Company
Company is a primary data structure in the foundation. This structure has two main purposes: tenancy definition and external company definition.
Tenancy refers to how data and rules are partitioned within the BMC Helix ITSM applications. For example, a company might have two business units that use the BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk : Incident Management application. Each business unit has its own definitions of data, categorizations, assignment rules, and approval rules to make sure that this data is not intermixed.
Tenancy enables you to define the partitions between the two business units and enforce the data level permissions for access. In this example, a company would be defined for each business unit to define partitioning of rules and data.
A primary function of the company data structure in the foundation is to define tenants that use BMC Helix ITSM applications. This function of company defines both how the application will partition the data and the rules for the application, based on different distinct users of the application.
Business units are one example of partitioning. If you need to partition the data and the rules of the applications, based on individual business units, then you need to define different companies for each business unit.
You can also use the company definition to define other types of companies that are used in the application, such as manufacturers, suppliers, and so on.
Company types
BMC Helix ITSM supports the following company types:
| Company type | Description |
|---|---|
Customer | An external company for which you provide services. |
Generic contact | A company that you want to reference on the People form. It is used to track information about people for informational purposes. You cannot select a generic contact from within the BMC Helix ITSM applications. |
Operating company | An internal company or business unit for which you provide services. In a Hub and Spoke environment, companies that are resident on a spoke server and receive IT Management support from a Service Provider on the hub server must be defined as an Operating company. |
Service Provider company | A company that is contracted to provide IT management services to Operating companies. In a Hub and Spoke environment, a Service Provider company resides on the hub server and provides IT management services to the Operating companies on the spoke servers. |
Supplier company | A third-party supplier of products |
Manufacturer | A company that manufactures a product identified in the Product Catalog. Important: People cannot be associated to a Manufacturer type of company. |
Vendor | A third-party vendor that provides services for you |
You can associate support groups (and relate people to those support groups) only for the following company types:
- Customer
- Operating company
- Service Provider company
- Vendor
Only users who are members of support groups can access core BMC Helix ITSM forms, such as the Incident, Change, Problem, and Asset forms. Even for users who are members of a support group, there are certain exceptions based on the company type. For example, a user who is a member of a vendor company cannot create a change or release, but can be assigned to work on the change either as a change or release coordinator or as a change or release manager.
Customers who request support must belong to either a customer company or an operating company.
Companies can be more than one type. After the company has been created, you can add an additional company type by opening the Company form and selecting the additional company type. When you save your changes, the additional company type is appended to the existing company type.
Company types example
Calbro Services has an IT department that provides support for all employees of both Calbro Services and Company A. Calbro Services is the operating company, because some of the employees of Calbro Services are support staff.
Because Company A receives support from the IT department, Company A is customer type of company.
A manufacturer company is specified in the Product Catalog and is a company that manufactures software that is used by Calbro Services. For example, if Calbro Services uses Microsoft Word, Microsoft is the manufacturer.
A company that supplies this product to Calbro Services is a supplier company. A company that supplies Microsoft Word licenses to Calbro Services is a supplier.
Both the manufacturer and supplier companies are external entities. They do not have access to the BMC Helix ITSM applications being used by Calbro Services. The distinction between manufacturer and supplier is crucial for the Software License Management feature provided by BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management .
If Company A requires support for a service that Calbro Services obtains from Company C, then Company C is a vendor type of company. Users in support groups for a vendor company can have access to BMC Remedy Service Desk to report incidents and problems.
Comments
What if we have an organization who is setup like: Whole Enterprise - Holding Company 1 ---Company A ---Company B ---Company C - Holding Company 2 ---Company D ---Company E - Holding Company 3 ---Company F ---Company G ---Company H ---Company I
We don't need to list the Whole Enterprise, but we need to have a Tiered Company approach. Where Holding Companies are Operating Companies and the Companies under them are also Operating Companies.
Is there a way to relate and tier companies, that also have cascading permissions, if I were to give John access to Holding Company 1, could he have access to Company A, B, & C automatically. But if I have Paul who only needs access to Company A & B, but not C I can assign that access out too?
Hello Levi,
Your request can be implemented by using the Parent Group functionality.
If you set Holding 1 as a parent of Company A,B, and C, John will have access to Company A,B and C, provided he is a part of Company Holding 1.
For user Paul, you can add restricted access to Company A and B.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Anagha
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