Model the customer organization and the relationships between individuals across multiple accounts in a way that reflects a real business structure.
Major customers may include parent companies, subsidiaries, branches, facilities, departments, and purchasing units. The parties receiving invoices, placing orders, receiving deliveries, and making payments may all be different.
Individuals may also be associated with multiple companies or opportunities. The system should be able to link the person to different account and opportunity roles without duplicating them.
Accounting relationships
Parent company and affiliated companies
Headquarters and branches
Purchasing organization
Invoice and payment account
Delivery point
Project or joint venture
Distributor and end-customer relationship
Personal relationships
Primary employer account
Consulting or representation relationship with multiple accounts
Account role
Opportunity role
Contract signing authority
Communication and decision influence
Organizational changes
Company mergers, employee changes, or organizational restructuring should be managed historically without erasing past relationships.
Access and data visibility
Sales teams should only have access to account and contact information necessary for their tasks. Authorization boundaries can be defined between the parent company view and the confidential business information of affiliated companies.
Model the customer organization not as a simple company and person list, but as a real network of relationships influencing sales, ordering, and decision-making processes.