Why is Linking Important?
Last updated
Last updated
Linking gives you the ability to connect related information together, sharing the knowledge between two pieces of data.
You may have several Contacts at a single Company, or have multiple Contacts linked to a single Project. Perhaps you have an upcoming meeting with multiple stakeholders, all of whom are involved in the Project you are presenting. Do you know what role they all play?
One of the most important and unique features of Daylite is its ability to easily link relevant information together. You can either this manually with a few clicks of your mouse, or have Daylite do it for you automatically.
Typical examples of linking might include:
Having multiple People records linked to a single Company record. In this way Daylite shows the number of people who work for a Company.
Linking two People together to indicate that they are related in some way. This is called a Relationship.
Linking emails to a Person in Daylite through Daylite Mail Assistant.
Pro Tip:
You can manually link information in Daylite together by using the cmd+L keyboard shortcut. Simply select something in Daylite such a Person, type cmd+L and then search for the name of what you want to link.
By using the New Object menu, you can either create a new Person in Daylite and link them to the currently selected Person, or link two existing People in Daylite.
You can also do this several other ways:
cmd+L
Drag & Drop
Select the link button in Edit mode
Use the main drop down menu
This produces what is called a Relationship between the two Contacts.
There are two types of Relationships when it comes to Linking.
The first Relationship is called a hierarchy based relationship. This is most often found in a work environment. As an example, David has an assistant named Stephen. This relationship also means Stephen is the assistant of David, depending on which way you are looking at this record.
The second Relationship is called an equality based relationship. This is usually found in personal relationships, such as Toby is the brother of Susan, which also means Susan is the sister of Toby.
You can also assign relationships to Companies, by linking one Company to another and using the drop down menu, just like you would with equality and hierachical relationships.
As an example, Sunshine Consulting is the parent company of The Dreamers, so you would select the Edit button, scroll down to companies, add The Dreamers to the Sunshine Consulting record, and select is the parent company from the list of menu options. Remember to press Done when finished.
One of the really neat features in Relationships is when you select how Sunshine Consulting relates to The Dreamers, Daylite automatically assigns the opposite relationship to The Dreamers.
So...
If Sunshine Consulting is linked to The Dreamers as the parent company, then The Dreamers is now automatically linked to Sunshine Consulting as a subsidiary.
You could also add a new Person to a Company record which would be linked to the selected Contact. This would produce what is called a Job Title and Role that the person would play in the company.
A Job Title is usually what would be written on their business card, and is how they see themselves. A Role is chosen from a pre-defined drop down list in Daylite, and represents what they mean to us at that company. As an example:
Job Title: Senior New Business Executive
Role: Sales
The reason this bus helpful is because it enables the user to search more reliably for specific People and their Role or function at a company.
Using the same method, you could create a new Project that would be linked to the selected Contact. This will then let you set a Role for the person to play in the Project.
You could create a new Opportunity that would be linked to the selected Contact. This will then let you set a Role for the person to play in the Opportunity.
Daylite allows three types of Roles:
Project roles
Opportunity roles
Company roles
If a Person in Daylite is linked to each of the above then that Person could have three completely separate and different roles.
For example, Mike has the role of Chief Executive in the Company, the role of Decision Maker in an Opportunity and the role of Project Lead in a Project. This context can be reviewed in Settings > Roles & Relationships.
When viewing these Roles and Relationships in Daylite you will notice:
Company Roles use a Building icon
Opportunity Roles use a $ icon
Project Roles use a hammer icon
Pro Tip:
If someone has left a company but you still want to show that they used to work there you can create a Role type called LEFT. The Job Title would remain but the Role would be LEFT.
In the screenshot below, you begin to see how this all ties together, as your primary Contact has been linked to a meeting in the Daylite Calendar, linked to a Daylite Task, linked to a Company including their Role at that company, linked to an email, and finally, linked to an Opportunity. You will also notice that all of this information is available in the Activity Pane, without ever leaving Daylite.
