Customer record database schema

The main contact-related tables within the iMIS database are Name, ContactMain, Individual and Institute.  All basic contact information defined in customer portfolio is stored in the Name table and duplicated to the other three tables, depending on what kind of record it is (Individual, Institute or Combo*).  ContactMain, Individual and Institute are often used in iMIS web features (Process Manger, Marketing Suite, WCM, etc.).  For each row in Name, there is usually one row in ContactMain and one row in either Individual OR Institute. For a combo record* however, for each row in Name there are two rows in ContactMain (one for the individual and one for the institute), one row in Individual AND one row in Institute. The only place this difference surfaces is when using the NetContact business object as a source within IQA.

Over time, your database may end up with orphaned rows in the ContactMain, Individual and Institute tables.  This can happen when a record type changes from an individual to an institute, or when a record has been deleted within iMIS Desktop.  These orphaned records do not interfere with the application, as their references back to the original contact are removed and they are updated to have a status of 3 (deleted).  But from time to time you may want to purge these orphans.  Note that if an orphaned record is still in use (e.g. Updated By/Created By fields in iMIS web modules), then it cannot be purged.

*What is a combo record?

A combo record is a Company record that also contains a first or last name.  This case will only occur if customer portfolio is not set to Suppress Individual Name Fields for Company Records (see Customer Setup - Basic Options window for details.)