Glossary of Key Terms

This glossary covers the key terms you'll come across when using Hive.

Active list
A segment that automatically refreshes — contacts are added or removed in real time as they meet or stop meeting the filter criteria. This is the default segment type for ECA. For example, an active list could be all civil society contacts in NSW, and it would automatically update as new contacts meeting that criteria are added.

Activity
Any interaction logged against a contact or organisation record. This includes notes, emails, calls and meetings, and builds the intelligence timeline for that record.

Activities timeline
The central panel on a contact or organisation record showing all logged activities in chronological order. This is the primary repository for stakeholder intelligence.

Association
The link between two records. Associations let you navigate between related records. Common examples in Hive include an adviser linked to a politician, a contact linked to a project, or a decision-maker linked to a project.

Breeze AI
An AI-powered search tool built into Hive, accessible from the right-hand panel. It can answer natural-language questions about your CRM data — for example, "which contacts have hardship mentioned in their notes." Recommended for one-off queries rather than building formal segments.

Buying group
A Hive feature that maps contact relationships within an organisation. It lets you visualise who is connected to whom, assign roles, and see engagement heat maps. Note: the name "Buying Group" is fixed and cannot be renamed. It is currently limited to contacts sharing the same email domain.

Contact
One of the two primary record types in Hive. Represents an individual stakeholder, identified uniquely by an email address.

Enrichment
Automatic population of contact or organisation data from public web sources when an email address or domain is entered. ECA has enrichment enabled. System administrators are responsible for ensuring enrichment is accurate and effective.

Filter
A temporary, view-based search of contacts or organisations within a list. A filter is not saved as a reusable list. It's quick and simple, but less powerful than a segment.

Inbox (Hive)
A shared group inbox within Hive. It uses ECA's general email (info@energyconsumers.com.au), and website form submissions route here. A select number of ECA staff, including members of the PAS and Community teams, can view, respond to, and comment on incoming messages collaboratively.

NeverBounce
A third-party email validation service used by ECA's communications team to check the validity of email addresses before bulk communications. Results are stored as a data field on contact records.

Note
An activity type in Hive. Used for any context, intelligence, or communication record that is not an email, meeting, or call. Examples: research findings, briefing notes from a meeting, context about a relationship.

Object
Hive's technical term for a record type — for example contacts, organisations, projects. ECA primarily uses contacts and organisations.

Organisation
One of the two primary record types in Hive. An external body ECA engages with. We use it for all external organisations, including government departments and market bodies — not just businesses. You may occasionally see the word "Company" in parts of the HubSpot interface; this refers to the same thing.

Playbook
A Hive feature that provides a structured template for a meeting, call, or note. Useful for standardising how intelligence is collected during common engagement types, such as a stakeholder briefing. ECA system administrators are exploring this functionality.

Property
Hive's term for a data field. A property is the "box" that holds a specific piece of information about a contact or organisation, such as job title or jurisdiction. Properties are created and managed by system administrators.

Record
An individual instance of an object. For example, a single contact is a record within the Contacts object.

Record view
The layout of a contact or organisation page in Hive, including which properties appear in the left panel and how information is organised. Different teams at ECA can have different record views. Customisation is restricted to administrators.

Sandbox
A separate, isolated Hive environment used for training, testing, and configuration. Changes made in the sandbox do not affect the live environment, so staff can experiment freely.

Segment
A saved, named group of contacts or organisations filtered by specific criteria. A segment can be an active list (auto-refreshing) or a static list (a fixed snapshot). It's a powerful way to find a select group of contacts.

SmartyGrants
ECA's existing grants management system. It remains the system of record for tracking applicants through individual grant processes. Hive complements this by capturing early-stage relationship intelligence.

Static list
A segment that does not update automatically. Used for one-off imports or event-specific snapshots.

Tag (@mention)
Tagging a colleague in a note using the @ symbol. Sends the tagged person a Hive notification. Designed to share relevant intelligence, not to assign tasks.

Task
A personal reminder linked to a contact record — for example, "Follow up next Tuesday." Not used to assign work to colleagues; Grid is the platform for task assignment.

Teams (Hive)
Groups of users set up in Hive. Used to assign record views, permissions, and segment visibility to different staff groups. System administrators set up teams.

View (Contacts list)
A saved filter configuration applied to the Contacts or Organisations list page. Lets different ECA staff see relevant subsets of the database — for example "My Contacts" or "Queensland Civil Society."

Related articles (link once published)

• How to Create a Segment
• How to Filter Records
• How to Use AI to Search for Information