It is important to have the ability to track either which external systems created a new contact or made any recent edits.  Lets say that your firm has an outside business development database that needs to bring new contacts into InterAction.  Firms should definitely be able to visually identify which new contacts can be attributed to the outside system, and be able to run reports accordingly. 

Effectively tracking these actions by source, involves a little prior planning.  We will create a new user for this external data source, and make it clearly identifiable on the Windows Client (it will say some thing like "Created by Human Resources", or "Last Edit: 2/25/07 Human Resources").

Step 1: Creating a User to Represent the External Data Source

First, we need to create a new User to represent the external data source.  Log into the InterAction Administrator and click through the following:  User Account and Group Configuration > User Accounts > New.  This should pull up the new user window.

Now, we need to create a User ID for our external system.  The name should be representative of what the external system does.  For Example, “Human Resources”, “Accounting”, etc.  This way, when you pull up contacts in the Windows Client, it is easy to identify which system made the last edit. 

You will also have to fill out the following fields:

• Password
• First and Last Name- This should also be related to the external system.  For Example, “Human” and “Resources”, or “Human Resources” in both fields.
• Professional Check Box – Make sure this is unchecked
• Contact Record- Leave it blank
• Account is disabled (Inactive) Check Box- Make sure this one is checked.  It isn’t necessary for this user we are creating to have any login rights or access.

Click OK, and you should be all set.  If you don’t see the new User we created in the Manage User window, click the Filter button, and make sure the filter is not set to exclude inactive users.

Step 2: Make our New User an InterAction Administrator User

You should still have the InterAction Administrator open.  Click through to the following:  InterAction Administrator User > Add.

Choose our newly created user from the list and click OK.  Close the InterAction Administrator User window.

Step 3:  Connect our New User to the Appropriate Data Source in Application Collaboration

Finally, we need to set our new user as the Editor for the external system data source.  Log into the Application Collaboration and select the data source that applies to the external system.  Click Edit.

At the bottom of the Edit Data Source window, you will see a drop down field for the Editor.  Select our newly created User as the editor.  Click OK.

You are all set.  Now, when any contacts are created or edited by the external system, it will be clearly identifiable in the Windows client.  You can also run reports by the User to locate newly created contacts.