If standard catalogs with standardized numbers exist for items, you can maintain them as customer and vendor catalog numbers for items in the system in parallel to your own numbers.

In this case, one catalog number for a particular item is valid for several or even all business partners defined in the system.

Instead of copying or updating the entries for all business partners individually, you can use the Global Update to Business Partner Catalog Numbers function. With this function, you copy or update the catalog numbers defined for one business partner for all business partners concerned.