Enterprise contact manager: product FAQ
FAQ for Users of Web Application
Within ECM, all records are maintained as contacts. This record could be an individual/person or an organization/company. A user (standard or administrator) too is maintained as a contact record, which could be a person or a company. Any of these records can be combined into groups.
Linking a person to a company as an employee is a useful and intentionally optional feature. If a company exists within ECM, a person can be linked to that company by editing the person's record. The individuals linked to a company can be seen under 'Employees' tab. The linking feature is optional and the company name can still be entered under person's details without an active link between them.
It is because of permissions given to the group which you belong to. For standard users, there is one setup which dictate on which records you can see. In ECM, the administrator can configure groups which can prohibit them to see records of other groups. If set like this, you will not be able to see the records even if you are able to see the tags and names of lists.
A static list is set of records which is manually managed. For example, the list of attendees to a webinar, the board members of an organization, class of 1998 batch in a college. Records can be easily added or deleted from these lists, which can be made for own use or shared with other users.
A dynamic list is derived from a criteria and it changes as more records can added or removed from that criteria. For example, a list of contacts for which the owner is Alice (ie, contact owner = "Alice") is a dynamic one. As more records get added for Alice, the list changes.
The results of a search can be converted into a dynamic list, and that is the easiest way to create one. Again, like static lists, these too can be made for own use or shared with other users.
The results of a search can be converted into a dynamic list, and that is the easiest way to create one. Again, like static lists, these too can be made for own use or shared with other users.
Tags can be created and deleted by Administrators of the system. This gives organization using tags a central control. Normal users can only assign a tag to a contact or dismiss it.
There is no restriction. You can create as many number of tags, static or dynamic lists as practically needed. And these can be accessed from both Mobie and Web application.
As tags are very easy to create, we have seen the number of tags to grow to several hundreds within an environment and thus becoming unmanageable. If you depend on tags (like majority of ECM users), we recommend to clean the unused ones periodically.
As tags are very easy to create, we have seen the number of tags to grow to several hundreds within an environment and thus becoming unmanageable. If you depend on tags (like majority of ECM users), we recommend to clean the unused ones periodically.
This is used by users who take photographs of business cards (or registration forms with contact data) from their mobile app, while the data entry is to be done by an operator. The images from mobile phones form a contact record with a temporary name (eg, <Scanned Photo>) and get into the 'Yet to Transcribe' queue along with the photograph of contact data. The transcriptor or data entry operator can then work on this queue to transcribe the records.
ECM stores all the timestamps in GMT. If you are seeing "wrong" values, they are probably the timestamps in GMT. To correct it, go to your own record within ECM and edit the Timezone field to the correct value. ECM will start to show the time as per the configured timezone.
FAQ for Administrator of ECM
From our experience, we recommend the following 4 steps -
1) Custom Fields - Create all the necessary fields in ECM that are applicable for your environment. While the fields in ECM can be added at any stage, we suggest to make the first list as comprehensive as possible. Order the fields in the way you would like to see them. Now enter one test record with a value in every field in that record. Export that record into a file.
2) Data Preparation - Using the export file of last step and the test record as guidance, import your existing data into this file with data mapped to the field names. In the same data file, add all records of contacts who are going to be the user of ECM. Once the file is complete, import this data into ECM.
3) User Creation - Select the records of contacts who are going to access the system. Give them access to the system by assigning them a user name and password. An easy way is to give them the same user name as it is being used within your organization. Use the in-built function within "Access" tab to inform users of their account in ECM. In this step, user groups can be created and the users are assigned to them.
4) Define Policies - This is not part of ECM product but is of paramount importance for a successful implementation. Define the policies for users to use ECM. Explain the importance of updating the system, on how they are going to use 'Notes' features after every interaction and how tags are going to be used within the system. Communication with them on the importance of data and their effort in building a company-wide data system is crucial. We also recommend to involve senior management of the company in this step.
Step #1 and #3 are easy and can be completed within few hours. #2 could take time depending on volume and completeness of data. #4 has to be repeated periodically.
1) Custom Fields - Create all the necessary fields in ECM that are applicable for your environment. While the fields in ECM can be added at any stage, we suggest to make the first list as comprehensive as possible. Order the fields in the way you would like to see them. Now enter one test record with a value in every field in that record. Export that record into a file.
2) Data Preparation - Using the export file of last step and the test record as guidance, import your existing data into this file with data mapped to the field names. In the same data file, add all records of contacts who are going to be the user of ECM. Once the file is complete, import this data into ECM.
