Create New Contact

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) > CRM Daily Processing Procedures > Contact Creation and Maintenance

Create New Contact

New Contact records can be created from within the following views in the CRM application.

• Contact Manager

• Customer Manager

• Company Lookup

The primary difference between creating a contact in the Contact Manager and creating one in the Company or Company Lookup is how the contact is tied to a customer record. Contacts must always be assigned to a valid customer record. The customer the contact is associated with can be a specific customer that you do business with, or it can be a special purpose customer that is named “Unassigned Company”. The Unassigned Company is used for contact records that do not point to specific customer records. By creating one special purpose customer and attaching unassigned contacts to it, the system allows you to track leads for individuals without forcing you to set up customer records that may never be used. If the customer associated with the unassigned contact later does business with you, the specific customer record can be created and the contact can be re-assigned to the new customer.

The methods for creating a new contact record from each of the above views are listed below.

Contact Manager

1. Select the Contact Manager from the CRM Pull-down menu.

2. Press the CLEAR key to clear the view (the view may be loaded with the information for an existing contact or it may be blank). Clearing the view ensures that you are creating a new record instead of modifying an existing contact record.

3. Accept or Change the default information that is displayed in the program. As new contact records are entered, the system can be configured to default information into specific fields in the Contact Manager. This default information can normally be changed or accepted as required. Your ability to change the default values and other information in each contact record is controlled by the field level security that has been implemented on your system. Please see the application notes section of this documentation for more information about new record defaults and system security options.

4. Enter the other information for the contact. Each contact record can store a large amount of information. The system also can be configured to treat certain information as required and force this information to be loaded before a contact record can be saved. The fields that are required and the validation methods used for each field in the contact record can be customized and are not the same on each system, so they are not detailed here.

5. Verify or change the company that the contact is associated with. If a new contact is entered using the Contact Manager, the system will default the contact company to the Unassigned Company customer record. If the contact is actually associated with one of your existing customers, you should specify the correct customer by pressing the Prompt button next to the Company field. This action will bring up the company selection list and allow you to locate and select the company to whom the contact should be attached.

6. Save the new contact record by pressing the SAVE key. As this action is performed, the system will check all fields in the new record and notify you if any required fields are not loaded. You will also be notified if any fields are loaded with invalid information. You must load valid information into all required or validated fields before the new contact record will be saved.

Customer Manager

1. Select the Customer Manager from the Menu.

2. Locate and select the company that the contact should be associated with as described in the Viewing and Editing a Customer record procedure earlier in this document. The new contact must be assigned to an existing valid customer record or to the Unassigned Company customer record that is used for contacts which have no valid customer record in the system.

3. Once the correct company for the contact is displayed in the Customer Manager, press the Contacts tab to display the contacts that have already been entered for the customer. The contact list is a browse. The browse display and search sequence can be changed by clicking on the column titles in the list. Once a display and search sequence has been selected, you can locate an existing contact using the arrow keys or mouse or by keying in the appropriate search string for the display sequence being used.

4. Press the INSERT key (or use the right mouse option). This displays the Contact Detail Panel.

5. Accept or Change the default information that is displayed. As new contact records are entered, the system can be configured to default information into specific fields in the Contact Manager. This default information can normally be changed or accepted as required. Your ability to change the default values and other information in each contact record is controlled by the field level security that has been implemented on your system. Please see the application notes section of this documentation for more information about new record defaults and system security options.

6. Enter the other information for the contact. Each contact record can store a large amount of information. The system also can be configured to treat certain information as required and force this information to be loaded before a contact record can be saved. The fields that are required and the validation methods used for each field in the contact record can be customized and are not the same on each system, so they are not detailed here.

7. Save the new contact record by pressing the SAVE key. As this action is performed, the system will check all fields in the new record and notify you if any required fields are not loaded. You will also be notified if any fields are loaded with invalid information. You must load valid information into all required or validated fields before the new contact record will be saved.

Company Lookup

1. Select the Company Lookup from the CRM Pull down Menu.

2. Locate and select the correct customer record for the contact that you are creating as described in the “Viewing and Editing a Customer record” procedure earlier in this document. The new contact must be assigned to an existing valid customer record or to the Unassigned Company customer record that is used for contacts which have no valid customer record in the system. Once the correct customer is selected, the system will load the information for the company into the Company Detail.

3. Select the Contacts tab in the Company Detail. This will display a list of the existing contacts for the company.

4. Press the INSERT key (or use the right mouse option) to display the Contact Detail panel.

5. Enter the information for the selected contact and press the SAVE key or button to save the new record. Each contact record can store a large amount of information. The system also can be configured to treat certain information as required and force this information to be loaded before a contact record can be saved. The fields that are required and the validation methods used for each field in the contact record can be customized and are not the same on each system, so they are not detailed here.

Contact Comments - Creation and Maintenance