When legal entities assume multiple roles, i.e., a customer and supplier, the governance of master data is directly influenced by both the sales team and the procurement team.
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From a sales perspective, information on sales price, quantity, method of delivery and storage, payment terms, etc., must be managed and approved.
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From a procurement perspective, retailers and manufacturers rely on supplier master data to drive qualification processes, negotiate contract terms, evaluate supplier performance, and maintain accurate purchase orders and invoices.
In both business scenarios, user personas from multiple different departments within the business, such as procurement, sales, finance, and logistics, may be involved in the enrichment and approval of the new business partner entities.
Furthermore, these processes and terms may vary from one line of business to another and from one geographical region to another.
Definition of Business Partner Roles
Roles within party data describe business relationships between two party entities which represent the type(s) of activities an entity can carry out. These roles will be referred to as 'Business Partner Roles'. For example, an entity can be a customer of a company with sales data and processes governed by the sales team. However, the same entity can also be a supplier of the same company with purchasing data and processes governed by the purchasing team.
Common examples of business partner roles include customers, suppliers, and/or contacts:
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As the role of a customer, an entity’s activities and governance are likely to be centered around sales of goods and services.
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As the role of a supplier, an entity’s activities and governance are likely to be centered around the procurement of goods and services.
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As the role of a contact person, an entity is associated to a customer or supplier, and governance is likely to be dictated by either business partner role type.
The management of master data for such entities requires consideration for business processes and data requirements.
The business processes for maintaining these roles may or may not be shared across the buying and selling sides of the organization. This complexity, in turn, presents the challenge of modeling and managing the governance of master data for a single legal entity when the data is owned by multiple groups in the organization.
Data requirements must also be considered as different personas interact with role-specific data. This introduces complexity in how and when data is presented to the end-user persona as visible, optional, or mandatory, as defined by the role.
Definition of Interaction Roles
A different aspect of roles, referred to as Interaction Roles, can be used to describe a particular capacity, or function, that an entity undertakes within the confines of their role. Interaction Roles describe the organization and individuals with which the business is conducted and are involved in a business transaction.
For example, for a customer to purchase goods the customer must be assigned as a 'sold-to' interaction role. Furthermore, the same customer may require shipment of purchased goods to distribution centers and warehouses which must be assigned as 'ship-to' interaction roles.
Similarly, for an organization to do business with a supplier, the supplier that is shipping the purchased goods must be assigned as a 'goods-supplier' interaction role.
In the context of SAP, the concept of business partner roles also exists, whereas interaction roles may be defined as partner functions.