to the criteria you specify. If you define a partition that includes all constituents, then the Convio system will add constituents immediately when they register. If you define a partition that includes only a subset of all constituents, the Convio system will check each time a constituent record is updated, and add or remove the constituent from the partition as appropriate.

Creating and managing partitions

Partition management is part of the Convio CRM administration interface:

1. Choose Import/Export from the Data Management menu
2. Click the “Partition Management” tab

That page lists available partitions and allows you to edit, copy and delete them, and to manage their membership.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT INTENDS TO PROVIDE A COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF WHAT CONVIO FULLY EXPECTS TO DELIVER IN FALL ‘09 (AS OF SEVERAL WEEKS PRIOR TO LAUNCH) BASED ON COMPLETED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT.  THIS DOCUMENT AIMS TO SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR PLANNING AND PREPARATION WELL IN ADVANCE OF ACCESS TO THE NEW FEATURES.  GIVEN THIS DOCUMENT WAS DRAFTED PRIOR TO COMPLETED QUALITY ASSURANCE, ALL FEATURES, CAPABILITIES, SCREENSHOTS, ANSWERS, CLIENT IMPACTS, SITE DATA PARAMETERS, AND LIMITATIONS LISTED HEREIN, WHILE REASONABLY CERTAIN FOR INCLUSION IN THE RELEASE, ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY POINT UP UNTIL ROLLOUT ON YOUR CONVIO SITE.