Community Spotlight: Ian Chamberlain
The Community Spotlight is an opportunity to feature one of our amazing TrueContext Community members and learn more about who they are, how they got to be working with TrueContext, and about the great work they have been doing.
This episode of the Community Spotlight highlights Ian Chamberlain, our Solutions Architect here at TrueContext.
Video Timecode:
| Time |
Conversation Topic |
| 0:00 |
Community Spotlight Introduction |
| 0:19 |
Ian Chamberlain's introduction |
| 2:26 |
What is a Solutions Architect at TrueContext? |
| 3:23 |
How does a Solutions Architect work with TrueContext's customers? |
| 4:00 |
What workflow that you've built are you the most proud of? |
| 5:40 |
Working with TrueContext Connections |
| 6:18 |
Community Spotlight closing remarks |
Who is Ian Chamberlain?
Ian Chamberlain was born and grew up in Ottawa, Canada.
He studied Computer Systems at college, which taught him "a little bit about everything". Finishing school he started a co-op position at IBM in their IT department. He quickly moved from that department to an analytics support position at Cognos, the business analytics and intelligence suite owned by IBM. After learning more about TrueContext and having colleagues from IBM move over to TrueContext, he made the decision to follow them and took a job at TrueContext as an Implementation Specialist in the Professional Services team. After a small "hiatus" from TrueContext Ian returned, still working in the Professional Services team, but with the title Solutions Architect.
What is a Solutions Architect?
TrueContext's Solutions Architect works directly with TrueContext's customers, learning about their backend systems, and building solutions and workflows to move the data collected with TrueContext to and from these backend systems in the most effective and robust way possible. Additionally, the Solutions Architect works on the pre-sales side, proving to prospective customers that TrueContext will be able to address their business challenges.
What solution or workflow is Ian most proud of?
Ian built a highly bespoke solution utilizing TrueContext's ability to send data to and from Salesforce using Data Sources and Data Destinations. The customer was having difficulty enforcing clean data collection. It was not uncommon that fields in Salesforce were either filled out incorrectly, were incomplete, or were completely omitted. Ian's solution acted as a front end interface for their Salesforce. By setting up the form to walk users through what data needed to be collected, and sending that data back to Salesforce, it cut 2-3 hours of work a day for the customer's employees by resolving the data collection issues.
TrueContext's Connections
TrueContext's Connections allow users to set up Data Sources and Data Destinations. A Data Source can import data from an external service, and a Data Destination can route data to them. These Connections are configured at the Team level, meaning they can be made accessible to any Data Destinations and Data Sources for a specific Team. Connections streamline the process of creating new Data Sources and Destinations as each Data Source and Destination can use an existing Connection without the need to re-enter credentials or connection details.
Some Connections can be used for a number of different Data Sources and Destinations; for example, the Google Connection can be used for all types Google Data Sources and Destinations, like Google Sheets and Google Drive.
Connections can be created through either the Connections page, or when creating a new Data Source or Destination.
Full instructions on how to set up a new Connection is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/Published/217500558_ConnectionsOverview.html#Create
Data Sources
Data Sources are external sources of data that you can upload and connect to TrueContext. These are stored as tables in the TrueContext system. Once a Data Source has been setup, you can use the data for questions in your forms.
For example, if you are storing data about the assets you manage and maintain in an online spreadsheet or asset management system, you can use a Data Source to pull that data into TrueContext and then reference it in a Dropdown, Radio Button, or a Multiselect question. This makes it easier for your users to enter data into your forms, saving them time and keeping the data accurate.
Full instructions on how to set up a Data Source is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/LandingPages/DataSources.htm
Data Destinations
Data Destinations control where data is sent when a form is submitted. By using Data Destinations in your form, your data will automatically be routed to the chosen service in the format of your choice when the form is submitted. This makes data sharing and storage an automated process, saving your employees time both in terms of data entry, but also when using that data for other purposes, like analytics and reporting.
One Data Destination can be linked to multiple forms in the same FormSpace and multiple Data Destinations can be linked to the same form, allowing your data to be delivered to a variety of locations simultaneously.
Full instructions on how to set up a Data Destination is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/LandingPages/DataDestinations.htm
Training through TrueContext University
In addition to our comprehensive Product Documentation, you can go through our free, on-demand training to learn more about how to set up and use Data Sources and Destinations in the TrueContext University.
Some of the courses available to you include:
Ian's Insights
Ian has contributed a number of excellent posts in the Community where he deep dives into features and functionality of the TrueContext platform. These posts have provided a great resource of more advanced techniques and will continue under the title "Tech Talks: Implementation", and will include knowledge and insights from not only Ian but the rest of the Professional Services team. You can find these posts here: https://community.truecontext.com/monthly-features/tech-talk-implementation
Participate in the Community Spotlight
If you would like to be featured in an upcoming Community Spotlight send us a note at community@truecontext.com. We would love to hear from you.
#CommunitySpotlight
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Pat Cooney
Community Engineer
TrueContext
community@truecontext.com------------------------------