Writeback is a term used to indicate how data is sent to your integrated database from Informz (i.e., data is "written back" to your database from Informz).

Writebacks overview

Writebacks provide two benefits:

• They are an easy way to present information that lives in Informz to those users that use iMIS but not Informz. It's very efficient for a customer service rep to be able to open an individual's record in iMIS to confirm aspects about their email history with the organization.
• They enable your organization to combine data from iMIS, Informz, and other applications into iMIS for analysis.

Informz writes back all information from the subscriber record in Informz to the iMIS Activity table: iMIS Name ID, Subscriber bounce date, Pipe-delimited (|) string containing the first 250 characters of Subscriber_email, and subscriber modified date (resubscribe date).

Information written back to iMIS is visible in iMIS on that record's History tab.

Informz-to-iMIS communications

This is a high-level view of how Informz and iMIS communicate:

• Informz and iMIS are connected by "the bridge."
• The Informz synchronization moves subscriber-activity information from iMIS to Informz.
• Any changes between Informz and iMIS are made via an Informz-owned changes table found in iMIS.

Subscriber activity writebacks

iMIS subscriber-activity writebacks capture a change in status. This data is inserted into the iMIS Activity table. Below are the types of subscriber activities that Informz writes to iMIS:

• iUnsub
• iBadEmail
• iOptout
• iResub
• iCorrect

There are several commonalities for each subscriber-activity writeback:

• Writebacks place records in the iMIS activity table.
• Writebacks require separate database-stored procedures in your iMIS database.
• With the exception of iOptout, which is written back immediately, all subscriber activity is written back once a day at 1:00 am.

NOTE: When a subscriber's email address is changed and he or she is unsubscribed in Informz for a canceled reason that has resub_on_email_change flag =1, the subscriber is automatically resubscribed.

Writebacks with user-defined tables

Based on the activity you want to write back, you may need to create a user-defined table.

IMPORTANT: A user-defined table is required in iMIS in order for these writebacks to properly function. If the writeback feature is activated but the required table does not exist or is incorrectly formatted, the writeback will be disabled in Informz in order to prevent issues with the connection to iMIS.

The following writebacks require a user-defined table:

• Campaigns
• Mailing Activity
• Surveys
• Voting (Ballots)
• Web Tracking