Reference Data Sets

Reference data sets are logical groups of reference data that various transactional entities can use depending on the business context. You can get started using either the common reference data set or the enterprise set depending on your implementation requirement.

You can also create and maintain additional reference data sets, while continuing to use the common reference data set. Consider the following scenario. Your enterprise can decide that only some aspects of corporate policy should affect all business units. The remaining aspects are at the discretion of the business unit manager to implement. This enables your enterprise to balance autonomy and control for each business unit.

For example, your enterprise holds business unit managers accountable for their profit and loss, but manages working capital requirements at a corporate level. Then, you can let managers define their own sales methods, but define payment terms centrally. As a result, each business unit has its own reference data set for sales methods and one central reference data set for payment terms assigned to all business units.

Partitioning

Partitioning reference data and creating data sets provide you the flexibility to handle the reference data to fulfill your business requirements. You can share modular information and data processing options among business units with ease. You can create separate sets and subsets for each business unit. Alternatively, you can create common sets or subsets to enable sharing reference data between several business units, without duplicating the reference data.

The following figure illustrates the reference data sharing method. The user can access the data assigned to a specific set in a particular business unit, as well as access the data assigned to the common set.