Siebel Consumer Goods Guide > Managing Accounts >

About Accounts

Because accounts are critical to your business efforts, maintaining complete, accurate data in your accounts is a primary task. Administrators can perform bulk loading of data on accounts, but administrators and end users can also create and modify accounts manually as needed. For accounts with multiple departments and divisions, end users can enter independent information about those subaccounts.

For more information about bulk loading account information, such as account demographic information, hierarchy, and general account attributes, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

About Account Hierarchies

You can manage and administer different hierarchies for different customers. For example, for a large chain of drugstores, you can establish a four-level hierarchy with the corporate headquarters office at the top level, its regional offices at the second level, its distribution centers at the third level, and its retail stores at the fourth level. For a distributor, you might establish a two-level hierarchy with the distributor at the top level and the retail outlets it serves at the second level. If a company uses a third-party distributor for its products, you can associate this indirect account as well. For more information about structuring organizations, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

About Account Classification

You can classify Accounts in many ways. The following standard classifications can drive specific application functionality:

• Account type. Classifying an account by type, such as Retailer or Distributor, can drive a dynamic profile attribute form. This form determines the profile information that is stored and available for the account.
• Distribution code. You can apply Distribution codes to accounts and products to automatically create authorized distribution lists.
• Market segment. Classifying an account's market segment determines the types of products that appear in that account's product catalog when creating assortment plans. You classify the market segment for your customer accounts by assigning the personalization attribute Account Channel to accounts.

For more information about methods that are available for controlling authorized product distribution based on distribution codes or account market segment, see Product Distribution.