|
|
The Corporate Structure |
|
|
The Corporate Structure |
The Corporate Structure in the Portal is a multi-layered model representing a business as a whole. In this topic we will investigate the layers of the Corporate Structure and the role that each plays in the Portal, as well as seeing how various options can be set to configure the terminologies used in order to maintain consistency with your own definitions.
The top-most layer of the Corporate Structure is the SBU, or Strategic Business Unit. There is exactly one SBU in each Portal and it represents the entire corporation that subscribes to the Portal. Each SBU is made up of one or more Companies and each Company will have its own sales data, customers and employees in the Portal. A Company can have one or more Sites which represent the trading venues of a Company. Sites within a Company can share Loyalty and Marketing data, pool buying power with creditors and consolidate debtor invoices across the Company. Each Site can have multiple Locations which represent the stock-keeping areas of a venue. For example, a Hotel might have a Bottleshop, Front Bar, Restaurant, Gaming Bar, Saloon and Cellar. Terminals represent the point of sale tills in a Location and there can be multiple Terminals in each Location. Employees use Terminals to process a sale, and the transaction is uploaded to the Portal.
Companies are the main building block of the Portal. A Portal User logs into a specific Company in order to view reports and perform administrative functions for that Company. There is also a special Company ID number, -1, that allows an administrator to log into the Portal at the Master Company level, allowing them to perform duties across all Companies.
Company maintenance is performed in the Sites Menu, displayed above. An administrator that is logged into the Master Company can view all of the Companies in the Portal by opening the Company Details report (Menus > Sites > Company > Companies).
Companies are created and / or edited in the Edit Details screen, which contains several tabs of information to be entered:
Name: This screen allows you to select a Company to edit from a drop-down list of Companies in the SBU that the Portal belongs to. Details such as the Company Name, Short Description and ABN number can all be entered into this screen. The Serial Number and Business Unit Number fields are for Portal use only and should not need to be changed.
Contact: Enter some miscellaneous contact details in this screen. The email addresses are important fields for certain parts of the Portal. Multiple addresses can be entered by separating by commas.
Locale: This tab sets some standards for the Company based on the country that the Company is in. Set the Currency Symbol, Number of Decimals in the monetary system, whether to Add a Space After Symbol and the current Exchange Rate between this Company's currency and the currency used by the master company.
Descriptions: Many of the descriptions in the Portal are known as "Soft Descriptions" because they can be customised to the needs of the Company. For example, if a Company refers to their Sites as Stores, this can be changed to accommodate the Company's terminology. Six of the main descriptions in the Company can be changed in the Descriptions tab.
Defaults: Set the Company URL to show a website after a Portal User or Member logs into the Portal (note that the website will be displayed after the promotion message if one is set). The Default Menu can be set to determine where the Navigation Menu is opened to when a User first logs in. The Start Day of Week and Start Month of Year settings affect the way in which reports are displayed. When a new Loyalty Member is created in the Company, the Default Points Ratio and Default Redeem Points Ratio will be used to determine the number of points the customer earns and spends per dollar (this can be overwritten at a later time). The Points Per Renewal field determines the number of points that it costs a Loyalty Member to renew their membership when it expires. The renewal period is set in the Renewal Years field. The Lost Card Points Penalty field allows the Company to set a number of points to charge a Loyalty Member to replace a lost card. Specify the SMS Gateway used for SMS communication from the Portal. Enable Automatic Portal Expiry sets the Portal to expire Members' logins. Grace periods can be set to display a warning to the Member and when to expire them from the Portal.
Department Layers: Departments are a means of grouping inventory items. Several layers can exist within a Department, allowing for complex grouping structures. Both the number of layers and the names of the layers are configurable, up to a total of five layers in addition to the 'Division' level at layer 0.
Enabled Options: This screen controls the functionality of the Portal for the Company and can only be changed by a Master Administrator. Three columns of options control what Portal features are available to the Company. The first column deals with Customers, Debtors and Creditors; the second column controls Procurement; and the third column controls Vision and other additional miscellaneous features of the Portal.
Depending on the current user's access level there will be up to five buttons displayed at the bottom of the Company Maintenance screen:
Create Tax Levels: Opens the Tax Editor screen to allow you to create tax systems for the Company.
Create Default Access: Allows you to set default permission levels to the Portal. These can be changed in the Access Level Maintenance screen.
New: Allows you to create a new Company from the Company Maintenance screen. This button refreshes the screen by loading a Company with no details and default settings.
Save: Saves the changes you have made to the Company.
Reset: Reverts any changes made to the Company since the last save.
In the final section of this topic we will discuss the setup of a promotional message to be displayed after a Portal User or Member logs into the Portal, before the Company Website is displayed. To create a promotional message for the Company, select the Promo Message link from the Company section of the Site Menu.
For Portal Users with multiple Company access, there is a drop-down list available to select the Company for the promotional message. The Promotion Details text area allows the Portal User to create the message by typing in the box. HTML tags are allowed for formatting the text. The Clear button will remove the message and the Update button will save the message to the Portal. Anyone logging into the Portal for the selected Company will see the message for about five seconds then will be redirected to the Company website as entered in the Company Maintenance Defaults screen.
In this topic we have discussed the setup of the Company in the Portal. We started by looking at the overall corporate structure in the Portal and then described how to view the current Companies. We investigated how to create and manage a Company's details in the Company Maintenance screen. Finally we discussed how a promotional message can be used to welcome Portal Users and Members after they login to the Portal.