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Understanding Business Object Controls

Business object control values are options that users can select when defining business objects. For many of these controls, the PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft CRM) system provides system data to support specific processing.

These topics discuss:

The term business object refers to any entity that can participate in business relationships. Business objects participate in relationships with other business objects according to their assigned roles. Business object types categorize business objects and enable you to define roles for each type.

The PeopleSoft system delivers these predefined business object types:

  • Individual

    Represents a single individual, such as a contact or a consumer.

  • Organization

    Represents a group of individuals, such as a company.

  • Database Object

    Represents an object in the system.

See Business Object Type Page.

Business objects participate in relationships according to their assigned roles, or role types. Each business object type has a set of role types to which it is associated.

Individual Role Types

PeopleSoft CRM delivers these role types for individual business objects:

  • Person

    This role indicates a person with an undefined role. This role is automatically assigned when you create consumers, contacts, and workers by using the Person component.

  • Worker

    This role indicates a person who performs work for your company, either as an employee or as a contractor. This role is automatically assigned when you define a worker by using the Worker component.

  • Broker

    This role indicates a person who acts on behalf of multiple customers. You manually assign this role to a contact business object by using the Role page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Contact

    This role indicates a person who acts on behalf of a customer. This role is automatically assigned when you designate that a person is a contact of a customer.

  • Individual Consumer

    This role indicates a person who purchases, leases, or contracts for your products or services. This role is automatically assigned when you define a consumer by using the Person (Individual Consumer) component.

  • Account Contact

    This role indicates a person who participates as a member of an account team that is assigned to manage a corporate account. This role is automatically assigned when you define a worker as a member of an account team on the Accounts page of the Company, Site, or Person (Individual Consumer) components.

  • Internal Contact

    This role is used for converting earlier versions of PeopleSoft CRM. Previously, PeopleSoft CRM used contact types; these are now role types.

  • External Contact

    This role is used for converting earlier versions of PeopleSoft CRM. Previously, PeopleSoft CRM used contact types; these are now role types.

  • Business Contact (IND)

    This role indicates that the individual is a customer.

  • Ship To Individual

    This role indicates that the individual is a customer who can receive shipments. This role is for order processing.

  • Sold To Individual

    This role indicates that the individual is a customer who can make purchases. This role is for order processing.

  • Bill To Individual

    This role indicates that the individual is a customer who can receive bills. This role is for order processing.

  • Individual Prospect

    This role indicates an individual prospect. This role is for sales.

  • Sales User

    This role type is assigned to sales users.

    See Setting Up Sales Users.

Organization Role Types

PeopleSoft CRM delivers these role types for organization business objects:

  • Company

    This role indicates an organization that purchases, leases, or contracts for your products or services. The system automatically assigns this role when you define a customer by using the Company component.

  • Site

    This role indicates a place where a product is shipped or installed, or where a service is performed. The system automatically assigns this role when you define a site by using the Company, Person (Individual Consumer), or Site component.

  • Competitor

    This role indicates a company that competes for your company's customer base. You can manually assign this role to company business objects by using the Role page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Primary Owner - Company

    This role indicates a company that is the primary owner. This role is used in PeopleSoft Sales.

  • Corporate Hierarchy

    This role indicates an entity that makes up an organization structure, such as position, department, location, and division.

  • Business Contact (ORG)

    This role indicates that the organization is a customer.

  • Ship To Organization

    This role indicates that the customer can receive shipments.

  • Sold To Organization

    This role indicates that the customer can make purchases.

  • Bill To Organization

    This role indicates that the customer can receive bills.

  • Organizational Prospect

    This role indicates that the individual is an organizational prospect.

Depending on which PeopleSoft CRM solutions you have implemented, you might see additional role types listed on the system setup pages for roles. Additionally, you can view the organization of role types into role categories that support processing that applies to a specific set of role types.

Relationship types describe the relationship between two business objects. You must define a relationship type for each relationship in which a business object with a specific role can participate. The predefined business object relationship types are:

  • Company ↔ Site

    This type indicates a nonhierarchical relationship between the company and site role types and signals that a company includes a site. The system automatically establishes this relationship when you associate a site with a company by using the Company or Site component.

  • Site ↔ Site

    This type indicates a peer-to-peer relationship between two site role types and signals that the sites are associated with the same company. You create this relationship manually by using the Relationship page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Primary Contact ↔ Company

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and company role types and signals that the person with the contact role is the primary contact for the company. The system automatically establishes this relationship when you indicate the primary contact for a company by using the Company component.

  • Contact ↔ Company

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and company role types and signals that the person with the contact role is a contact for the company. The system automatically establishes this relationship when you associate a contact with a company by using the Company or Site components or the Person component with the Contact role.

  • Primary Contact ↔ Site

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and site role types and signals that the person with the contact role is the primary contact for the site. The system automatically establishes this relationship when you indicate the primary contact for a company by using the Site component.

  • Contact ↔ Site

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and site role types and signals that the person with the contact role is a contact for the site. The system automatically establishes this relationship when you associate a contact with a site by using the Company or Site components or the Person component with the Contact role.

