Infor CRM Changes to Country Data

Summary: Information on Infor CRM changes to country data and the impact of these changes for intelli-CTi™ users.
Article Type:  Troubleshooting
Related Product(s): This article relates to the following products:

  • Infor CRM (formerly Saleslogix)
  • intelli-CTi™ for Infor CRM (Saleslogix)
Related Articles:
  • None

Overview

Updates to the Country Pick List included as part of the 8.0 to 8.1 upgrade bundle introduced some discrepancies which would lead to inconsistent address data.

Cause

Upon further investigation we found there were various issues, some pre-existing and some introduced by the update, Amongst the issues found there were multiple options (e.g. USA, United States), Multiple iterations (e.g. Bolivia, Bolivia, Plurinational State of, Moldova, Moldova, Republic of) Spelling mistakes (e.g. Norfold Island, Pictcairn) and entries which do not constitute a country and so on.

Having reviewed the Country Pick List and found all of these issues, this had to be updated and thus an investigation into updating the appropriate values was started.

Resolution

The initial thoughts were to use ISO, However the ISO country list is a standard for ISO codes. The country names are defined, provided and updated by the United Nations Statistics Divisions, As an address there are multiple examples that are not appropriate for everyday use and some imply that they will change in time.

We also considered data provider(s) as where you get the majority of countries from is important, as this will dictate what will most frequently be entered into a system from – therefore minimising the user having to change the country on data entry – which they will not. In the examples we looked at the data providers were not returning ISO country names.

There are an abundance of country address lists available, however in comparisons there were always differences between them, so what to use?

We decided the only option was to use a combination of sources, perhaps not ideal moving forward as there is no one source to reference back to in the future, however for our requirements this was the most appropriate solution, One which is unlikely suitable for everyone but fulfilled our requirements.

The sources used were a combination of:

We used Google Maps as the master for the majority of entries but still found some idiosyncrasies (e.g. DRC – Congo, The Democratic Republic of the) and gaps, These were amended and or plugged from the other two sources.

Impact for intelli-CTi™ Users

The addition, duplication and removal of multiple items in the County’s Pick List can potentially cause a problem for existing intelli-CTi™ users, as these changes are not automatically reflected in our intelli-TNS (Telephone Number Support) Country records.  Without a correct mapping (e.g. for any new/duplicate Countries), any telephone numbers processed will likely fall-back to the “Default” Country Code’s rule.

Resolution for intelli-CTi Users

The short-term solution for affected intelli-CTi™ users could be to identify the Countries that are new/renamed and compare those with existing TNS Country records and update accordingly (e.g. re-select the new Country Pick List name for an existing TNS Country record).  However, this will not solve the issue of new/duplicated Country Pick List items.

The long-term solution, and one that we believe to be the best way forward, is for us to update the intelli-CTi™ for Infor CRM product to allow more flexible associations of Infor Country Pick List items to TNS Country records.  Our plan is to include support this functionality in the next release of intelli-CTi for Infor CRM.

Either way, if you are an intelli-CTi™ user and would like assistance with this scenario, please contact QWARE for more information.

 Related Resources:
  • None
Further Information:


See the intelli-CTi Help Center User Guidelines for important considerations of use.