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Business Partner Group Hierarchy
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http://help.sap.com/saphelp_crm700_ehp01/helpdata/en/2e/a7ab11943c5d49b64274fc57b99627/content.htm
Date created:
August 07, 2013

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Business Partner Group Hierarchy

Purpose
You can use this application for maintaining business partner group hierarchies.
The business partner group hierarchy (BP group hierarchy) allows you to map complex organizational structures of a business partner (e.g. buying group, cooperative or chain of retail outlets).
On the basis of the group hierarchy, processes can also be carried out in the applications (for example, the pricing in mySAP CRM).
When you create a hierarchy tree, you form groups of business partners (for example for purchasing groups), which you can use in mySAP CRM for Marketing
analyses, for instance.

You can also use the hierarchy nodes without assigning business partners to them.

Features
With the help of business partner groups, you can create hierarchy nodes in order to construct a hierarchy structure. For this purpose, the type of hierarchy is first
determined via the hierarchy category.
By clearly separating the hierarchy structure and business partner master data, the creation of dummy business partners during the construction of the hierarchy
is avoided, and performance is improved.

Example
The graphic shows the organizational structure of a company with various branches, according to the region to which they belong.

Concepts
This section contains information about the basic concepts of SAP Business Partner.

Hierarchy category
Definition
Category that determines the use of a group hierarchy.

Use
A category tree can have different functions, and thus also different hierarchy categories.
You can assign a business partner to several hierarchies with various hierarchy categories.

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Integration
Define which hierarchy categories can be used, in the Implementation Guide (IMG) in Customizing of the Business Partner Group Hierarchy under Establish
Hierarchy Category.

Hierarchy Nodes and Business Partner Groups

Definition
Hierarchy nodes in the BP group hierarchy are represented by business partner groups.

Use
In contrast to the customer hierarchy of the ERP System, the nodes cannot be equated with the business partners themselves; rather the business partners are
assigned to the nodes. You can assign as many business partners as you like to a hierarchy node.
The groups in a hierarchy can have a structure consisting of several levels.
The assignment between nodes, as well as the assignment of business partners to nodes, is time-dependent. You can, for example, represent different versions
of an organizational structure within a hierarchy.

You can always only create a node for one hierarchy, whereas you can reassign business partners to another hierarchy.

Structure
The nodes contain the following elements:
Description of the hierarchy node
Assigned business partners and the validity period of this assignment
Higher-level nodes and the validity period of this assignment

Functions
This section contains information about
The general Business Partner data
The Business Data Toolset (BDT)
The basic functions of the Business Partner, such as data cleansing and archiving, as well as extensibility and distribution of BP data.

Maintaining Business Partner Group Hierarchies

Use
You can create, maintain and search for BP group hierarchies using various search criteria.

Prerequisites
You have made the necessary settings for the BP group hierarchy in Customizing.
You have created master records for the business partners that you want to use in the hierarchy.

Features
You can do the following in the group hierarchy:
Vary the display of the hierarchy tree using the validity period
Create nodes with different validity periods

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You have created a hierarchy tree whose nodes are valid from the 1.1.2000 till the 31.12.2003, i.e. there is only one validity period.
If you insert a node that is valid from the 1.1.2000 till the 31.12.2001, this would result in a division into three periods:
Period 1 from the 1.1.2000 till the 31.12.2000
Period 2 from the 1.1.2001 till the 31.12.2001
Period 3 from the 1.1.2002 till the 31.12.2003
When you delete this node, there is once again a single validity period for all nodes, from the 1.1.2000 till the 31.12.2003. The three periods are thus once
more merged to form a single period.
Assign business partners with a validity period to a node

This validity period can differ from the validity period of the relevant node.
Reassign nodes
Create new assignments of nodes
Delete assignments of hierarchy nodes and business partners, or place a time constraint on the assignments of business partners.

Only the assignment of the node or sub-tree in the hierarchy is deleted, and not the node or sub-tree itself.

Assignments of BPs to nodes should not be deleted, but rather restricted to a period up to the current date. You can make use of this history in applications, for
example, that use the group hierarchy.
Create the description of the hierarchy tree or of a hierarchy node in various languages

Activities
You use the locator to search for hierarchies in the SAP GUI.

If you want to process a business partner assigned to a hierarchy that you know about, you can use the search for partners in group hierarchies via the input
help in the fast entry in the business partner dialog.
You can assign one or more business partners to a node directly from the hit list of the locator.
To do this, select the relevant business partner and move it, using Drag and Drop, into the hierarchy structure in the upper screen area of the work area, or
into the list of assigned business partners in the lower screen area.
It is possible to move the business partner into the list only if the business partner has already been assigned.

A business partner can be assigned only if it is not being processed and is not already assigned to a hierarchy node in a hierarchy tree of the type pricing.
Otherwise, an error message is issued. The relevant business partner appears marked in red in the hit list.

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