One of the more powerful features of rostrvm is the ability to define, associate and record customer details with a contact. This is achieved by defining Data Stores and Import Profiles in order for your rostrvm system to import custom data into the rostrvm database.
There are a number of key items and concepts to be understood before attempting to create your data store(s):
| • | What is a Data Store? This is a rostrvm database table where customer specific data is stored. It can be used for Inbound, but is more commonly associated with OutBound. For older versions of rostrvm (prior to version 10) a typical example of such an outbound related table is DIALLER_DATA. For version 10 onwards systems this table should no longer be used and must be replaced with a user defined table instead. |
| • | Where does the data come from? The customer specific data used to populate the data store can be an external database, an Excel spreadsheet, or more commonly a simple text file. This is referred to as the external data source. |
| • | What is an Import Profile? This is what defines what data is taken from an external data source and where that data is written to in the rostrvm data store database table. For an OutBound system, it also defines how some of the data from the external data source is written to the rostrvm OutBound standard dialling database table DLR_ACCOUNTS. |
| • | How big can my Data Store records be? Although rostrvm applies no limit to the number of columns in your Data Store it is strongly recommended that no more than 200 are defined. More than this is likely to cause database record size issues. If more columns than this are required then multiple stores should be defined (see Rostrvm Solutions for details). |
| • | Where does DLR_ACCOUNTS fit in? For data stores being used for inbound calls DLR_ACCOUNTS has no part to play at all. For outbound systems however, when data is imported into a data store, some data can also be imported into DLR_ACCOUNTS. Each row imported into DLR_ACCOUNTS will have a unique reference (ACCOUNT_REF) to a row imported into the data store. |
| • | Where does DIALLER_DATA fit in? This is an old style data store for outbound systems prior to release 10. Once you have upgraded to version 10 or above this should be replaced with a new user defined data store. |
| • | How are data store records linked to DLR_ACCOUNT records? The DLR_ACCOUNTS.ACCOUNT_REF has a unique identifier associated with it. This may be provided by you from your external data source, or may be generated by the rostrvm system on data import. Each data store entry has the same unique reference in one of its columns. The name of this field is defined during the import profile creation. |
Due to the flexibility (and hence complexity) of this function it is recommended that you seek assistance from Rostrvm Solutions to ensure your custom data is imported and stored in the most appropriate way to satisfy your needs.
Menu Options
The Data menu provides access to the administration of import profiles and data stores, which allows customer-specific data to be imported into the rostrvm database and for this data to be associated with outbound dialler accounts. It also allows the setting up of filters so that the accounts to be dialled can be restricted as required.
Data Stores and Import Profiles - allows internal data stores to be set up and populated from external sources such as customer text files;
Filters - manage the dialling campaign and list filers;
Import Data - allows you to import lists from source files to the rostrvm database (also available from the Outbound menu);
Archived Import Files - a report showing a list of directories and files containing previous imports;
Search - a report allowing the data stores to be searched for specific records to then be exported or scrambled;
Data Records - a number of Management Information reports showing the customer specific record structure and associated data for a single entry for each defined data store;