Feature Availability: One Professional | One Enterprise 

(Modules: Contacts, Vendors, Leads, and Organizations)

Introduction

The Vtiger Connections feature helps users view past and present connections between contacts (for example, mother of, husband of, reported to, worked with, etc.) with other entities such as organizations (for example, worked at, on the board of, consulted at, etc.).

Sample Case Studies

• At Law firms
  • To help law firms avoid conflicts of interest. For example, a law firm cannot represent a husband and wife on the same issue. So, it is important to know their connection.
  • A law firm contacting opposing counsel would need to use specific language in communication.
• For Sales teams
  • Get more personalized introductions to improve conversions. It is an easy icebreaker if you are performing a cold outreach.

Key Features

The following are the key features of Vtiger Connections:

• Connection Type
  • Admins can add a new Connection Type between any 2 modules by providing the primary and secondary connection labels and connection-specific properties. For example, Start Date.
  • E.g.: Contact A ‘is the son of’ Contact B
    • Primary Connection - ‘is son of’
    • Secondary Connection - ‘is the father of
  • E.g.: Contact A ‘worked at’ Org 1
    • Primary Connection - ‘worked at’
    • Secondary Connection - ‘employed  
    • Start Date
    • End Date
  • Status - Inactive (if the end date is in the past)
• Default Connections
  • The following are default connections:
    • Contact to Contact - Connection Type values
      • is parent of / is child of
      • is spouse of / is spouse of
      • reported to / manager of (at Organization Name)
      • knows / knows
    • Contact to Organization - Connection Type values
      • previously worked at
      • is working at
      • is a board member of
      • is a consultant at

Using the feature

• On a given record, the Connections tab displays the existing connections of that record. 
• Users can click the Connections icon on a record to view the connections diagram. The Connections icon will automatically show the records that have at least one connection.
• Users with permission can add, update, and remove connections. You can add a new connection from the record actions menu.