Customers, locations, and service addressesCustomers, locations, and service addressesWhen you create customer records, you create detailed agreement and pricing information for the customer and the services that you expect to provide. By associating customers with locations, you can provide the appropriate response to that customer and location.
When you associate customers with locations, you can keep the location records restricted to the users who have permission to access the data of a particular customer. You associate customers with users in the Security Groups (SP) application.
You create customer records in the Customers (SP) application. You associate customers with locations in the Locations (SP) application.
You can associate more than one customer with a location, but one customer must be the primary customer.
When a ticket, or work order for the location is created, information about the primary customer is copied to the ticket or work order. The combination of location, asset and customer on the ticket or work order is used to determine the best matches when a service desk agent or workflow process searches for service level agreements, price schedules and response plans.
The primary customer of a location determines the classifications, and attributes of classifications that a location can use. All locations can use global classifications and global attributes that apply to the location. When you want to use customer-specific classifications or customer-specific attributes, the primary customer of the location (or parent of the primary customer) must match the customer on the classification or attribute.
By default, the first customer that you associate with a location is the primary customer. If you select multiple customers to associate with a location, and there is no primary customer for the location, the first customer alphabetically in the selection becomes the primary customer. You can change the primary customer at any time.
When you associate a customer or primary customer with a location, child locations do not inherit the association.
A service address provides detailed address information for locations where you provide services, such as IT support or building maintenance. A location that is part of an address hierarchy but does not have its own service address inherits the service address from its nearest ancestor in the address hierarchy.
Robert, the service desk agent, receives a call from Jim Smith at the ABC Jewelers shop in the Tree Line Mall. Jim reports a small leak in the ceiling of the shop and suspects that the recent heavy snowfall has damaged the roof of the mall.
Robert creates a service request for Jim. The record for Jim in the People (SP) application is associated as a custodian with the location AB043. Robert checks the location with Jim, and adds AB043 to the service request.
Location AB043 is associated with two customers:
ABC Jewelers is a lessee
Tree Line Malls is the owner
ABC Jewelers is the primary customer for the location. Customer information for ABC Jewelers is copied to the service request.
Location AB043 is not associated with a service address, but its parent location, LAA040, is associated with a service address. The service address for LAA040 is copied to the service request. The record now contains customer and location information. Robert can apply an appropriate price schedule, response plan, and service level agreement to Jim's service request.
Associate customers with a location
Associate multiple locations with a customer