3) User Creation - Select the records of contacts who are going to access the system. Give them access to the system by assigning them a user name and password. An easy way is to give them the same user name as it is being used within your organization. Use the in-built function within "Access" tab to inform users of their account in ECM. In this step, user groups can be created and the users are assigned to them.
4) Define Policies - This is not part of ECM product but is of paramount importance for a successful implementation. Define the policies for users to use ECM. Explain the importance of updating the system, on how they are going to use 'Notes' features after every interaction and how tags are going to be used within the system. Communication with them on the importance of data and their effort in building a company-wide data system is crucial. We also recommend to involve senior management of the company in this step.
Step #1 and #3 are easy and can be completed within few hours. #2 could take time depending on volume and completeness of data. #4 has to be repeated periodically.
There are 3 types of users in ECM - Standard users, Restricted and Administrators.
You can configure a standard user with permissions to (1) view/edit/delete anyone's records or (2) only have view privileges of other's records but complete control on their's. A restricted user is a special type of user who can only view her data and that too through mobile app. This account is commonly used for contractors, temporary staff, resellers and channel partners. Adminstrators are users with full control of the application and have access to several functions (like addition of new users, fields) which are only meant for them.
Users can be categorized into groups like departments (eg, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing), regions (eg, Asia, Europe, Africa), etc. A group can be either for standard/restricted users or Administrators.
You can configure a standard user with permissions to (1) view/edit/delete anyone's records or (2) only have view privileges of other's records but complete control on their's. A restricted user is a special type of user who can only view her data and that too through mobile app. This account is commonly used for contractors, temporary staff, resellers and channel partners. Adminstrators are users with full control of the application and have access to several functions (like addition of new users, fields) which are only meant for them.
Users can be categorized into groups like departments (eg, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing), regions (eg, Asia, Europe, Africa), etc. A group can be either for standard/restricted users or Administrators.
A restricted user has limited view of the data. This type of user can access the system only through mobile app and not the web-based interface. The restricted user has visibility only to the contacts and cards entered by that user's accounts. This account is commonly used for contractors, temporary staff, resellers and channel partners. Restricted user's power is best realized when using the default name/tag features of mobile app which are explained in FAQ here.
First, login as the Administrator in the web application. If the user's record does not already exist then you will need to enter the user as a contact record by selecting 'New Person' from 'Add' menu. Then go to the 'Access' tab of this contact, enable access and assign a login/password. A user will been created. The same login/password can then be used to access the web and mobile app. Note that restricted users can only access their data through mobile app.
Groups are categories of users. ECM uses the group's settings to control access of users to the data they can see.
A group can be of Standard User or Administrator type. User groups are common ones and an organization might want to create several of them for departments (eg, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing), regions (eg, Asia, Europe, Africa), etc.
An Administrator group is one in which all its members have access to admin privileges.
A group can be of Standard User or Administrator type. User groups are common ones and an organization might want to create several of them for departments (eg, Marketing, Sales, Manufacturing), regions (eg, Asia, Europe, Africa), etc.
An Administrator group is one in which all its members have access to admin privileges.
Groups is the answer. First, ensure that all users have a record in the system. Now cluster the records of a company into a group with user privileges. If you do not want the members of this group to see data of other groups, then configure it accordingly. You can provide access to hundreds of channel partners, vendors or team of agents in this way. This is explained here in detail.
ECM is designed to group all names/cards from a tradeshow or a corporate event collected by multiple users. It is best explained with an example -
Say 5 representatives from a company are meeting attendees at a tradeshow (or at an event). Between these 5, they will need to agree on a tag name for the event which will be used to categorize the cards. Once that is done, the setup is simple.
First, anyone of 5 should scan the 1st incoming card of that event and add the agreed tag of that event to it. Next, all 5 should go to Preferences > Default Tag in their mobile apps and select the agreed tag of the tradeshow. After that, all subsequent cards scanned by any of them will go into the system by that selected tag and can be easily categorized. Once the user logs out, the default tag is reset.
More possibilities on this use case are described here.
Say 5 representatives from a company are meeting attendees at a tradeshow (or at an event). Between these 5, they will need to agree on a tag name for the event which will be used to categorize the cards. Once that is done, the setup is simple.
First, anyone of 5 should scan the 1st incoming card of that event and add the agreed tag of that event to it. Next, all 5 should go to Preferences > Default Tag in their mobile apps and select the agreed tag of the tradeshow. After that, all subsequent cards scanned by any of them will go into the system by that selected tag and can be easily categorized. Once the user logs out, the default tag is reset.
