Getting Started in iDMS

The iMIS Data Management Suite (iDMS) is a suite of products designed to be your one-stop shop for everything you'll need when it comes to managing your data. iDMS consists of 4 separate modules:

  • iImport Cloud: Use an Excel spreadsheet to import or update data in iMIS.
  • iUpdate Cloud: Use an iMIS IQA query to update data, insert data, or replicate stored procedures.
  • iSchedule: Schedule the above jobs to independently run in the future or on a recurring basis.
  • iTransfer: Create jobs that export and send data (e.g., JSON, CSV, etc.) to third parties (e.g., LMS, certifying boards, fulfillment houses, etc.). Receive notifications as needed (i.e., success or failure). Webhook functionality will allow those third parties to write information (e.g., activities) back to iMIS (e.g., program completion, certification, orders, etc.).

iImport and iUpdate Actions

Action Meaning
Insert Create new contacts, or insert other data and you have the iMIS ID.
  • Insert New Contacts: Add new records to iMIS. 
    • Can insert other data at the same time as creating new records.  
    • iMIS IDs will be automatically assigned.
  • Insert Other Data (iMIS ID): Insert other data (e.g., activities, panel data, etc.) onto a record.  
    • iDMS will automatically match on iMIS ID. 
    • Works with a variety of sources such as activities, panel data, gifts, credentials, event registrations, etc.
Insert with Matching Add other data to existing iMIS records without the iMIS ID.
  • Insert Data onto Existing Records (without iMIS ID): Imagine you have a spreadsheet with user data such as last name and email, but not iMIS ID. You would use matching rules to determine which record to be updating in lieu of an iMIS ID. 
    • Consider a roster of webinar attendees that contains name and email information, but no iMIS IDs. You would match on these fields.
  • Task Options: Review Task Options, as they can assist with ensuring your action completes as expected.
    • Review the option to skip updating records when more than one match is found. 
  • Usage with iUpdate: Generally this action would not be needed with iUpdate. As you can control the IQA query, directly add criteria to match to the display of your query. 
Update Update data that already exists in iMIS. 
  • Exhaustively Match On Fields: It is critical to match on as many fields as possible. 
    • If you are updating activities and only matched on Activity Type = GIFT , you would update every activity with a type of gift. 
    • If you are updating panel data and only match on Ordinal, you may update more records than anticipated as Ordinal restarts and is shared across records. 
  • Match on Keys When Possible: Whenever possible, match on as many key fields and unique fields as possible. 
    • Consider matching on iMIS ID , ContactKey , SEQN , Ordinal 
    • For activities, if you do not have SEQN,consider matching on ID , Activity Type , and Transaction Date to avoid updating activities errantly. 
  • Panel Source Data: If the contact you are updating data for does not yet have a row in a particular panel source, iMIS will handle adding the missing row. 
Insert and Update When needing to both insert and update data at the same time. 
  • Exhaustively Match on Fields: It is critical to match on as many fields as possible. 
    • If updating activities and only matched on Activity Type = GIFT , update every activity with a type of gift. 
    • If updating panel data and only match on Ordinal, you may update more records than anticipated as Ordinal restarts and is shared across records. 
  • Match on Keys When Possible: Whenever possible, match on as many key fields and unique fields as possible.  
    • Consider matching on iMIS ID , ContactKey , SEQN , Ordinal 
    • For activities without SEQN, consider matching on ID , Activity Type , and Transaction Date to avoid updating activities errantly. 
  • Task Options: Review Task Options, as they can assist with ensuring the action completes as expected.
    • Review the option to skip updating records when more than one match is found. 
    • Review the option to not update records and only to insert when no match is found. 
  • Panel Source Data: If the contact you are updating data for does not yet have a row in a particular panel source, iMIS will handle adding the missing row. 
Delete Data Permanently remove (non-contact) data from iMIS. 
  • Permanently Removes Data: There is not a way to recover data from this action. Proceed with extreme caution; consider running delete tasks in development/test environments and with small sample sizes. 
  • Contact Information: Contacts cannot be removed from iMIS using iDMS. 
  • Exhaustively Match on Fields: It is critical to match on as many fields as possible. 
    • If you are deleting activities and only match on ID , you would delete every activity for that record. 
    • If you are deleting activities and only matched on Activity Type = GIFT , you would delete all activities with a type of gift. 
    • If you are deleting panel data and only match on Ordinal, you may delete more records than anticipated as Ordinal restarts and is shared across records. 

Glossary

Term Meaning
Background Account The Background Account is used by the Cloud Applications to communicate with iMIS directly. The background account is how we are able to access your instance of iMIS.
  • Background Account Password Changes: If the password for a background account changes and is not updated within the Cloud Dashboard, iDMS (and other cloud applications) will be unable to connect to iMIS.
Dashboard The CSI Cloud Dashboard is located at https://cloud.csiinc.com. All cloud applications are managed in the Cloud Dashboard, including the iDMS Data Management Suite. iMIS Full Staff Users login with a combination of their iMIS credential and the Cloud ID CSI supplies.
Matching Matching is how iDMS understands how the data you supply (i.e., spreadsheet or IQA query) will interact with data in iMIS. 
  • Match On Recommendations: Mastering matching is essential for mastering iDMS. 
    • Match on as many fields as possible to ensure your job will only update the intended records.
    • Match on keys (e.g., iMIS ID , SEQN , Contact Key , Ordinal , etc.) whenever possible.  
    • Remember to review Task Options to understand your job's configuration.  
Mapping Mapping is assigning the iMIS source to the source provided by the user.
  • Matching versus Mapping: Matching tells iDMS how the spreadsheet/query should determine which records in iMIS should be updated. Mapping will tell iDMS what the new value of those fields would be.
Options Task Options provide configuration options for how your iDMS job will run. 
  • Global versus Job Specific Settings: The global settings will become the default settings for each job that is run. 
    • Settings can be configured for a specific one-time import. 
    • Settings can be configured for a specific iSchedule task.
    • Settings can be configured for specific Task Templates.
    • Settings can be configured globally. 
  • Changing Global Settings: Changing global settings will not adjust any existing setting configurations.