Kavi Help CenterKavi® Members Help
| Chapter 16. Contact Types | ||
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Part I. Kavi Members Concepts and General Instructions | 
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Table of Contents
Contact Types classify users according to the way they represent their company to the organization. These types may confer roles that grant access to protected areas and tools the user needs in order to exercise their benefits and fulfill their responsibilities of the position they hold in the organization.
In Kavi Members, every user is associated with a company and must be assigned a Contact Type that characterizes their relationship to the organization. This applies to all users, even those who are members of an individual-based organization. Different Contact Types are assigned to different kinds of users.
This document assumes you are familiar with the concepts introduced in Purpose, Roles and Types.
Back to topKavi Members comes with a set of default Contact Types that are auto-assigned to users based on User Purpose. While your organization's web site is likely to use custom Contact types, the out-of-the-box use of these default types can illustrate the use of Contact Types as a general user classification mechanism.
Default Auto-Assigned Contact Types
- Employee
The default Contact Type 'Employee' is automatically assigned to users who have the 'Company Representative' purpose (applies to mixed or company-based organizations). These users can be retrieved by this type or by purpose in searches and reports.
- Individual
The default Contact Type 'Individual' is automatically assigned to users who have the 'Individual Member' or 'Individual Nonmember' purpose (applies to individual-based or mixed organizations). This allows all users who represent themselves (as opposed to users who work as organization staff, or users who represent companies) to be retrieved by this type in searches and reports.
- Staff
The default Contact Type 'Staff' is automatically assigned to users who have the 'Staff Person' purpose (applies to any organization that has staff, whether the staff are employed directly by the organization or through an external company that provides administrative or other services). These users can be retrieved by purpose or by type in searches and reports.
These three types are editable and deletable, and although they are auto-assigned by default, auto-assignment is an option that can be easily disabled during site setup. For example, an organization might edit a type to assign additional roles to that a higher level of access is granted through that type. If an organization wanted to provide Member Area access to all individuals, a Super Admin could edit the 'Individual' Contact Type and add the 'member' role. If an organization wanted to grant access to the Admin Area and tools to all its staff, a Super Admin could edit the 'Staff' Contact Type and add the 'admin' role. Neither of these are common use cases. Most organizations add custom types in addition to the default types and assign the appropriate level of privileges through custom types, or through types assigned through membership (these will be Company Types or User Types rather than Contact Types, which aren't assigned through membership).
Back to topThere are other Contact Types installed by default. Kavi Members installs the 'Primary Contact' type, and other Kavi applications installed on the site may add default Contact Types, too. Most default types are required, so they are editable but not deletable. Default Contact Types are generally all that's needed to get a new web site up and running. Custom types are then added and tailored to reflect the organization's unique structure.
The most important default Contact Type in company-based and mixed organizations is 'Primary Contact'. The 'Primary Contact' functions as the point person for organization contact with the company. Kavi Members and other applications need to be able to send important membership information and other email notifications to the Primary Contact, so this information is usually collected through required fields on the company membership application. As Kavi Members processes the application and adds the company to the database, it also adds the user and assigns the 'Primary Contact' Contact Type (along with the 'Employee' Contact Type, assuming the out-of-the-box settings are used).
By default, the 'Primary Contact' Contact Type confers the the 'company_admin' role, giving the user access to Company Area tools used to view and manage the company roster and company information such as the company name, logo and contact information, etc.
The 'Primary Contact' type is required by Kavi Members and several other Kavi applications so it cannot be deleted, but it is editable and permission to manage certain critical company data is configurable. For example, some organizations prefer to have their Organization Admin handle all maintenance of company and company representative accounts. In this case, the Super Admin might edit the 'Primary Contact' type and remove the 'company_admin' role, so that users assigned the 'Primary Contact' type won't be granted access to the Company Admin area tools and will function strictly as contacts rather than company administrators.
Configuration settings in the Company Administrator Access option in the Set Organizational Properties tool control whether users with the 'company_admin' role can edit the company name or URL or add users.
Other Kavi applications installed on your site may add default Contact Types that can be managed through Kavi Members tools. Kavi® Billing installs a 'Billing Contact', and Kavi® Showcase installs 'Showcase Company Editor'. For a complete list, see Default Contact Types.
As mentioned previously, every user is assigned a Contact Type to classify how they represent their "company" to the organization, so users must be assigned at least one Contact Type as they are added to the database. This type is assigned automatically during the membership application or company representative signup process, or assigned when users are added in bulk through the Upload Data tool. Contact Types can be assigned by an administrator adding a new user manually through the Add a User tool, or editing an existing user through the Edit a User tool.
In addition to the roles and access acquired through any assigned Contact Types, users may acquire roles and access through User Types and Company Types. Unlike Company Types or User Types, Contact Types cannot be assigned through membership.
In company-based and mixed organizations, companies interact with the organization through company representatives, so these types of organizations tend to require a greater variety of contact types than individual-based organizations, especially Contact Types designed specifically for company representatives.
Each member company may be required to designated representatives to fulfill several different tyeps of contact positions. A large member company may designate a different person for each type of contact, while a small member company may designate one person for all these contact positions.
