Customer-specific classificationsCustomer-specific classificationsCustomer-specific classifications are classifications that apply to certain customers. Because classifications generally become more restrictive at each subsequent level of the classification hierarchy, a customer-specific classification cannot be the parent of a global classification.
Sometimes you might not want to associate any customers with a customer-specific classification. For example, you might create a customer-specific classification, and then later choose to remove the last customer who was associated with it. You cannot delete a classification that has been used, and you might not want to make the classification available for all customers by making it a global classification.
All of your customers have desktop computers, but only one customer (a graphic design customer) tracks video cards. You make the following classifications global:
IT
IT \ HARDWARE
IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER
Then you make the following classification customer specific and associate it with the graphic design customer:
IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD
When you want to associate a customer with a classification, that customer must also be associated with any ancestors of the classification, unless the ancestor is a global classification. These customer associations are automatically created on all customer-specific ancestors in the hierarchy
When customer-based security profiles are used in the Security Groups (SP) application, users can be restricted from viewing classifications that are not relevant to them. For example, if a classification is associated with Customer 123, then users will be able to see this classification if they belong to a security group with one of the following settings:
Authorize Group for All Customers is selected.
Authorize Group for Customer on user’s Person record is selected and the customer listed in the Customer/Vendor field on the Person tab in the People (SP) application is either Customer 123 or its parent customer.
Authorize Group for Customers in User’s Person Customer Access List is selected and Customer 123 or its parent customer is listed on the person’s record on the Customer Access tab in the People (SP) application.
Authorize Group for Customers Listed below is selected and Customer 123 or its parent customer is listed in the Individual Customer Authorization table window on the Customers tab in the Security Groups (SP) application.
A user who belongs to a security group with the customer setting Authorize Group only for Unrestricted Customer level information selected can view only global classifications.
A user who does not belong to any security group with a customer setting can see global classifications and all customer-specific classifications, because customer-based security profiles create data restrictions. If no profile is set, then no data is restricted.
If a customer-specific classification has no customers associated with it, then users with a customer-based security profile do not see this classification.
In the previous example, if IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER is a customer-specific classification with no customers associated with it, then users with a customer-based security profile cannot see this classification, and they cannot see the IT \ HARDWARE \ DESKTOP COMPUTER \ VIDEOCARD classification.