Note: This article specifically addresses the automatic merging of two company profiles, and does not address any manual merging that is handled in collaboration with the company admin and Graphite Support.
Activities that can cause a merge
There are two ways that "merging" can happen in Graphite:
- An invitation is redirected to an already existing company profile while accepting the invitation
- A "connection document" can be transferred by the Graphite Support team upon request from our customer
In both scenarios the only data that is "merged" between the two records is the Internal Use Data of our customer, and any supplier-owned data is left intact and unchanged. This includes information in a Non-Network profile that is traditionally considered supplier-owned.
1 - Redirected Entities
When a new invitation is sent to a recipient that is not yet part of Graphite, the recipient has the ability to "redirect" the invitation to an already existing Graphite profile. This happens when a matching tax ID is entered during the Company Creation steps.
In this instance the redirect is specified by the supplier, not the buyer. Once the action is completed you will have a new connection with the specified company and the old connection will be deleted. Your ERP Connection data team will be notified of this action and can review to ensure the action was expected.
Learn more about the redirected entity workflow >
2 - Transfer Connection Document
This action is reserved for the Graphite Support Services team and must be requested via a support ticket.
When using this feature, you have the ability to specify which entity the connection should be transferred to. If you don't have an existing connection with the new company, a new connection will be created, and the data will be transferred.
If a connection with the company already exists, the data will be added to (merged with) the existing connection without overriding it.
Once the action is completed, you will have a new connection with the specified company and the old connection will be deleted.
What to expect
In both instances, the only answers that are "merged" are the ones identified as Internal Use Data.
For answers that exist outside of tables,
- If the recipient profile already has an answer in the question, then no change is made.
- If the recipient profile has no answer in the question, then the merging connection will populate the field with the information from the merging profile.
- Data never overrides data. It only "merges" incomplete data.
For answers that exist in tables, then the merging connection adds the information into the recipient table.
Considerations:
- Questions that are at the top-level but are multi-select do NOT merge. If the field was previously answered in the recipient profile, then no change is made to the answer.
- Before requesting a transfer connection from Graphite Support, you must consider which entity should be the recipient profile. This is the one that "wins" in the case of data discrepancy.
- Supplier-owned data is never merged! This includes any information in a Non-Network profile that is traditionally considered "supplier-owned".
- Your specific configuration may have business logic and workflows that impact fields inside the profile. Because of this, it is possible that the merge process has unexpected side effects.
Your responsibility
When requesting a transfer connection document of Graphite Support, you are responsible for specifying the recipient entity (reminder, the recipient entity "wins" for all data discrepancy). You are responsible for documenting both the before and after merge of both profiles to ensure that the update was as expected
It is your responsibility to review all connection transfers and mergers to ensure that data, particularly the information in the ERP Connection Data section, displays as you expect prior to syncing this information into your ERP(s).
For Non-Network profiles, it is your teams responsibility to complete any information in the traditionally "supplier-owned" fields. This data is not automatically merged with the Transfer Connection Document process. This includes bank details and location details.
Remember that your Supplier Classifications impact logic for the supplier survey. It is your responsibility to ensure that the Supplier Classifications correctly reflect the relationship for the "merged" connection.