Understanding Name and Address Information in CRM
These topics list common elements and discuss:
Business object names in CRM.
Address books in CRM.
Contact information on CRM components.
Contact information for business object relationships.
|
Field or Control |
Definition |
|---|---|
| Primary Name |
The name that appears online when the business object is referenced in system transactions. |
| Contact Method Type |
A method by which you contact a business object. CRM provides the Address, Phone, and Email contact methods with the system. |
| Contact Method Purpose Type |
A further clarification of a contact method. As delivered, the Home and Business contact method purpose types are available for the Email contact method and the types Home, Business, Fax, and Pager contact method purpose types are available for the Phone contact method. CRM provides additional contact method purpose types that you can configure and you can define additional types as needed. |
| Contact Info Entry (contact information entry) |
A grouping of contact methods. As delivered, contact information entries in CRM can contain one address, up to two email addresses, and up to four phone numbers. |
| Address Book |
The collection of contact info entries for a business object. |
| Consumer |
A person business object that has the consumer role. |
When you initially create a new company, consumer, contact, site, or worker business object, you enter the business object name. This becomes the preferred name for the business object and appears on the Summary page of the component. You can add alternate names for the business object. To edit a name, add alternate names, or change the preferred name, access the More Names page from the Details page of the component.
Contact information for business objects is logically grouped into address books, which function in the same way as a personal address book. For example, a person named Larry Hill might give you his home address, email, and telephone number. If you also need to get in touch with Larry during the daytime or send him business correspondence, he might also give you a work address, cell phone number, pager number, and work email. If Larry operates out of two offices, you keep an address book entry for each of Larry's offices as well as for his home address. You can maintain address books for business objects and for sites and contacts of business objects.
Contact information entries on a component appears on both the Summary page and on a separate, more detailed Contact Info page.
Note: If an individual business object or an organizational business object (Company) has multiple roles, then the contact information defaults to both roles. For example, if Larry Hill is both a contact and a consumer, a phone number for Larry Hill phone number applies to both roles by default. The exception is the worker role. Since there may be security issues around the worker role, information does not default to or from this role. So if Larry is both a worker and a consumer, and you add a phone in the Worker component, it will only apply to Larry in the role of worker, not consumer.
These topics discuss:
Summary contact information.
Detailed contact information.
Advanced options.
Existing address searches.
Contact method definition for business object roles.
Contact method definition for business object relationships.
See Address Book Configuration Page.
Summary Contact Information
Contact information on the Summary page includes the address, two email address, and all four phone numbers. To view the complete contact information for a business object, you must use the Contact Info page that you can access either by clicking the More Info link on the Summary page or by selecting the Contact Info tab. By default, the first contact information entry in the address book appears for organization type business objects, and the first and second contact information entries appear for individual type business objects. You can specify the contact information entry that appears on the summary page by clicking the Set Display link.
Detailed Contact Information
The Contact Info page enables you to maintain the contact information for the business object and its associated sites and business contacts. You click the description for an entry to view and edit the entry's details or you can create a new entry. The advanced options on the Contact Info page enable you to manage contact methods independently of the contact information entry in which they are defined.
The Contact Info page enables you to view and update:
Address information.
You can add, view, or update address book entries. or view and update additional address, email, and phone contact information for an entry that is in the address book or to access additional entries. This page is the primary place where you maintain contact information for a business object. You can enter or update details of the contact methods that are associated with the business object or click the trash can button to cause all of the contact methods that are within the contact information entry to expire on the current date.
Contacts.
You can associate an existing business contact with a customer or create a new business contact to add to the customer. Contacts that are associated with customers can have address book entries and sites associated with them.
Sites.
You can create and update sites for a customer or contact.
Advanced Options
The Advanced Options section on the Contact Info page contains three tabs: Address, Email, and Phone. Each tab lists the entries that are defined for that particular contact method type. The Edit button for each entry provides the only access to the Contact Method Details page, where you can update the start and end dates for the contact method or associate the contact method with roles independently of the other contact methods in a contact info entry.
Existing Address Searches
You can search for existing addresses when you add or update address information. This enables you to find and modify an address that is similar to an existing address for a company, site, or person.
To search for an existing address, use one of the following two methods:
Enter any known address information, click the Look Up Address link on the Contact Info page for a company, consumer, contact, site, or worker, and select an address from the list of existing addresses. The system uses the information you enter as search criteria and returns any contact method records that match the criteria. You can select the applicable record, or, if none of the returned records apply, create a new contact record.
Enter known address information on the Update Address page and search for an existing address.
Note: Depending on the volume of addresses that are in the system and the number of search criteria that is entered, the address search feature can slow system performance.
Contact Method Definition for Business Object Roles
The contact methods that you define at the business object level are automatically associated with the role that the system assigns to the business object. For example, when you establish a business object using the Company component, the system assigns the Company role to the business object and creates contact method records for the role by using the contact information that you define. When you define a site business object by using the Site component or the Sites page in any other component, the system assigns the site role to the business object and records the contact information that you define for the site at both the business object and role levels.
Contact Method Definition for Business Object Relationships
When you associate a contact or site with a customer, you can define separate contact methods that apply only to the relationship between a customer and its contacts or between a customer and its sites.
Address information for a new contact or site is usually similar to address information that was previously defined in the system. CRM provides you with the capability to search for address information that was previously defined when you add contacts or sites to a business object. For example, when you define a contact for a company, you can use an existing address with perhaps a modified mail stop number for the contact.