In order to assure data integrity, we need to make sure that every "real" user exists only once in the system.

There are 2 users' identifiers: Username & Email, and therefore must be unique across all system tenants, regardless is the users are active or blocked.

However, the full name is not unique- there can be cases, especially in large organizations, where there are 2 "real" users with the same full name (e.g. John Smith).
In such cases, it's even more important to maintain additional profile fields and use the profile picture, as explained in this article.

In this article we will focus on the scenarios in which there are duplicated users - 2 accounts with the same full name (but different emails/usernames), even though it's the same real person.


When can this happen?

  • When for some reason a user's email/username changes, in such scenario:
    • The existing user with the old email/username will be blocked automatically since they  are not existing anymore from the organization Active Directory as explained here
    • A new user will be created upon first login/when his info is received via the user provisioning process.

  •  Same as previous, BUT the first user was not blocked, so there are 2 active users with the same full name.

  • When a user left the company and returns with a different username & email address value.
    • If this is a common scenario, it can be defined that blocked users will be re-activated automatically In case this was not defined, the behavior will be the same as in the first scenario.

  • The same user registered twice with different email address 


Having more than with the same full name is not healthy and needs to be handled since:

- The activities of the user will be splitted between 2 accounts

- If both accounts are active, the wrong account can be selected as an expert/co-author/RC member etc.


Steps 

1. The customer should clarify that the 2 accounts refer to the same user, and therefore one of them should be blocked.

2. The customer should clarify what are the correct username/password.

3. It should be clear what was the cause of the scenario and how many other users have been impacted.

4. If needed, Qmarkets should merge the activities of the 2 accounts (possibly ideas, comments, tagging, points, etc.).
Extra PS efforts might be required.

5. In case of users w username/passwords, they should be notified which credentials to use.