Manage and Merge Duplicate Stakeholders

Requirement: Generally anyone who can edit stakeholders can carry out merges. However, your superuser may have restricted the access to manage duplicates. That means you will need the SE - Stakeholders Duplicate manager profile to be able to carry out merges.

The Stakeholder Merge feature identifies potential duplicates based on name similarities and other information.

As a general rule, stakeholders should be merged when more than one record exist in the system that refer to the same stakeholder. This improves data integrity which improves how interactions with stakeholders are tracked and how efficiently engagement plans are carried out.

As you identify duplicates, you should select the Stakeholder you want to keep as your as your main duplicate and merge the other duplicate into this one.

If you do not have a profile that allows you to edit stakeholders or a specific stakeholder, you will not be able to merge them with their duplicates. Your will have the option to Inform someone. After you click the button, a new form will allow you to send the information to someone with a profile that lets them manage the duplicate data for the stakeholder. You can add a message along with the stakeholder link to add specifics as needed. An email will then be sent to notify the person.

What happens When Stakeholders are Merged?

When merging duplicates in Borealis, you should always start from the record you want to keep (current stakeholder) and merge the duplicates into it. 

The merging process involves several things:

• The current stakeholder information in combined with the information of the duplicate stakeholder.
  • Empty fields for the current stakeholder will have the value from the duplicate stakeholder added to it.
  • Fields where multiple values can be specified will have the information from the duplicate stakeholder added to it.
  • When a field can only contain one value, and the information differs between the current stakeholder an the duplicate stakeholder, the information from the current stakeholder will be kept by default. You also be able to decide the right value to keep.
• Records linked to the duplicate stakeholder will then be linked to the current stakeholder. This includes communications, engagement plans, tasks, and many other types of records.
• Documents and comments linked t to the duplicate stakeholder will also be linked to the current stakeholder.
• The Action history will be updated to document the merge.
• The duplicate stakeholder will be deleted and no longer accessible.
• Values in the Projects field are combined.
  This may result in making the updated stakeholder visible and editable by a new set of users.

Identify Duplicates in Borealis

There are several ways to identify potential duplicates through the system.

Use the Summary View of the List Page

1. Navigate to the Individuals or the Organisations record list page.
2. Select the Summary view.
3. The icon on the right side of the list page indicates whether a record has duplicates of not.
   

Clicking on the opens up the duplicate management form to begin comparing data.

Use the Potential Duplicates Quick Filter

1. Navigate to the Individuals or the Organisations record list page.
2. On the quick filter bar, select the Potential duplicates quick filter.
   

The resulting list will contain all the stakeholders with possible duplicates in your record list. If you are in Summary view, you can use the to begin the duplicate management process. You can then identify and open the main record from the list page  and begin the merging process from there.

Filter on the Column Header Potential Duplicates

1. Navigate to the Individuals or the Organisations record list page.
2. Select the Detailed view.
3. Scroll in the list page until you find the Potential Duplicates column. 
   The Potential duplicates column may not be visible by default. You can add it to your list page.
4. Click on the header of the column.
5. In the filter drop-down list, select Yes.
   
6. Click Apply.

The resulting list will contain all the possible duplicates in your record list. You can then identify and open the main record from the list page and begin the merging process from there.

Use the Information in Your Stakeholder Record.

• As you are editing information found in records, you will notice the duplicates management banner at the top of the Stakeholder information page. You can click the Manage duplicates button in the banner to begin the merging process.
  
• You can also click on the Actions menu located in the upper right corner of the information page and select Manage duplicates.
  

Use Reports and Widgets in Analytics

You can use one of the Borealis system reports or create a dedicated widget and/or report to assist you in duplicate management.

They will allow you to identify duplicate stakeholders that require merging based on criteria defined in the widget.

Add Potential Duplicates Manually

You can also manually add records to the potential duplicate list, in a case where the duplicate was not automatically detected by the system.

1. Navigate to the Individuals or the Organisations record list page.
2. Open the record to which you want to add potential duplicates and use the Potential duplicates banner or the Actions menu option Potential duplicates OR you can use the summary view and click the icon .
3. In the Manage duplicates form, click the + Add duplicate button.
   
4. In the filter list, begin typing the name of the potential duplicate and the system will filter on them.
5. Click on the name of the person you want to add.

They will now have been added to the list of Potential duplicates. If there is now more than one potential duplicates, you can view their information card using the navigation arrows besides Potential duplicates.

Merge Duplicates in Borealis

When merging duplicates in Borealis, you should always start from the record you want to keep (current stakeholder) and merge the duplicates into it. 

1. Identify duplicates in your record list.
2. Open the main record you want to keep and use either the banner or action button to start the merging process OR begin the merge process from the icon .
3. In the Manage duplicates form you can view the information presented to you as follows:
   • Use the colors to quickly identify the information displayed. Green indicates the same data and Red indicates differing data.
   • You can use the checkboxes to choose which information should be kept.
     For contact information and positions, the checkboxes are used to select the main data that is valid for the resulting merged record. The other position or contact information will also be kept. If you want to archive any of that information, you can do so after the merge has been completed.
   • You can mouseover the stakeholder image to enlarge it.
   • You can click the external link icon to open the stakeholder page in a new tab to review the detailed information.
   • You can navigate through the Potential duplicate cards with the navigation arrows.
4. You can perform the following actions:
   • Ignore: You can use this option when you want to ignore this potential duplicate.
     This will remove the stakeholder from the list of potential duplicates and indicate they are a distinct stakeholder.
   • Merge: You can use this option when you want to merge the potential duplicate into the current stakeholder record.
     The current stakeholder will remain in the system but the potential duplicate will be deleted after its information is added to the other record.
   • Add as related organisation: This option is only available for organisations. You can use this option to add the potential duplicate organisation as a related organisation to the current organisation. They will appear in each other's Related organisation under Relations tabs.
5. After clicking the Merge button, you can specify a comment in the confirmation form.
6. Click the Merge button.

Merging records is an action that cannot be undone. Once a potential duplicate record is merged into another record, the potential duplicate record will be deleted from the system.