Introduction – Customer Contacts
This series of posts is building a CRM using the concept of a Mashup by utilizing out of box SharePoint capabilities. In this post, the setting up of the custom list, Customer Contacts will create another necessary part. Each individual part of this series may seem insignificant at the time, however, once the many parts become a whole the CRM will come into existence. The goal is to take beginning level concepts and skills and growing upon them. The Customer Contacts list will allow us to capture individuals with whom we will interact with from our customers to try and garner business.
Customer Contacts Columns
In Image 1, we identify the eight columns excluding the system columns to be used for this post. This post will break down each column, point out any alterations, and give explanations to the choices of the configurations made. Most will be straight forward; however, it’s good practice to identify when using default configurations or altered when building a solution.
Image 1
Customer Contacts Column Breakdowns
- Title – This is the field that is created when using a blank List template. This field by default is a text field. This is used to identify what role the contact plays within the customer company. It is not required as this information is not always available.
- Prefix – This field is a choice field to ensure uniformity with the data collected. It is required as it will be part of any potential email campaign. Currently there are four choices. (Mr., Miss, Mrs., Dr.)
- First Name – This field a is text field with nearly all default settings. First name is required to create a customer contact.
- Last Name – This field is a text field with nearly all default settings. Last name is required to create a customer contact.
- Company – This field is a lookup field, pointing towards the list Customer. This field is required. (See the section “Company Column – Deep Dive” below.)
- E-mail – This field is a text field with nearly all default settings. Email column data is required to create a customer contact.
- Phone Number – This field is a text field with all default settings. The phone number field is not required.
- Mobile Phone – This field is a text field with all default settings. The mobile number field is not required.
Company Column – Deep Dive
With the creation of a lookup field, there are additional options available to take into account. (See Image 2) For those who work with databases, this will make sense. To ensure the customer data is accurate, the “Enforce relationship behavior” has been turned on. Once selected two potential choices are made available, “Restrict delete” and “Cascade delete”. Restrict delete will not allow the deletion of a customer if there are any customer contacts assigned to that customer. Cascade delete will delete all assigned contacts connected to a deleted customer.
For the CRM solution, “Restrict delete” is a better choice. This will reduce the chances of numerous customer contacts from being deleted in one sweep. Enforcing the restricted delete will force deliberate actions to remove contacts from the solution.
Conclusion
In this post, a breakdown of building the second list, (Customer Contacts), was explained. This is the first post in a multipart series. Building this CRM mashup requires the setting up of multiple pieces similar to the solving a multi-piece puzzle. Be sure to keep an eye out for the release of the next step in the series, “Building a CRM Mashup”. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to watch the corresponding video on YouTube and leave them there.
