Attributes of customer-specific classifications

You use attributes to define the characteristic of a classification. Customer-specific attributes can be associated with one, many, or no customers. If a customer-specific attribute is not associated with any customers, it will not be used.

Customer-specific classifications can have either global attributes or customer-specific attributes. You cannot associate a customer with a customer-specific attribute if that customer is not associated with the classification.

Example

The customer-specific classification, IT \ HARDWARE \ PRINTER, can have the following attributes:

 

Attribute

Description

Global attribute?

MEMORY

Memory

Yes

PROCSPEED

Processing speed

Yes

WEIGHT

Weight in Kg

No – it is a customer-specific attribute

You manage printers only for customers 1, 2, and 3. Memory and processing speed are common attributes for all IT hardware printers, so you set them as global attributes. Customers 2 and 3 want to record the weight of the printer, so you set the WEIGHT attribute as a customer-specific attribute on the IT \ HARDWARE \ PRINTER classification and associate customers 2 and 3 with WEIGHT. When a fault occurs on a printer and an agent creates a service request for customer 1 and classifies the problem, only the MEMORY and PROCSPEED attributes are copied to the specification table on the service request. If the service request is for customer 2 or customer 3, then all three attributes are copied.

If you win a contract with customer 4 who also has IT hardware printers, then you must associate customer 4 with the classification before you can associate customer 4 with the WEIGHT attribute.

See also

Use attributes with objects

Working with attributes

Customer-specific classifications

Classification rules