How does the company search work?
The "Company search" is a search for contacts with similar phone numbers, i.e. an advanced phone number search. The aim is to determine the company name when calling if no contact with the searched phone number was found in the contact data sources.
When to start a company search?
The company search is started with call number search on the call if no contact with the exact call number was found with the "normal" call number search. The same behavior applies if a phone number is entered in a "Prepare call" window.
The company search is not started when a phone number is entered in the search input line. Here, a call number component is searched for. Thus, all contacts are found that have a phone number that begins with (or matches) the phone number searched for.
What happens when a contact is found with the company search?
The most striking feature of the company search is that in the journal (or in the call window) the name is preceded by a tilde "~". It symbolizes that this contact does not necessarily have to be correct.
If a contact is found with the company search, a new contact is generated (only in the working memory) and the display name is formed from the "~" and the company name. This contact, because it exists(s) only in the working memory, cannot be found later in any data source. Therefore, "Show contact details" from the journal does not work for these "contacts" either.
What requirements must be met?
- The company search must not have been disabled, see the Article.
- There must be no contact that contains the exact phone number.
- In the contact that is to be found in the company search, the root number must be separated from the extension number with a "-". In other words, the phone number "+49 (8151) 36856177" must be entered in the contact instead of "+49 (8151) 36856-177". Multiple "-" in the phone number could cause problems.
- The extension number may have a maximum of 5 digits.
- The phone number being searched for must be identical up to and including the root number, i.e. the phone number component in front of the "-" must match.
- The company search is not started for internal numbers.
- The contact data source where the contact is stored must have been configured as a search data source.
- In the list of configured data sources (ProCall settings), the "Search on-call" checkbox must be set for the contact data source in which the contact is stored.
How can I check if a company search has been started?
The search is now extensively logged in the ProCall log. The log should first contain the entry that a "normal" phone number search was started. The log also shows how many contacts were found:
Found 0 exact matches for the phone number +49123456789.
If (as in the example above) no contact is found, a company search is started (see requirements above). In the log it looks like this:
Found 3 company contacts for phone number +49123456789.
The log also shows (by now) which data sources are searched and how many contacts have been found in total after searching this data source so far:
Processed search node mustermann@estos.de/Microsoft Outlook. There are now 2 matching contacts in total.