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Setting Up the Organization Structure

Siebel applications let you divide your business into organizations. Organizations usually represent businesses or divisions of businesses, and they are one way to control visibility to data. For example, when users choose All Contacts, they display the contacts in their own organization.

Each partner company is represented by one or more organizations. If you put multiple partner companies in one organization, then employees of one company may see data that belongs to the other company. You avoid this problem by putting companies in organizations of their own.

You can create a hierarchical organization structure, which has one organization under another.

When you create the organization structure, be aware that it affects visibility in the Pick Partner dialog box. Whenever channel managers use a dialog box that lists partners, the dialog box includes the partners in their own organization and in suborganizations of that organization. However, if the user has access to the All Partners across Organizations view, then the Pick Partner dialog box will include partners in all organizations. This visibility in the Pick Partner dialog box makes it easier for partner managers to work with partner records.

For more information about configuring visibility, see Configuring Visibility.

You can set up your partner hierarchy in different ways, depending on your business requirements. For example, you can:

• Set up the organization hierarchy so channel managers are in organizations of their own, and the partner companies that report to each manager are in organizations that are below that manager's organization. Then, when channel managers use the Pick Partner dialog box, the partner organizations that they manage will be visible.
• Set up organizations that reflect the structure of your partner programs. For example, you can set up one organization for your resellers, another for your service partners and a third for alliance partners. Channel manager employees would be placed in the organization for which they worked. They would have visibility to the partners belonging to that organization.
• Set up an organization hierarchy structure where all partners report to the main brand owner organization. Channel manager employees would be a part of this main organization, so they would be able to see the partners when they use the pick partner dialog box.

If a partner company is large, you can create a hierarchical structure with multiple organizations for just that company. For example, if you assign opportunities to different regional divisions within a partner company, you can create a structure with one organization representing the entire partner company and organizations under it in the hierarchy representing its regional divisions. Then you can assign an opportunity to a regional division, so only that division can view it. This structure would also let you delegate the administration of each region to different administrators, have sales representatives and employees associated with the region in which they work, and organize other company data by region.

When your company first deploys Siebel PRM, the channel operations manager will use the Group Administration screen to set up the overall organization structure, and will use the Partner Administration screen to add organizations representing existing partners.

When your company adds new partners, channel managers will use the Partner Administration screen to add organizations representing the new partner companies.

For more information on working with organizations using the Group Administration screen, see Applications Administration Guide and Security Guide for Siebel eBusiness Applications.

For more information about adding a partner organization using the Partner Administration screen, see Working With New Partners.

NOTE:  Always use the Partner Administration screen to create organizations representing partner companies. Use the Group Administration screen only to set up the overall organization structure, for example, to set up organizations for consulting partners, software partners, platform partners, and so on. Do not use this screen for setting up organizations for individual partner companies.