Is It Time For A Database Checkup?

Role Membership
Every user in your database belongs to at least one role (e.g., Student, Parent, Platform Manager). Roles allow you to group users together based on who they are and what they need to see and do. Because roles determine what rights and access users have, it is imperative that users always belong to the appropriate roles, even as their relationship to your school changes. To help ensure that constituents and administrators belong to the correct roles, establish a policy at your school to routinely check the Users with Address and Phone – By Role (For Export) report and Manage Roles task.
 
Duplicate User Records
Every user in your database has their own user record. Duplicate user records, however, prevent your database from being clean and accurate. This can, in turn, cause numerous complications for your school. For example, users’ information may be split across multiple records, communications may go to the wrong addresses, and queries may contain incorrect totals. To help manage duplicate user records, establish a policy at your school to routinely check the Duplicate Constituents report and Potential Duplicate Users task.
 
Data Standards
Every user in your database has their own Contact Card, complete with fields for all of their biographical information. When constituents and administrators add or update this information, they should adhere to the formatting standards set forth by your school. For example, your school should determine how address information should display (e.g., Avenue or Ave.) and how phone information should display (e.g., 603-555-5555 or 603.555.5555). To help ensure that Contact Card data remains consistent, establish a policy at your school to routinely check the Handle Profile Changes task.
 
Keeping your "ON" Products database healthy should be one of the top priorities for your school. The topics outlined in this article – role membership, duplicate user records, and data standards – are just three of the vitals you should monitor regularly to help you achieve this goal. If you would like to learn more about these topics, or about other best practices for managing your database, we encourage you to register for the new Blackbaud University course, K-12 Core: User Management and Database Administration. This course delivers how-to and best-practice instruction on adding users, assigning roles, editing Contact Card data, and customizing the Contact Card.

Good news for Blackbaud Learn® subscribers! If you have a Learn More or Learn Everything training subscription, this class is included. Not a subscriber? Find out how a Learn subscription can help develop your efficiency and ongoing skills. 

Are you ready to begin your database checkup? Grab your stethoscope and let’s go. Stat.