Prospect Merging

Issue

With the introduction of manual prospect entry and prospect uploads the likelihood of duplicate person records being entered into SS&E has increased.

Resolution

In order to address this issue, prospect person type records can either be deleted or merged into an existing prospect, applicant, or student person type record.

Prospect Merging Security Role Permissions

Can Merge Prospects

In order for a user to be able to view/use the "Merge" button on prospect person records from the prospect record's profile tab action items, they must have at least one assigned security role that is granted permission to "Can Merge Prospects" in Role Administration.

Can Delete Prospects

In order for a user to be able to delete a prospect record, they must have at least one assigned role that is granted permission to "Can Delete Prospects" in Roles Administration. 

How to merge a prospect record

1. Select the Departmental App that includes the duplicate Prospect record you wish to merge and delete.
2. Select the Prospect Person Type from the Primary Navigation bar.
3. Select the Prospect person record you wish to merge and delete.
4. Select "Merge" from the person record action menu.
5. A message will display notifying that this process is for reconciling duplicate person records, that data will be copied to the target person, that this person record will be deleted and this cannot be undone.
6. Select the duplicate person record that you wish to merge with. The person record that is merged with must be a prospect, applicant, or student (eg. Non faculty/staff) person type.
7. Select Merge to merge and delete the person record.

How to delete a prospect record

1. Select the Departmental App that includes the duplicate Prospect record you wish to delete.
2. Select the Prospect Person Type from the Primary Navigation bar.
3. Select the Prospect person record you wish to delete.
4. Select "Delete" from the person record action menu. 
5. A confirmation message will display asking if you are sure that you want to delete this person as the action is irreversible.
6. Select Ok to delete the person record.

What does it mean to merge a prospect?

When merging a prospect, data will be migrated or removed from the source person (the prospect), and the original prospect record will be deleted. Migrated data will be available in one of two forms:

1. Natively migrated data will appear on the destination person in the same way that it appeared on the source person. For example, messages sent to/from the source person will appear in the destination person's inbox.
2. Archived data will be saved, but not merged into the destination person. This information will appear on the target person's profile in an "Archived Data" section.
3. Deleted data is removed all together and will not appear on the target person record.

Natively migrated (merged) data

• Messages and attachments
• Authentication/login history
• Mobile usage information
• Meetings
• Meeting requests (Next)
• Notes
• Alerts
• Documents
• Tags
• Survey Responses
• Tasks

Archived data

• After a prospect is merged into another prospect/student person record, the following items will appear on the target person profile Archived Items tab:

  • Phone Numbers

  • Addresses

  • High Schools

Deleted data

• Role assignments
• Role history information
• Mobile device associations
• Person types

Feature Exceptions

The following features only support one occurrence of a person. Therefore, what happens with these features depends on the source/target person record details.

• Campaigns
• Pipelines
• Tags

If only one of the source or the destination person records is in one of the above features, then that person will remain in the feature.

For example, a person can only be enrolled in a campaign once. As a result, a scenario may exist where both the source person record and the destination person record already exist in the same campaign.  When this occurs, the source person will be removed from the campaign and the destination person will be preserved.

Eligibility for Merging

In order for a prospect to be merged into another record, certain criteria must be met.

Prospects cannot be merged if they:

1. Have ever had a non-student role
2. Have ever had a staff or faculty person type
3. Have ever logged in to SS&E
   
4. Have an academic plan
   
5. Have an application
   
6. Are not currently a prospect person type
7. Are marked as sis managed

SIS Managed

SIS Managed is a feature of the SIS Integration Data Import process that allows automated integration of prospect data. To support prospect merging, the Person data feed Import includes a new field labeled SIS Managed.

• The default value is True, which means that the prospect person is managed within the SIS. 
• If the prospect person is managed within a different source, this should be set to False. 

Considerations when setting the SIS Managed value:

1. Are you planning to import prospects via the Connect job? If no, then this setting is NA.
2. If yes, where are the prospect records coming from? If they are importing from the SIS system, then this can be set to True. If prospect data is importing from another system, this should be set to false.
3. If prospect records will need to merge into another person record, this should be set to False.

The sisManaged flag should be set to true on a prospect person record if the prospect person exists in the SIS system and is managed by your SIS system, and all data about the prospect person's journey is being delivered via the Accelerate integration.

• When a prospect record is imported with SIS Managed True, this setting must remain as True and cannot be changed to False.
• If prospect records originate in the SIS (SIS Managed = True), they will not be allowed to merge with another person record as the assumption is that everything is being managed within the SIS.
• If you think that a prospect importing from the SIS will have to be merged with another person record in the future, then the SIS Managed setting should be set to False.
• At any time, SIS Managed False can be changed to SIS Managed True.

The sisManaged flag should be set to false on a prospect person record if the record is being imported via the Accelerate integration and is sourced from outside of your SIS system (eg. lead spreadsheets or a lead capture system etc.).

• SIS Managed False, eg. importing Non SIS Managed prospect records, will allow prospects to be merged into another person record. 
• Person records that import with SIS Managed False can become True. 

Valid data streams for Non SIS Managed (sisManaged = "False") prospect person records:

• Person
• Person Address
• Person Phone
• Person High School
• Person Location
• Person Veteran Type
• Person Application
• Test Score

For example:

• If SIS Managed is set to False on person X, then person X cannot appear in any other data feeds except the ones listed above.
• If SIS Managed is set to True on person X, then there is no limitation on which data feeds may include data about person X. Here, nothing changes from what you're already familiar with in the SIS Data Import process.
• When a person record is set to SIS Managed False, you will not be able to import data on any other data feed until the SIS Managed flag is changed to True.

Troubleshooting SIS Managed

1. If a prospect person SIS Managed value first imports as True, it cannot be changed later to False.
2. If a prospect person SIS Managed value first imports as False, it can be changed later to True.
3. If SIS Managed is set to False, data associated with the prospect person record can only import on the specific data feeds listed above.
4. SIS Managed people are not eligible for merging and therefore cannot be changed from SIS Managed to Non-SIS Managed.