  • Primary Contact ↔ Consumer

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and consumer role types and signals that person with the contact role is the primary contact for the consumer. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you indicate the primary contact for a consumer by using the Person component with the Consumer role.

  • Contact ↔ Consumer

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and consumer role types and signals that the person with the contact role is a contact for the consumer. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you associate a contact with a consumer by using the Site component or the Person component with the Consumer or Contact role.

  • Primary Contact ↔ Person

    This type indicates a relationship between contact and person role types and signals that the person with the contact role is the primary contact for the person with the person role. You manually create this relationship using the Relationship page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Contact ↔ Person

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and person role types and signals that person with the contact role is a contact for the person with the person role. You manually create this relationship by using the Relationship page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Consumer ↔ Site

    This type indicates a nonhierarchical relationship between the consumer and site role types and signals that a consumer is associated with a site. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you associate a site with a consumer by using the Site component or the Person (Individual Consumer) component.

  • Parent Company ↔ Company

    This type indicates a hierarchical relationship between two company role types and signals that one company is the parent of another company. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you define a parent company on the Company component.

  • Primary Contact ↔ Competitor

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and competitor role types and signals that the person with the contact role is the primary contact for a competitor. You manually create this relationship using the Relationship page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Contact ↔ Competitor

    This type indicates a relationship between the contact and competitor role types and signals that the person with the contact role is a contact for a competitor. You manually create this relationship using the Relationship page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

  • Acct Owner ↔ Company

    This type indicates a relationship between account contact and company role types and signals that the person with the account contact role is the owner of the company account. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you indicate the owner on the Account page of the Company component.

  • Acct Team Member ↔ Company

    This type indicates a relationship between the account contact and company role types and signals that the person with the account contact role is a member of the company account team. The system automatically establishes the relationship when you add an account member on the Account page of the Company component.

Depending on which CRM solutions you have implemented, you might see additional relationship types listed on the system setup pages for roles. Additionally, you can view the organization of relationship types into relationship categories that support processing that applies to a specific set of relationship types.

The address book for a customer or contact contains multiple contact information entries. Address book entries combine multiple contact methods for a business object into one entry for easy accessing and updating.

As delivered, the Individual business object type has three default contact information entries with the descriptions Business, Home, and All Others. The organization business object type has two default contact information entries with the descriptions Business and Home. Users can change the entry description when they enter contact information.

You can create different types of address books to reflect the different purposes for which you might contact a business object.

In PeopleSoft CRM, you can define multiple, effective-dated communication channels for company, site, consumer, contact, and worker business objects. For contact business objects, you can also define multiple communication channels for each of the roles that the contact plays in relationships with company, consumer, and site business objects.

Contact Method Types

A contact method is a specific communication channel. When you define a contact method for a business object or business object in a specific relationship role, you define the contact method type and purpose. The contact method type indicates the kind of communication channel, such as telephone or email.

PeopleSoft CRM provides these predefined contact method types:

  • Address

  • Phone

  • Email

Contact Method Purpose Types

The contact method purpose indicates when the contact method is used. For example, a contact method purpose of Main might indicate the address to use for sending mail to a company's main offices. Similarly, a contact purpose type of Home might indicate the phone number to use when calling a consumer in the evening. You can define a set of contact method purpose types for each contact method in the system.

These predefined contact method purpose types are available for the address contact method type:

  • Physical Location

  • Business

  • Campus

  • Dormitory

  • Home

  • Legal

  • Mailing

  • Other

These contact method purpose types are available for the phone contact method type:

  • Business

  • Cellular

  • Default

  • FAX

  • Home

  • Telex

  • Pager

  • Campus

  • Dormitory

  • Main

  • Other

  • Home Fax

  • Other Fax

  • Assistant

  • Callback

  • Car

  • SDN

  • Radio

  • TTY/TDD

  • Company

These contact method purpose types are available for the email contact method type:

  • Business

  • Campus

  • Dorm

  • Home

  • Other

A component navigation definition defines a specific transaction page in the system that users can transfer to from the Relationship Viewer component or the Relationship page of the Company, Person (Individual Consumer), Person (Business Contact), and Site components. If the business object is editable, a transfer button appears next to each business object that appears in the relationship viewer. If the business object is read-only, a link to the business object appears. The location that you access is determined by a component navigation definition.

The CRM system delivers predefined component navigation definitions for these CDM components:

Note: The text in parentheses indicates the component navigation transaction ID.

Component Navigation Definition

Description

Account Representative (ACCTREP)

Enables transfers to the Accounts page of the Company component.

Business Contact (BC)

Not implemented for this release.

Business Object (BO)

Enables transfers to the Business Object page of the ad hoc Business Object component.

Company (COMPANY)

Enables transfers to the Company page of the Company component.

Individual Consumer (CONSUMER)

Enables transfers to the Consumer page of the Person (Individual Consumer) component.

Person (PERSON)

Enables transfers to the Contact page of the Person (Business Contact) component.

Site (SITE)

Enables transfers to the Site page of the Site component.

Worker (WORKER)

Enables transfers to the Worker page of the Worker component.

Warning! Do not change component navigation definitions that are delivered for CDM components; any modification to the default settings can cause the application to behave improperly.