CHAPTER2People and Organizations
The most frequent business information need is to ask questions about people and organizations and to be able to rely on accurate answers to these questions. For instance:
- What are the attributes or characteristics of the people and organizations that are involved in the course of conducting business?
- What relationships exist between various people, between various organizations, and between people and organizations?
- What are the addresses, phone numbers, and other contact mechanisms of people and organizations, and how can they be contacted?
- What types of communication or contacts have occurred between various parties, and what is necessary to effectively follow up on these communications?
Almost all business applications track information about people and organizations, recording information about customers, suppliers, subsidiaries, departments, employees, and contractors redundantly in many different systems. For this reason, it is very difficult to keep key information such as client contact data consistent and accurate. Examples of applications that store information about people and organizations include sales, marketing, purchasing, order entry, invoicing, project management, and accounting.
The data model within this chapter can be used for most organizations and applications. Subsequent chapters use this data model as a basis on which to add more detail. This chapter includes data models on the following:
- Organization
- Person (alternate ...
