Levels in the hierarchy
Systems, organizations, and sites form a hierarchy that guides how you use and configure the product to fit your organization. When you create an organization, you create at least one site.
Applications store data at different levels in a multiple site
implementation. The following definitions describe the types of levels
that can occur in an implementation with more than one site:
- System level
- A system is a single instance of a database. A single system can contain one or more sets, organizations, and sites.
- Set
- Sets exist in between the system level and the organization level. This configuration enables multiple organizations to share company and item data. Each organization can have only one company set and one item set. Each set can be shared by more than one organization.
- Organization
- An organization identifies a unique legal entity. A corporation can have different organizations for different companies. A corporation can also group the facilities that exist in a continent or country into an organization. There can be many organizations in a single database.
- Site
- A site identifies a work location, such as a plant or a facility. A site is a division within an organization that maintains certain data independently from other sites. You can also use sites to administer security, and give users different rights at different sites.
Example of a utility company
A utility company owns several power plants, three water treatment plants, and two water distribution systems
- System-level refers to the entire utility company.
- The organizations of the company are grouped into power plants, water treatment, and water distribution facilities.
- Each organization has several sites that track inventory separately. The sites are the individual power plants, the treatment plants, and the water distribution systems.
The following figure shows a sample hierarchy of systems, organizations, and sites at a utility company.
