Business Partner Category

'Business Partner Category' objects classify business partners according to the area of service. The main use of this categorization is to predefine sets of contact persons for business partners covering individual areas of service (see 'Contact Persons' below for more information.)

The 'Business Partner Category' editor provides the following reference catalogs:

• Business Partner

  Reference catalog listing business partners assigned to this category. The catalog can be used to assign this category to multiple business partners.

• Contact Persons

  Business partner category can be used to predefine standard sets of contact persons for business partners covering individual areas of service. When a new business partner is created and assigned a partner category, contact persons specified for the given category are automatically assigned to this new business partner.

  For instance, John A, James B and Harald C have been appointed as contact persons for the area of communication services. Business partner category 'Communication Services' should be created (unless already existing, which is the case in standard Valuemation) and these three persons should be assigned to the category. When a new business partner providing services in the area of communication services is registered and assigned this category, the above mentioned persons are automatically added as contact persons for the newly registered business partner.

  Note that the assignment of contact persons belonging to a certain partner category is mandatory for the business partner assigned to that category. For example, if John A is a contact person for partner category 'IT Consulting' and partner category 'IT Consulting' is assigned to business partner 'Cunning Vixen Consulting', than the set of contact persons for 'Cunning Vixen Consulting' must include John. (John A cannot be removed from the Vixen's list of contact persons as long as Vixen is assigned the 'IT Consulting' category.) More/other contact person s can be added without limitation.

  Process role in the contact person - partner category assignment

  The assignment of contact person to category includes process role specification and this process role is inherited when a contact person is assigned to a business partner on the basis of partner category. If the contact person has already been assigned to the business partner under a different process role, this process role is overwritten by the category-based process role. For example, John A is already a contact person for business partner 'Cunning Vixen Consulting'. He is assigned under the role of 'Operations Contact'. John A is also a contact person for partner category 'IT Consulting' and here he is assigned under the role of 'Chief Architect'. If the 'IT Consulting' category is in the next step assigned to the 'Cunning Vixen Consulting' business partner, then John A's original 'Operations Contact' process role for the Vixen will be overwritten with the 'Chief Architect' role taken from the partner category. (A warning message informing about this change is displayed.)