How to Integrate iMIS with Feathr

For Feathr Advanced package holders, we offer a direct integration with iMIS, an EMS (engagement management system) used by many Feathr customers to manage donor, member, and other organizational data.

Integrating your Feathr and iMIS accounts enables automated data reconciliation from iMIS to Feathr, eliminating the need to manually update records in Feathr that have changed in iMIS. There's more benefit to the integration than that, so read on to learn more about what you can do with this integration and how to do it.

Following along with this article, you can expect this integration process to take approximately 30 minutes (not counting time allotted for backend processes, such as establishing connections and creating new user records).

Quick start guide (more detailed instructions below)

1. Open the Feathr Integration and add your iMIS URL.
2. Create a new contact in iMIS with the credentials Feathr provides and assign it a RemoteService role.
3. Download the Business Object file from Feathr and import it into iMIS.
4. Download the IQA file from Feathr and import it into iMIS.
5. Enable Communication Preferences.
6. Map your iMIS and Feathr fields.

NOTE: Before you begin, make sure you are using iMIS Cloud, AKA EMS Enterprise, and check that it is version 20.3.153.344 or above. The integration only works with that version. Also ensure that you are an administrator for your organization's iMIS account.

We strongly recommend reading this article prior to connecting the integration. It documents our recommended workflow for getting the most success out of your iMIS integration.

We also recommend creating the necessary custom fields in Feathr prior to completing this integration. It is not necessary, but it will make the integration smoother.

Begin the integration process by logging into your Feathr account and navigating towards the bottom left to Profile & Settings, then to Integrations.

Once you're on the Integrations page, choose the iMIS tile.

You will be taken to the iMIS integration manager. Double check that you are using the supported version of iMIS and that you are an admin of your iMIS account, then click Let's get started.

Step 1: Set Organization

Step one asks for the domain to your organization's iMIS account (this is what displays in the URL of your browser when you are logged in and using iMIS). Paste it into the field in step one:

Once you've pasted your iMIS account domain, click Next. You will be taken to the second step, where Feathr will supply you with login credentials to add to a new contact you will create in iMIS. This new contact will have a "remote service" role in iMIS, which is part of what allows Feathr and iMIS to communicate data and the integration to succeed. Step two looks like what you see below.

Step 2: Create and Verify new User

For this step, you will be adding the username, email address, and password provided in Feathr to a new contact you will create in iMIS.

First, click "Setup in iMIS" to be taken to your iMIS account. It should look like what you see below:

This step will create a new contact in iMIS that the Feathr integration will use. On this screen, only fill in the required fields, which are first name and last name. These can be anything you want, but we recommend using the name Feathr User or similar, so that you do not accidentally confuse this contact with a real human being in the future. Leave all other options on their defaults. When you have filled in the first and last name, click Save. You will be entering the credentials supplied by Feathr next.

After you have clicked Save, you will be taken to the profile for the contact you just created called Feathr User (or whatever name you used). Next, locate the left menu of the contact profile and click Security, as seen above. From the Security menu, click the plus sign next to No user selected. That will bring up a Create user window that prompts you to add a username, password, and email address. Keeping the iMIS tab open, return to Feathr and copy the username, password, and email address provided in step 2 of the integration manager and paste them into iMIS, like you see below:

When you have pasted those three values (4 if you count confirming the password), click Create User. Once you have done that, making sure you are still in the Security menu, scroll down to a section called Roles, and click Add. That will bring up the window you see below. Select RemoteService and then click OK. This is crucial to the function of the Integration. Then click Save at the bottom of the page.

The next step is to return to Feathr and click Check for user on the same screen where you copied the credentials. 

Note: the iMIS user creation can take a few minutes to register. Please be patient during this step. If you click Check for user and see the red error screen below, wait a couple more minutes and try again.

When enough time has elapsed for the new user to be established, clicking Check for user will display the below message:

Once you see This user was found  after clicking Check for user, click Next at the bottom of the page. That will bring you to the next step of the integration.

Step 3: Set Up Business Object

Step 3 requires you to download a file from Feathr and import it into iMIS. This file is called the Business Object and it is required to facilitate communication between iMIS and Feathr. It ensures the conditional filters work correctly with the existing objects the query uses. 

To complete this step, click the Download button in the Download Business Object section of the page. This will download a small XML file on your computer.

Next, click the Import in iMIS button below the Download button. This will navigate you to the correct page in your iMIS account to add and import the business object file. Following the prompts on the iMIS page, import the XML file you just downloaded. Once you see confirmation of the import, return to Feathr and click the Check for Business Object button. This will confirm that the import worked correctly. Once this is complete, you may move on to the next step of the integration by clicking Next at the bottom of the Feathr page.

Step 4: Import IQA File and Initiate Data Sync

Once you've clicked Next on step 3, you will see a page that looks like this:

Start this step by clicking Download IQA file. This will download a file from Feathr called My_FeathrDownsyncContact.xml onto your computer that you will need to upload and import into iMIS. Once the download has completed, click Import IQA File in iMIS. It will bring you to a page in your iMIS account that looks like this:

Click Import in the center of the black horizontal menu towards the top of the page, then choose the file downloaded from Feathr, then click Upload, as seen below.

That will take you to a screen that looks like the below. Click Import. When the import is complete you will see a message on the screen saying the IQA file was successfully imported.

Lastly, return to Feathr and click Check for IQA file. 

Once you see the confirmation message that the file was found, click Next.

Step 5: Communication Preferences

This last step is required to enable syncing of subscription preferences for contacts coming from iMIS into Feathr. This ensures that communication preferences you have established in iMIS will also be reflected in Feathr.

In this step, click the Enable button to view the communication preferences saved in iMIS. Choose the option(s) you'd like to map to Feathr. In making that choice, match your iMIS communication preference as closely as possible to the kinds of emails you will be sending through Feathr, such as "member communications" or "general communication."

Once complete, click Finish.

Congratulations! Your integration is done. Now you can complete the data sync by choosing and mapping which fields in iMIS you'd like to be synced into Feathr.

For instructions on how to do this, refer to this article: How to Map your iMIS Integration.