Differentiating Business Partner
Information 
Use
You can use this function to differentiate between selected business partner components in order to reflect different points of view.
You process these components on the Maintain Business Partner screen, using the Differentiation pushbutton. This provides you with an additional processing interface for certain business partner data. Here, you can use differentiation criteria to define differentiated values for one and the same component part of the business partner. You can therefore subdivide or differentiate values for similar business partner data according to requirements.
You can differentiate the following component parts of the business partner:
· Business partner relationships
· Ratings
Differentiation could be necessary when you have a business partner who exists as a customer in several branches of your company, and you want certain data to be displayed in the above-named components for each particular branch.
You could differentiate the business partner role in order to identify in which branches the business partner exists in the role of account holder, for example. You could differentiate ratings to define different ratings for a rating procedure for each branch. You could also make settings for the differentiation so that existing rating results can only be displayed in a particular branch.
By assigning certain attributes to a differentiation criterion, differentiation enables you to improve data entry for a business partner, and avoid data redundancy in the business partner dataset.
This is a generic function, which means that you can use differentiation for various different scenarios.
For more information see process differentiated business partner data.
Integration
In addition to the four component parts of the Business Partner that you can process using differentiation, differentiated attributes such as the customer segment also appear under differentiation. These can only be processed from within the differentiation function.
The table BP1013 Differentiated Attributes presents a sample implementation for the customer segment field. You can add further fields to the table in accordance with the Business Data Toolset (BDT) conventions.
Prerequisites
· You have determined the business partner role in which business partner data can be differentiated in Customizing for the SAP Business Partner for Financial Services, by choosing General Settings ® Business Partner ® Basic Settings ® Business Partner Roles ® Define BP Roles. You have set differentiation type 9 Differentiation in the dialog structure for BP role categories under Differentiation Type.
· You have entered the differentiation setting in Customizing for the SAP Business Partner for Financial Services by choosing Settings for Financial Services ® General Settings ® Basic Settings ®Differentiation:
¡ In the IMG activity Define Differentiation Criterionyou have defined the differentiation criteria that should appear in the input help for the Differentiation Criterion field
¡ In the IMG activity Set Differentiation Criterion you have determined how the differentiation criterion field should be used
· You have entered that the attributes are to be differentiated for the Business Partner by choosing Settings for Financial Services ® General Settings:
¡ In the IMG activity Set Rating Procedures and Ratings, which you find by choosing Ratings/Credit Standing ® Ratings, you have defined rating procedures and ratings.
¡ In the IMG activity Set Information Categories, which you find by choosing Enhancement Options ® Additional Information, you have defined the additional information.