Working with Parties

8 Working with Parties

Party entities represent the people and organizations that interact with your inventory. For example, you could have Party entities for individuals such as contacts, employees, subscribers, and decision makers. You could also have Party entities for vendors, resellers, service providers, and customers.

You can associate parties to different types of entities, including products, services, network nodes, places, and pipe termination points. The method you use to make the associations varies by to entity type.

An association with a party is often qualified with a role. You can select the roles that are valid for a party in its Summary page. Additionally, you can associate places with parties (for example, to specify the location of a business or location), and parties can be included in inventory groups.

See the following topics for more information about working with parties:

Associating Parties to Entities

You can associate parties to entities to identify related individuals or organizations. If the parties have roles assigned to them, you can specify the role that is relevant to the association.

To associate a party to an entity:

Open the Summary page for an entity.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Parties section/subtab, click Associate.

The Associate Party dialog box appears.
Search for or create a Party entity.
In the Search Results section, select the party that you want to associate with the entity.
Click OK.

The Parties section/subtab in the Summary page refreshes to include the entity.
(Optional) In the Party Role list, select a role.

The list is empty if no roles are assigned to the party. For Service entities, you can create a new role if necessary.

Creating a Role While Associating a Party to a Service

Deleting Party Associations from Entities

To delete party associations from an entity:

Open the Summary page of the entity associated with the party that you want to delete.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Parties section/subtab, select the party you want to delete.
Click Delete.

The selected party is removed from the list.

Related Topics

Associating Parties to Entities

Selecting Roles for Parties

You can select the roles that can be used to qualify an entity's association with a particular Party entity. For example, if you have a Party entity for a company, you could limit its possible roles to Supplier, Customer, and Partner.

Note:

Role specifications define the entity types to which the role can be applied. The list of roles from which you select includes only the roles that can be applied to Party entities.

To select roles for a party:

Open the Summary page of the Party entity for which you want to select roles.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Roles section, click Associate.

The Party Role Information dialog box appears.
From the Specification list, select the specification of the role you want to include.

If characteristics have been added to the specification for the role you selected, additional fields appear in the page.
If any additional fields appear, enter the required information.
(Optional) To add additional roles, click Save and Add Another
Click Save and Close.

The role appears in the Roles section for the party.

Related Topics

Deleting Roles from a Party

Working with Roles

Deleting Roles from a Party

To delete roles from a party:

Open the Summary page of the Party entity from which you want to delete roles.
Click the Groups and Infrastructure tab.
In the Roles section, select a role and click Delete.

The role is deleted from the list.

Related Topics

Selecting Roles for Parties

Working with Roles

Party - New Page

You use the Party - New page to create new Party entities.

Note:

The fields that appear on this page are determined by the specification used to create the entity. The specification is created in Design Studio. The fields in the following table are common to most specifications of this type.

Field	Description
Specification	Select a Party specification. You can represent your parties in UIM without creating specifications in Design Studio; however, using specifications allows you to capture custom information about a party. If you do not use a specification to define the new party, you must manually enter a value in the ID field.
ID	If the entity specification requires a manually entered ID, enter a unique ID for the entity. Most entity specifications are defined in Design Studio so that IDs are generated automatically. The ID field for these specifications contains the text AUTOGENERATE.
Name	Enter a name for the party.
Description	Enter a description of the party.

Related Topics

Creating Entities

Party Summary Page

Party - Information Page

You use the Party - Information page to edit the information that appears in the Summary page Information section. Some data elements, such as the ID, cannot be changed after the entity is created.

Note:

Field	Description
Specification	Displays the specification used to define the party. This field is read only.
ID	Displays the ID generated or entered when the entity was created. This field is read only.
Name	Edit the name for the party.
Description	Edit the description of the party.

Related Topics

Creating Entities

Party Summary Page

You use the Party Summary page to define the content for a Party entity. The page is arranged into tabs, each of which is used for a different purpose:

See "Entity Summary Page" for information about Summary page fields that are common among all entities.

Related Topics

Creating Entities

Party - New Page

General Information Tab

You use the General Information tab to view basic information about the entity, most of which was defined when you created the entity. Click Edit to change this information. Some data elements, such as the ID, cannot be changed after the entity is created. See "Creating Entities", "Party - New Page", and "Party - Information Page" for more information.

Associated Resources Tab

You use the Associated Resources tab to view any network nodes with which a Party entity is associated. The association occurs when you select a Party entity to be represented by a node or element in a network.

The same entity can be represented by nodes in different networks. For each network association, you can see the network name, network description, node name, and node description. Click the ID to view the Network Summary page.

Groups and Infrastructure Tab

You use the Groups and Infrastructure tab to view information about the places, inventory groups, and roles associated with the party.

Section	Description
Places	Displays any places that are associated with the party. The association can imply that the party is located at the place or that there is some kind of relationship between the entities. The fields that appear in the Places section are common among multiple entities. See "Entity Summary Page" for more information. See "Associating Places to Entities" for information about creating new place associations.
Inventory Groups	Displays any inventory groups to which the party is associated. You use inventory groups to organize entities for a particular purpose. The fields that appear in the Inventory Group section are common among multiple entities. See "Entity Summary Page" for more information. See "Adding an Entity to an Inventory Group from the Entity Summary Page" for information about associating entities with an inventory group.
Roles	Displays any roles that are associated with the Party entity. You can associate roles with entities to define the functions they perform in your inventory. An entity can have multiple roles simultaneously, and its roles can change over time. See "Assigning a Role in an Entity Summary Page" for more information.

Section

Description

Places

Displays any places that are associated with the party. The association can imply that the party is located at the place or that there is some kind of relationship between the entities.

The fields that appear in the Places section are common among multiple entities. See "Entity Summary Page" for more information. See "Associating Places to Entities" for information about creating new place associations.

Inventory Groups

Displays any inventory groups to which the party is associated. You use inventory groups to organize entities for a particular purpose.

The fields that appear in the Inventory Group section are common among multiple entities. See "Entity Summary Page" for more information. See "Adding an Entity to an Inventory Group from the Entity Summary Page" for information about associating entities with an inventory group.

Roles

Displays any roles that are associated with the Party entity.

You can associate roles with entities to define the functions they perform in your inventory. An entity can have multiple roles simultaneously, and its roles can change over time. See "Assigning a Role in an Entity Summary Page" for more information.