I was reading the list of known issues for Raiser's Edge 7.93 the other day, and noticed that in that specific version (the issue appears for the first time in 7.93, and is resolved in 7.94) phone numbers are not included in RE merges.

Does MergeOmatic still handle phone numbers appropriately in RE 7.93?  I will be upgrading to 7.93 shortly, and would prefer to avoid having to move phone numbers around manually.

Hi Evan,

In RE 7.93, MergeOmatic will move the addresses from the merged record to alternate addresses on the survivor record.  Any phones/emails on those addresses stay on the addresses.  

For example, assume Bob Smith has an address of 1234 Main St, Charleston SC 29407 with home phone 843-555-1234 and email bob@gmail.com and Robert Smith has an address of 1234 Main Street, Charleston, SC 29407 with cell phone 843-444-2221 and email robert@gmail.com.  If you use MergeOmatic to merge Bob's record into Robert's, then Robert will now have a preferred address of 1234 Main Street, Charleston, SC 29407 with cell phone 843-444-2221 and email robert@gmail.com and an alternate address of 1234 Main St, Charleston SC 29407 with home phone 843-555-1234 and email bob@gmail.com.

Sue

Thanks, Sue.

Your answer contradicts what I was told by support when I asked them the same question. In support case #22343, I received the following:


Thank you for contacting Omatic Software Support!

We have received your case regarding questions regarding RE merging limitations and their impact on using MergeOmatic.

MergeOmatic uses the RE merging functionality. Any issues that currently exist regarding the ability to merge records within RE is the functionality that MergeOmatic must adhere to when processing those merges through RE.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns. Thank you!


Can you confirm that you are correct, and that support was wrong? I would very much like support to have been wrong.

Hi Evan,

What Support told you is right - we do use existing RE functionality in MergeOmatic but we use the RE API rather than the user interface.  

We have found that sometimes the RE API and the RE user interface have different behaviors, so maybe it's possible that the issue with the phone numbers is limited to the UI and is not in the API.

I just performed the test I mentioned above again using both the RE UI and using MOM.  I am using RE v7.93.5782.7 and MergeOmatic v1.0.10.0.  In both cases the survivor record has an alternate address with the merged record's address and phone/email info.  So maybe it's related to having certain data on the records or something else.  I'll keep testing but if you are able to recreate it, please share your findings (for example, the survivor has a membership and the merged record has an event registration, etc)

Thanks,

Sue

I haven't upgraded yet, but when I do (within the next 6 weeks) I will test it.