A writeback is a term used to indicate how data is sent back to your integrated database from Informz (i.e., it's "written back" from Informz).

Writebacks overview

Harnessing writebacks provides an organization with two key benefits:

• It's 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.
• Writebacks enable your organization to combine data from iMIS, Informz, and other applications all into iMIS for robust analysis, with the goal of making that data actionable.

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

Here's a brief recap on how Informz and iMIS communicate:

• Informz and iMIS are connected by what Informz refers to as "the bridge."
• The Informz sync moves subscriber 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. The following are types of subscriber activities that Informz write backs to iMIS:

• iUnsub
• iBadEmail
• iOptout
• iResub
• iCorrect

There are several common points for reach subscriber activity writeback:

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

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 to receive the data correctly. The following writebacks require user-defined tables:

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