More possibilities on this use case are described here.
In the import file:
1) if Company Name has a value AND all values of First, Middle and Last Names are blank then it is treated as a company record
2) if either of First, Middle or Last Name has a value AND Company Name is blank then it is a person record.
3) If Company Name has a value AND there is a value in First, Middle or Last Name then the system will first create a company record, then a record of the person and finally associate that person with the company name.
1) if Company Name has a value AND all values of First, Middle and Last Names are blank then it is treated as a company record
2) if either of First, Middle or Last Name has a value AND Company Name is blank then it is a person record.
3) If Company Name has a value AND there is a value in First, Middle or Last Name then the system will first create a company record, then a record of the person and finally associate that person with the company name.
If your Excel is not showing correct data in Chinese/Korean or other double-byte languages then it is an Excel setting issue (because you will be able to see your data in Notepad accurately). This external page explains on how to get it corrected in Excel - https://www.itg.ias.edu/content/how-import-csv-file-uses-utf-8-character-encoding-0
Another quick way to change excel ANSI encoding to UTF-8 is the open the .csv file in notepad then select File > Save As. Now at the bottom you will see encoding it set to ANSI change it to UTF-8 and save the file as new file and then your done.
Another quick way to change excel ANSI encoding to UTF-8 is the open the .csv file in notepad then select File > Save As. Now at the bottom you will see encoding it set to ANSI change it to UTF-8 and save the file as new file and then your done.
ECM has in-built functionality to get latitude and longitude of an address when the field is saved or updated. ECM does it by connecting to Google Maps through API. The latitude and longitude values are then saved with the record and can be used in multiple applications.
This functionality is enabled by API key for Google Maps. An organization using ECM needs to provide just one key. The following steps will guide you to get the key:
1. Goto: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
2. Follow the instructions of the section: "Creating API Keys" to get the key
3. Share this key with your ECM's contact person or send to support@contactous.com and we will get the maps enabled.
This functionality is enabled by API key for Google Maps. An organization using ECM needs to provide just one key. The following steps will guide you to get the key:
1. Goto: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
2. Follow the instructions of the section: "Creating API Keys" to get the key
3. Share this key with your ECM's contact person or send to support@contactous.com and we will get the maps enabled.
There are categories of contacts (like internal employees, inactive dealers, etc) who do not need to be Geocoded. A new feature has been introduced to facilitate it. Contacts for which Geocoding is to be avoided will just need to be add a reserved tag of #NoGeocode# and the system will not process those records.
The field name must have the string "Date" in it - for example, "Registration Date", "Date of Expiry", etc. This is the most likely reason. Note that the data of date fields in ECM is always stored in YYYY-MM-DD format.
The data of date fields in ECM is always stored in YYYY-MM-DD format. The import system is intelligent to understand the dates that come in different formats. For example, if the incoming data in date field is "15/11/1984" or "11-15-1984" or "15.11.84" or even "1984, novembr 15", ECM will store it as "1984-11-15".
The Import function of ECM is an intelligent program with many new features planned in future.
Field: Country - ECM has a built-in database of countries from ISO 3166-2. When the country names are imported, they are saved by the 3 digit ISO code within the system. However, the import function is smart to understand a few hundred of other variations. For example, it knows that incoming field value of "u.s.a." or "USA" or "united states" or "u s a" mean "United States of America". It knows that "Saudi Arabia", "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" and "KSA" are same.
Field: Gender - For "Gender", just ensure that the field name is "Gender". ECM will take care of the rest. For example, if the value in Gender is "f", "Fem", "F", "FEMALE", "FML" etc - it knows that the value is "Female".
Dropdown Lists - Say a field is defined as a dropdown field with values of "Gold", "Silver" and "Bronze". During import, if a different data value (say, "Platinum") is in datafile, then it will be stored in the system and will also be displayed in data management screens and reports. However, when the record is updated from a data management function, it will not be able to accept 'Platinum' or any other value which the field is not permitted to store and hence will save it as a NULL value.
Geocode - The imported records are not geocoded automatically. They will need to be manually "touched" by a simple update action. However, if the number of imported records is in thousands then please contact us at support@contactous.com and we will help you.
Field: Country - ECM has a built-in database of countries from ISO 3166-2. When the country names are imported, they are saved by the 3 digit ISO code within the system. However, the import function is smart to understand a few hundred of other variations. For example, it knows that incoming field value of "u.s.a." or "USA" or "united states" or "u s a" mean "United States of America". It knows that "Saudi Arabia", "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" and "KSA" are same.
