Merge more than 2 contacts in one best record

[danny_lipkovski2]

Hi,

I'm wondering why the match&merge process does not consider more than 2 contacts for merging?

Quick Example:
If I have one contact and import another one with same Email and Name these will be merged successfully into one best record. All contacts havn't any additional ID!

But if already 2 contacts with same Email and Name exist and I try to import a third one with same Email and Name nothing is merged. Instead a third best record is created.

Why doesn't match&merge logic merge all 3 contacts into one best record?

I'm aware about the job-based merge that can merge contacts based on similarity instead of ID-origin. But this job often results in wrong duplicate-groups and unfortunatelly the logic for building the duplicate-groups is not documented and can not be customized:-(

Regards

Danny

[SCHNEIDERT]

Hi Danny,

I think it depends on how you set up any other Origins of the Contacts. So if the Contacts only have name and email and email is not shareable, they should get matched and merged.

Do you have any other origins which are set up as "one by contact" which depends the system from merging the contacts?

Do you know the CX Works Article concerning Match & Merge Logic? There's a good overview of how the logic works: https://www.sap.com/cxworks/article/446948633/Set_Up_Profiling_and_Match_Merge_Logic_for_SAP_Marketi...

BR Tobias

[danny_lipkovski2]

Hi,
the contact data has been entered via a form. Thsi form just has field Firstname, Lastname and Email. So the only Source-IDs that could be relevant are EMAIL and SAP_FORM.
SAP_FORM is set to not relevant for Identification.
EMAIL is set the following:

With my understanding this setting should allow to merge all 3 contacts with same Email + Name.
Even the Documentation explains under "What Triggers Recalculation of the Best Record" that all found records should be merged.

Regards

Danny

[SCHNEIDERT]

Hi Danny,

that's strange... the configuration looks good.

Is SAP_FORM configured as One per Contact? That's the only point I can still think of. Otherwise you're right and the contacts should get merged in my opinion.

Did you check the Application Log what is the result of the Match&Merge Job?

BR Tobias

[bruno_gonzalez]

Hi danny.lipkovski2. The "problem" there is with the match and merge logic itself. Here is the official documentation for Contact Match and Merge on Import. See the diagram below:

If it finds multiple matches (pass to diagram at the right), it checks for the one per contact conflict, merge and remove merge flag, so it doesn't merge with more than one contact.

To reference the documentation I mentioned:

The Merge Process

The merge process is scheduled to run automatically every fifteen minutes. As in the match process, the One Per Contact rule is considered on merge. The system checks whether there are one or more matches involving identification-relevant IDs for the flagged contact. Shareable IDs, on the other hand, are not considered for the merge process.

1. If a match is found, the system checks whether the One Per Contact rule would be violated by a merge. If there is no violaton, the contacts are merged and the merge flag is removed. If there is a violation, the merge flag is simply removed.
2. If no further match is found, the merge flag, which was set in step 1c, is removed.

I highlighted the important part.

Work around: use additional IDs for merging

Imagine you already have contacts A and B in your system (not merged). You can use the AdditionalID endpoint in the API_MKT_CONTACT_SRV api to "set" the ID of the contact A as an additional ID of contact B, and then send the contact C that will merge with both.

You can also do:

1. Use with EIM match and merge process. Documentation here.
2. Use Business Add-Ins to modify the match and merge process. Documentation here.

Regards,

[KunalBansal]

Hello Danny,

I would need to know the ID Origin Configuration settings in your system, can you share the screenshots?

Best Regards,

Kunal Bansal, SAP Marketing Consultant