Creating Unique Customer References
Each attribute of a customer must be unique. For example, each contact for a customer or for a customer address must have a unique identifier. Following are some tips on how to create unique identifiers for imported customer information.
To select useful original system reference values:
- Choose a value that you can easily derive from your original customer database. For example, if your original customer database has a 4 digit customer id, a 6 digit address id, a 5 digit contact id, and a 7 digit telephone id, you could create the following standard format for these values:
CUST0001-ADDR000001-CONT00001
ORIG_SYSTEM_TELEPHONE_REF
CUST0001-ADDR000001-CONT00001-TELE0000001
Suggestion: If the value you enter is numeric, add an alpha character to the end to ensure that this number never conflicts with a system-generated ID number.
To import a customer with multiple addresses:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CUSTOMERS_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF values.
To import a customer with multiple contacts:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_CONTACT_REF values.
To import a customer with multiple telephone numbers:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_TELEPHONE_REF values.
To import an address with multiple business purposes:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CUSTOMERS_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF and ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF values, but different SITE_USE_CODES values.
To import an address with multiple contacts:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF and ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_CONTACT_REF values.
To import an address with multiple telephone numbers:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF and ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_TELEPHONE_REF values.
To import a contact with multiple telephone numbers:
- Enter multiple records into RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INTERFACE with identical ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF and ORIG_SYSTEM_CONTACT_REF values, but different ORIG_SYSTEM_TELEPHONE_REF values.
See Also
Customers
Importing Customers
A Sample Customer Import