Field: Gender - For "Gender", just ensure that the field name is "Gender". ECM will take care of the rest. For example, if the value in Gender is "f", "Fem", "F", "FEMALE", "FML" etc - it knows that the value is "Female".
Dropdown Lists - Say a field is defined as a dropdown field with values of "Gold", "Silver" and "Bronze". During import, if a different data value (say, "Platinum") is in datafile, then it will be stored in the system and will also be displayed in data management screens and reports. However, when the record is updated from a data management function, it will not be able to accept 'Platinum' or any other value which the field is not permitted to store and hence will save it as a NULL value.
Geocode - The imported records are not geocoded automatically. They will need to be manually "touched" by a simple update action. However, if the number of imported records is in thousands then please contact us at support@contactous.com and we will help you.
Finding the duplicate records is the 1st step and merging them into a single version of truth is the next. Once the cluster of duplicate records is found, it is important to determine the master record which will lead the merging process. By default, ECM takes the earliest record in the cluster as a master record, but the user can always over-ride this selection.
After merging into a master, that contact record which was merged gets deleted. However, its tags and notes get appended to the master record.
There are values that can get overwritten, like name, company name, gender, timezone, etc which have a single value associated with the record. There are fields with multiple values like emails, mobile & phone numbers, social media handles and addresses - they all are checked for uniqueness and consolidated into the master record.
After merging into a master, that contact record which was merged gets deleted. However, its tags and notes get appended to the master record.
There are values that can get overwritten, like name, company name, gender, timezone, etc which have a single value associated with the record. There are fields with multiple values like emails, mobile & phone numbers, social media handles and addresses - they all are checked for uniqueness and consolidated into the master record.
While Contactous has all the commonly used fields required for a contact record, the system allows you to create additional fields . The new fields can be applied to individual records (eg, employee ID, type of employee, relationship manager etc) or to an organization (eg, business registration number, CRM ID, Bank Account Number etc). You can also apply the same field to both individuals and companies. The data in all new fields can be searched by 'Advance Search' function. You can add a field any time, but it would be best to plan them in early stages of implementation.
The custom fields can be of following types:
Note that the length of field name should not exceed 32 characters.
The custom fields can be of following types:
- Single line text - The most common field, which stores the data in text strings
- Paragraph text - Used for free flowing unstructured text
- Dropdown List - For defining selection of text values
- Numbers - Data will be processed as numbers
- Dates - The data will be stored in YYYY-MM-DD format. Note that the field name must have the string "Date" in it. For example, "Date of Expiry" or "Registration Date".
Note that the length of field name should not exceed 32 characters.
ECM has an API that needs to be called. The submitted data from external webform will appear with ECM as a static list. Please contact your representative at Contactous and we will help you.
FAQ on Mobile Application
Available both on iOS and Android, the mobile app provides access to organization's contacts from user's mobile phone. A regular user can access entire organization's records while a restricted user can view and edit only those contacts belonging to that user's account. Both types of users can take a photo of the card and submit it for transcription. Here is a summary of app's features:
- Ability to search by name, company name or email address
- Quick access to user's own contacts, all contacts, names by tags and by alphabetical index
- Exporting of contacts to CRM as a lead (if CRM is configured)
- Display of full information of contact record
- Photo of business card and tags of the contact record
- View and Add notes for a contact
- Create and view hierarchical organization charts
- Ability to save the contact details and card's photo to one's phone
- Function to send full contact information through email
- Take photos of cards easily with enhanced auto-focus
- Upload existing business card photos from phone's memory
- Capture photos of single and double-sided business cards
- Add tags to the photos taken by the app
- View FAQs and communicate with Contactous' Support
- Ability to search by name, company name or email address
- Quick access to user's own contacts, all contacts, names by tags and by alphabetical index
- Exporting of contacts to CRM as a lead (if CRM is configured)
- Display of full information of contact record
- Photo of business card and tags of the contact record
- View and Add notes for a contact
- Create and view hierarchical organization charts
- Ability to save the contact details and card's photo to one's phone
- Function to send full contact information through email
- Take photos of cards easily with enhanced auto-focus
- Upload existing business card photos from phone's memory
- Capture photos of single and double-sided business cards
- Add tags to the photos taken by the app
- View FAQs and communicate with Contactous' Support
This is a small but a powerful feature of ECM. A user who accesses the mobile application can set the default name to another user and select one of the tag in the system as a default tag. Once done, every new record that is captured by mobile app will have the contact owner as the selected default name and the default tag will be associated with that record.
