Customer Hierarchies

[Former Member]

Hi

1) Why we need Customer Hierarchies

2) what is the functionality of Customer Hierarchies

3) In which business senario we can use Customer Hierarchies

Thanks

Satish

[Lakshmipathi]

Hi Satish

Customer hierarchies represent complex customer structures in the system and are used for the organizational structures of buying groups or chains of retail outlets, for example.

A customer hierarchy consists of individual hierarchy nodes which are allocated hierarchically to each other on different levels to produce lower-level and higher-level nodes. The structure of the customer hierarchy can be kept flexible and and adapt to change at any time by means of the option to move hierarchy nodes dynamically.

The customer hierarchy function in the R/3 system is carried out using the partner concept. The individual nodes are defined as partners and linked to a higher level partner.

During sales order and billing processing, customer hierarchies are used in pricing to take into account every aspect relevant to pricing and rebates for customers with a complex group and association structure in particular.

For example, if a sales order is edited for a customer who is allocated to a customer hierarchy relevant for pricing, the relevant hierarchy path, which displays the chain of hierarchy nodes to which the initial hierarchy node is related, is determined automatically. If condition records exist for a higher-level node, pricing is carried out with reference to the conditions available there.

The hierarchy nodes of a customer hierarchy are created as customer master records with account group (0012). The structure of the hierarchy results from allocating the hierarchy node master records. It is also possible to create customers with different account groups as hierarchy nodes (for example, 0001 for the sold-to party).

If you want to make your own settings for customer hierarchies, you must edit the following points:

=> Define hierarchy types with default partner function

=> Define allowed account group allocations for each hierarchy type

=> Allocate sales areas to each other

=> If necessary, allocate the hierarchy type relevant for pricing for each sales document type

=> Then check the partner functions to determine whether they suffice for the hierarchy levels you require and, if necessary, create further partner functions

Thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[Former Member]

Hi

With customer hierarchies you can now create flexible hierarchies to reflect the structure of customer organizations. For example, if your customer base includes multi-level buying groups, cooperatives, or chains of retail outlets, you can create hierarchies to reflect the structure of these groups. You use customer hierarchies in order and billing document processing for partner and pricing determination (including rebate determination) and for creating statistics.

You can use customer hierarchies to assign price conditions and rebate agreements to one of the customer’s subordinate levels, to ensure that all subordinate levels are valid for the customer. For each node that you indicate as relevant for pricing, you can create condition records for pricing. If one or more nodes in a hierarchy path for a sales order contain pricing data, this is automatically taken into account in pricing.

You can also use customer hierarchies for evaluations in profitability analysis (CO-PA) and in the Sales Information System (SIS):

To evaluate customer hierarchies with the sales information system and in the profitability analysis, you can maintain the field Hierarchy assignment on the Marketing tab page in the customer master record for a hierarchy customer. Here you can maintain 10 features for hierarchy customers (HIEZU01 to HIEZU10). You can use these to evaluate hierarchies statistically with up to 10 levels. (Field catalogue VHIE)

A customer hierarchy is a flexible structure consisting of customers. Each customer - with the exception of the uppermost customer - refers to another customer at a higher level in the hierarchy (known as a higher-level customer). Customers that are assigned to higher-level customers are known as dependent customers.

To be able to display organizational elements, that are not independent partners, you can assign pure hierarchy nodes (account group 0012) in the hierarchy. Specific data can be assigned to a hierarchy node (for example, address, price conditions, rebate agreements) and this then applies to all subordinate customers.

As all nodes in a hierarchy are time-dependent, you can adapt the customer hierarchy to changes in the structure of a customer at any time.

• Customers can be reassigned in a hierarchy When reassigning a customer, all subordinate customers are moved with it

• You can add new customers to a hierarchy When you assign a new customer to an existing hierarchy, all pricing data, that applies to the higher-level hierarchy node, is automatically copied from the customer

• You can also remove customers from the hierarchy

http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_02/helpdata/en/dd/55f4d9545a11d1a7020000e829fd11/frameset.htm