The first Contact Type assigned to a company representative is the type (or types) auto-assigned to every user with the 'Company Representative' purpose as they are added to the database (e.g., 'Employee'). If the company representative is designated to fulfill one or more of these special positions, the Contact Type corresponding to each position is assigned. Representatives who act as 'Primary Contacts' or who hold other important positions in the organization often "wear more than one hat" and are likely to be asigned multiple Contact Types.
This can happen automatically to 'Primary Contacts', who are assign additional Contact Types by other Kavi applications such as Kavi Showcase, which assigns 'Showcase Company Editor'. Since a 'Primary Contact' is usually required for each company, this auto-assignment of Contact Types tends to ensure that it has a recipient at each company to whom it can send important email notifications.
Each type assigned to a user has the potential to confer roles and access. Most company representatives acquire roles that provide basic access to the site through one or more Company Types assigned to their company. For example, a member company is usually assigned a Company Type that confers the 'member' role when the company acquires membership. Everyone who belongs to the company inherits the 'member' role, which gives them access to Member Areas and tools.
Contact Types for special positions, such as 'Primary Contact', frequently confer 'company_admin' by default) that provide access that regular company representatives do not have, particularly to Company Admin Areas and tools. For example, some sites are configured to allow Primary Contacts to access Company Admin tools used to add new users to their company's roster. Primary Contacts can assign Contact Types to other representatives, granting these other representatives access to Company Admin Areas and tools used to manage company data.
Users who hold special positions such as 'Primary Contact' and 'Billing Contact' may be required to subscribe to the Members mailing list based on their Contact Types. When a Super Admin creates or edits a Contact Type, the 'Force Email Subscription' option is set to determine whether a user assigned this type can unsubscribe from the Members list or not.
Individual-based organizations generally interact directly with their members so users are usually only assigned the default type 'Individual'. These organizations generally have no use for 'Primary Contact' or other Contact Types unless they are organized into divisions that have designated contacts. If this describes your organization, read the section that describes how Contact Types are assigned To Company Representatives.
If your organization employs staff directly or uses a company that provides these kinds of services, you may have one or more users with the 'Staff' Contact Type. These users may be assigned the 'Primary Contact' type, but this isn't common since most organizations have only a few staff. Since these users tend to be highly privileged, they are added manually by an administrator and acquire access by being assigned User Types such as 'Organization Administrator' and 'Super Administrator', etc.
All Contact Types installed on the site are managed through Kavi Members (with the exception of Kavi Showcase's semantic Contact Types, which function differently than other Contact Types).
Super Admins can view and manage Contact Types through the Manage Contact Types tool, and can view all installed types and roles through the View Access Configuration tool. Super Admins can edit default Contact Types as required, and add, edit and delete custom Contact Types. This includes the roles that are assigned through these types as well as whether they are auto-assigned or not.
Organization Admins can view, and assign or revoke, user's Contact Types through the Manage a User tool. All available types and roles can be viewed through the View Access Configuration tool.
Company administrators (i.e., users with the 'company_admin' role, such as 'Primary Contacts') can view types assigned to other users on their company's roster, and assign or revoke Contact Types from these users.
A Contact Type can provide a searchable attribute that allows users to be retrieved quickly through searches and reporting tools. The three general default Contact Types (i.e., 'individual', 'employee', 'staff') are frequently renamed to suit the organization. Company-based and mixed organizations usually augment the default set by adding custom Contact Types for each position that can be held by company representatives and types used to classify representatives and staff.
The initial assignment of a default Contact Type is generally all that is required for an individual-based organization, whereas a company-based or mixed organization may have a more extensive set of Contact Types and many of them may confer roles and access. Some individual-based organizations use "companies" to group individuals from regional or other kinds of divisions within the organization, and if the organization has contacts are In most cases, these types are defined to identify company representatives of various types and provide Web site access privileges so the company can pursue its membership benefits through its representatives.
Contact Types tend to follow the same naming conventions as roles used by these types: they usually include the terms 'company' or 'contact'. The description should spell out any access granted through the type.
If you edit a default type by adding or removing roles, be sure to update the description to reflect the new level of access.
Roles associated with Contact Types should provide company-level access only. These roles usually contain 'company' in their name, such as 'company_admin'. Roles that provide administrative or editorial access outside the scope of a specific company should be assigned through User Types.
- Contact Types with Admin privileges
Unless the type is to be assigned to staff only, a Contact Type should only confer roles that provide access to company data, as opposed to roles that grant global access to organizational data. If a Contact Type associated with the 'admin' role is assigned to a Company Representative, the Company Representative can view and edit other companies' data and users—whereas a Contact Type associated with the 'company_admin' role would give access to the representative's own company data, a generally more appropriate level of access.
- Contact Types with Kavi Edit Access
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There are no default Contact Types that convey Kavi Edit access, and no common use cases in which this kind of access is conveyed through Contact Types.
Top-level Kavi Edit privileges are conveyed through the 'Organization Editor' User Type. If the organization wants to assign lower-levels of Kavi Edit access to specific web pages, the Organization Editor handles this task through Kavi Edit tools by creating and assigning a custom Editor User Type that grant editing permissions for a specific page and any child pages.
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| Chapter 15. Company Types |  |
Chapter 17. User Types |