The default name is used commonly by restricted users who have been given temporary access to the system to enter the data on behalf of other standard users. The default tag has big application in events and tradeshows when a team (who are users with ECM access) meet new people and the same tag clusters them automatically.
The default name is used commonly by restricted users who have been given temporary access to the system to enter the data on behalf of other standard users. The default tag has big application in events and tradeshows when a team (who are users with ECM access) meet new people and the same tag clusters them automatically.
The contact records within ECM can be selected to form an Organization chart of an organization. These hierarchy charts can be created by anyone with mobile access and can be edited by team members if they are shared.
When the photographs of business cards or registration forms are already in the phone and need to be uploaded into ECM for transcription. The uploaded photos enter the 'Yet to Transcribe' queue, where the data on them can be entered.
This report is used for tracking the last time since specific tagged records have not been contacted by your organization. It uses a special tag: #track# which needs to be tagged to the contact record that needs to be monitored.
The Account Status Report is a snapshot of the status of ECM at that point of time. As the report takes time to generate, it is sent as an email to the address of the user who has logged in. As this report is frequently used by senior managers within an organization who usually access ECM through mobile app, this report is listed in it.
An example of the report is here -
Account Name: ECM Demo
Customer Code: demo
Prepared for: ecm-demo@contactous.com
Total Number of contacts: 3534
Total Number of Users: 11
Number of Administrators: 1
Number of Standard Users: 10
Number of Restricted Users: 1
Number of Contacts by Users:
Bob: 1351
Alice: 605
Greg: 532
Dana: 413
Jacky: 254
Cliff: 213
Ethan: 95
Fred: 71
Ian: 0
Hannah: 0
Total Number of Groups: 6
Total Number of Shared Lists: 30
Total Number of Tags: 57
Total Number of Notes: 133
Number of Notes by Users:
Alice: 63
Ethan: 28
Greg: 27
Bob: 14
Cliff: 1
Report Generated On: 29-Jun-2020 07:23:AM
An example of the report is here -
Account Name: ECM Demo
Customer Code: demo
Prepared for: ecm-demo@contactous.com
Total Number of contacts: 3534
Total Number of Users: 11
Number of Administrators: 1
Number of Standard Users: 10
Number of Restricted Users: 1
Number of Contacts by Users:
Bob: 1351
Alice: 605
Greg: 532
Dana: 413
Jacky: 254
Cliff: 213
Ethan: 95
Fred: 71
Ian: 0
Hannah: 0
Total Number of Groups: 6
Total Number of Shared Lists: 30
Total Number of Tags: 57
Total Number of Notes: 133
Number of Notes by Users:
Alice: 63
Ethan: 28
Greg: 27
Bob: 14
Cliff: 1
Report Generated On: 29-Jun-2020 07:23:AM
FAQ on ECM Product
ECM is a stable application which has been used by thousands of users since 2016. The users do not face any surprise with ECM and it works in a predictable way.
As of today, there is only one bug that has been reported and we will fix it in future once our investigation is complete - In non-incognito mode of browser, if the browser tab that is running the ECM application is closed without logging out and another user logs in on the same browser session, the control goes back to the earlier user. This does not happen in incognito mode.
Besides this, there are no other bugs in the system that are known to us.
As of today, there is only one bug that has been reported and we will fix it in future once our investigation is complete - In non-incognito mode of browser, if the browser tab that is running the ECM application is closed without logging out and another user logs in on the same browser session, the control goes back to the earlier user. This does not happen in incognito mode.
Besides this, there are no other bugs in the system that are known to us.
The following features were added recently:
- Records can be searched by a combination of tags
- Records can be browsed by Index: A..Z
- A user can now belong to more than one groups.
- Notes can be exported in a CSV file
- Notes can be added for past dates
- The presence of #NoGeoCode# reserved tag in a contact will prevent it from being processed by Geocoding processes
ECM's roadmap is driven by its users. We compile their inputs and feedback to add new features to the system.
As of now, we plan to work on the following new features in ECM -
We also plan to include our algorithms for advanced DeDuplication from its product: CRM Data Quality into ECM in coming months.
As of now, we plan to work on the following new features in ECM -
- Complete backup of data
- Import of contacts from G-Suite
We also plan to include our algorithms for advanced DeDuplication from its product: CRM Data Quality into ECM in coming months.
Sending a mail to support@contactous.com is the fastest way. Alternatively, use the web form and we will get back to you.