About Companies

These are the companies that have a business relationship with your organization, but which are not departments or subsidiaries of your organization. It is not necessary for all of these companies to be currently involved in a workspace.

You define these companies in the Vendor Companies register in the Organization work area.

These are all the companies within your organization. This includes the overall parent company, plus divisions, departments, and subsidiaries. It is not necessary for all org companies to be currently involved in a workspace. These companies are sometimes known as "internal companies," to differentiate them from company documents.

You define org companies in the Org Companies register in the Organization work area.

Note: When org companies are exported to a workspace or portfolio, they appear as Company documents.

Business units are groups of people in your organization who possess the expertise required to complete a number of related, cross-organizational activities. The people in a business unit can come from any of your company's organization companies. As a result, a business unit might be associated with multiple locations. It is not necessary for all business units to be currently active in a workspace.

Note that unlike other companies, business units have only two reference document types: Staff and Locations.

You define business units in the Business Units register in the Organization work area.

Note: When business units are exported to a workspace or portfolio, they appear as Company documents.

When you first create a vendor company, org company or business unit, it is initially only available within the Organization work area. If a company becomes involved in a workspace, or in maintaining a portfolio, you can then add it to that workspace, or portfolio. After adding the company, a link is maintained between company information in the Organization work area and the workspaces and portfolios. If you need to update information for that company later on, you need only enter it once in the appropriate document in the Organization work area, and then synchronize it to all workspaces and portfolios in which the company has been added.

Note: New companies can only be created from the Organization work area and only certain workspace specific fields can be modified in companies added to other work areas. For more information, see "Editing Company Information".