Sprint 175 Release

Countries Normalization

The system will now look at the country preference in your CRM and determine if there are values that do not match the expected values.  Different CRMs have different requirements for storing the country value, including:

1. Country name - the full country name, like "United States of America"
2. 3-digit code - "USA"
3. 2-digit code - "US"

Why does this happen?

Invalid country values can appear for many reasons, but typically these are created during database conversions or bulk imports when the CRM does not validate the entries.  Sometimes the CRM does not properly validate input data or the incorrect country is selected during data entry.  This can also happen during system releases when old values are not converted correctly during upgrades or changes in system functionality.

What do these look like?

Some example of invalid country values include:

1. Multiple values for the same country not matching the expected value defined by the CRM - "United States" or "U.S.A" when "US" or "USA" is expected.
2. 2-digit where 3-digit is expected (or vice-versa) - "US" for "USA".
3. Misspellings - "United Staates" when "US" or "USA" is expected.
4. Invalid data - sometimes a postal code or phone number appears in the country field and cannot be easily converted.
5. Blank/missing - no value is present or was entered or loaded into the country field.

Why do I need to care about this?

In order to process the address updates, a valid country value is now a requirement due to support for additional countries.  When no valid country value is provided, the process will ignore the record during the download process so it's important that your country codes are updated to meet the specifications of your CRM.