Business Partner Classification 

Use

Indicates how a business partner is used in CRM.

During the distribution of business partner master data between the CRM system and the ERP system, the classification is used to:

●     Assign the relevant account group in the ERP system to the new customer master record created from the distributed business partner master data

●     Indicate how the new business partner, created from the distributed customer master data, is used in CRM

Features

When you create master records for business partners for the first time, the CRM system sets the classification indicators, corresponding to the BP role, in the data set Classification as follows:

Assignment of BP role to classification

BP roles	Customer	Consumer	Prospect	Competitor
Sold-to party	X
Ship-to party	X
Bill-to party	X
Payer	X
Consumer		X
Prospect			X
Competitors				X

If you first create a business partner in the role General business partner and then later save it in a different role, for example Sold-to party, the appropriate indicator is not set for this business partner.

Distribution of Business Partner Master Data

For the distribution of business partner master data from the CRM system to the ERP system, business partners can have one or more of the following classifications:

●     Consumer

●     Customer

●     Prospect

●     Competitors

Since a business partner can have several classifications at the same time, it must be clearly established which account group is assigned to the business partner in the ERP system. Therefore the classifications have the following hierarchy:

Consumer > Customer > Prospect > Competitor

When the ERP account group is assigned to the classification Consumer, a distinction should be made according to whether the business partner was created as an organization (referred to below as Consumer: Organization) or as a person (referred to below as Consumer: Person) in the CRM system. An organization with the classification Consumer is created in the ERP system as a customer and is assigned in accordance with the ERP account group for a customer (sold-to-party). A person with the classification Consumer is created in the ERP system as a consumer and is assigned to the ERP account group for consumers.

The account group that corresponds to the highest classification in the CRM system is always chosen in ERP. The following table shows which account group is assigned in the ERP system.

Assignment of classification to ERP account group

Classification in CRM  Consumer Person	Classification in CRM  Consumer Organization	Classification in CRM  Customer	Classification in CRM  Prospect	Classification in CRM  Competitor	Account Group assigned in ERP
x					Consumer
x		x			Consumer
x			x		Consumer
x				x	Consumer
x		x	x		Consumer
x		x		x	Consumer
x			x	x	Consumer
x		x	x	x	Consumer
	x				Customer
	x	x			Customer
	x		x		Customer
	x			x	Customer
	x	x	x		Customer
	x	x		x	Customer
	x		x	x	Customer
	x	x	x	x	Customer
		x			Customer
		x	x		Customer
		x		x	Customer
		x	x	x	Customer
			x		Prospect
			x	x	Prospect
				x	Competitors

 

Integration

You can make the necessary settings for the distribution of business partner master data in the plug-in for the current release in the transaction PIDE.

Additional Information

Distribution of Business Partner Master Data