Enterprise

An Enterprise represents the organization that owns and controls all transactions in Sterling Order Management System.

An Enterprise in Sterling Order Management System controls the flow of documents (such as a sales order) and is considered the owner of the document. Most business rules and fulfillment processes for an order is defined by the enterprise. On a sales order, the Enterprise is also assigned the role of the Seller organization in most cases. Similarly, for purchase orders, an Enterprise is also assigned the role of the Buyer organization in most cases. In some cases, if a higher level organizational unit wants to control and enforce business rules or document flow of all its subsidiaries, that organizational unit is assigned an Enterprise role and its subsidiary organizations are assigned Seller and Buyer roles.

Even though most business rules are controlled by the Enterprise, pricing rules are always controlled by the seller organization in both sales and purchase situations.

In an organization hierarchy, multiple organizations can be designated as an Enterprise. However, every organization in the organizational structure needs to either be defined as an Enterprise or have an organization designated as its primary Enterprise. This is necessary so that at all times Sterling Order Management System can clearly identify the set of rules to be applied to this organization. (Even though this primary Enterprise relationship is established, an organization can participate with another Enterprises on an individual transaction basis).

Every transactional document (order, shipment, load) in Sterling Order Management System requires a designated Enterprise.