The generic Order business object contains information that supports the order generation and change order business processes. Its attributes contain such information as the customer on whom the order is drawn and the external and internal contacts (including the employee who took the order). In addition, it contains information about the individual line items.
The customer referenced at the Order header level is always a Sold-to customer. Other customers (such as the Bill-to or Ship-to customers) referenced by the header or individual line items are associated with the header's Sold-to customer.
An Order can and must reference a single Sold-to customer. IBM assumes that, although the Order business object can support multiple customer roles, only one role of each type (such as Bill-to and Ship-to) is referenced on an Order header and Order line.
The generic Order business object contains pricing elements that are stored at the header and line item level in separate account attributes, such as for payment terms, payment information, price list, adjustments (such as discounts, surcharge, freight, and taxes), and net value.
Order does not handle Service billing issues that pertain to Service Orders. Nor does Order break out a Bill of Material's (BOM's) line items into component levels. For example, if the Order for a BOM represents a computer for $5000, the business object does not contain prices for individual components, such as the CPU and monitor.
The Order business object does not provide a way to convert the unit of measure, currency on unit price, or unit rate between an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application and a Customer Interaction Management (CIM) application.
Order is a hierarchical business object that has a header and line items.Figure 1 illustrates the generic Order business object hierarchy.
Figure 1. Generic Order business object hierarchy
In addition to containing information on the customer and contacts associated with the order, the Order header business object contains such information as the order's number, date, and status, the freight terms, billing schedule, and the order's net value. The Order header business object references the following child business objects:
Child business object | Description | Cardinality |
---|---|---|
Address | Contains address data of the Sold-to customer. This business object contains values only if the customer's address for the order differs from the address linked to the customer in the destination application. For example, if the address is being changed for this particular order but not for the customer's stored record, Address will contain values. | 1 |
Adjustment | Contains such information about price adjustments as type (for example, discount, surcharge, freight, taxes), rate, and calculation type (percentage, quantity-based, fixed). It does not contain price information. | n |
CustomerRole | Contains information about the subordinate customers (for example, Bill-to and Ship-to) associated with the order. This business object provides a link to each role's address by referencing the Address business object. | n |
DocumentReference | Contains the number and type of a reference document, such as a contract. | n |
ContactRef | Contains the type, identifier, and category (such as internal and external contacts) of the contact. | n |
OrderLineItem | Contains information about individual line items in the Order | n |
PaymentInformation | Contains such information as the type and amount of payment, the number of the check or credit card, and the credit card's expiration date. Multiple payment methods for a single Customer, such as charging the order to more than one credit card, are represented in separate PaymentInformation business objects. | n |
The generic OrderLineItem business object contains such information as line number on the Order, the identifiers of the Item being order and the price list, the net and gross prices for the line item, the status of the line item, the quantity of items ordered, delivery and shipping information, and payment and freight terms. OrderLineItem references the following generic child business objects:
Child business object | Description | Cardinality |
---|---|---|
Adjustment | Contains such information about price adjustments as type (for example, discount, surcharge, freight, taxes), rate, and calculation type (percentage, quantity-based, fixed). It does not contain price information. | n |
CharacteristicRef | Contains classification data about an Item, such as those aspects of the Item that are configurable (color, fabric, grade). | n |
ContactRef | Contains the type, identifier, and category (such as internal and external contacts) of the contact. | n |
CustomerRole | Contains information about the subordinate customers (for example, Bill-to and Ship-to) associated with the order. This business object provides a link to each role's address by referencing the Address business object. | n |
DeliverySchedule | Contains such delivery information as the scheduled date, time, and quantity, as well as the actual shipping date and quantity shipped. Multiple delivery dates for a single Item are represented in separate DeliverySchedule business objects. | n |
ShippedProductRef | Contains such information about installed products as their serial numbers and the location. | n |
The generic CustomerRole business object references the Address child business object.
The generic Order business object supports the following verbs:
For a listing of the generic Order business object's attributes, use System Manager or Process Designer Express.