A synchronization ("sync") brings new email addresses into Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) from iMIS, updates existing addresses, and updates other information from iMIS.

A sync uses the Informz_Changes table in iMIS (created by Thrive Marketing Professional as part of the integration) to determine which email addresses are new, which have been removed, and which have changed. Thrive Marketing Professional only syncs iMIS records that have statuses that Thrive Marketing Professional is set to accept (e.g., Active), that have an iMIS ID, that have valid email addresses, and that are not unsubscribed or opted-out.

Thrive Marketing Professional syncs on Name.Email or Name_Address.Email+Purpose and Preferred status from iMIS.

Sync triggers

There are four instances when Thrive Marketing Professional syncs with iMIS:

• Manual sync – A manual sync is initiated by a user (you or another admin from your organization). This type of sync looks at the Informz_Changes tables for additions and changes. To perform a manual sync, navigate to Contacts > Upload > Sync with iMIS.
• Sending a message – Each time a message is published, Thrive Marketing Professional syncs with iMIS. During this process, Thrive Marketing Professional queries iMIS and retrieves any new contacts that match the criteria of that target group.
• Nightly sync – This is an automated process that runs every night. It syncs iMIS IQA groups that have been created in the past seven days, or that were used in a message in the last 90 days. This sync also sends writebacks to iMIS for iUnsub, iOptout, iCorrect, iResub, and iBadEmail. All writeback data is placed in the iMIS Activity table.
• Weekend sync – This is an automated process that Thrive Marketing Professional runs each Sunday morning; it is a full sync that removes all records in the Informz_Changes table and rebuilds that table based upon the selected preferred status values used to sync.

Sync types

• Partial Sync - A partial sync (also called a partial refresh) brings over new and changed data (such as a change of email address or a new iMIS ID) from iMIS to Thrive Marketing Professional. Thrive Marketing Professional automatically syncs with iMIS every time a message is sent. A message sync brings in any new contacts and the most current email addresses from iMIS.
• Full Sync - A full sync (also called a full refresh) is the same as the weekend sync in that it removes all records in the Informz_Changes table and rebuilds that table based upon the selected preferred status values used to sync. This is a useful way to exercise all of the database triggers used in the integration.

NOTE: The Partial Sync does not do the “remove all records” step. A Full Sync is manual and can only be executed by Higher Logic staff.

Post-sync target group counts

There are times when the number of records returned after a sync don't match your expectations. Here are some likely reasons:

• Some iMIS records do not have valid email addresses
• Some iMIS records do not have preferred statuses (i.e., Active)
• Some email addresses may have been previously unsubscribed in Thrive Marketing Professional

If you believe counts or other iMIS information you are seeing is incorrect or outdated, create a case.

Uploading contacts

In addition to one of the sync methods mentioned above, contacts can be brought into Thrive Marketing Professional by uploading a list of contacts (navigate to Contacts > Upload > Contacts).

NOTE: If a contact email address is directly uploaded into Thrive Marketing Professional, its record will NOT have an iMIS ID until it is subsequently brought in by a sync with iMIS. When this sync with iMIS happens, the existing contact record in Thrive Marketing Professional will be updated with the iMIS ID and all of the contact’s message history. This prevents duplicate records from being created in Thrive Marketing Professional.