Clients and Vendors and Companies

In Vision, clients and vendors are in separate Info Centers. In the Business Development workspace, they are both just "companies" and, for the most part, are treated the same.

The differences between client and vendor records in Vision, however, result in some cases in which the two types of records are handled somewhat differently in Business Development.

Adding and Editing Companies

With the necessary role security, you can display both clients and vendors in the Companies area of Business Development, and you can edit or delete both types of records. However, when you add a new company in Business Development, it is always added as a new record in the Client Info Center in Vision.

If you add a company in Business Development and you want a linked vendor record for that client, you must use Vision to add it and link the two.

Searching for and Selecting Companies

In the company search list in the Companies area of Business Development and in most cases when you select companies elsewhere in Business Development, the list from which you select includes both clients and subconsultants. However, some special cases exist:

• If a vendor record is linked to a client record in Vision, the assumption is that they are the same company, and only the client displays in the list.
• The lookup list for the Primary Client field in the Opportunities area does not include any vendors.
• The lookup list in the Companies grid on the Associations tab in the Companies area does not include any vendors because only client-to-client associations are supported in Vision. (If the selected company is a vendor, the Companies grid on the Associations tab is hidden.)
• The lookup list in the Competitors grid on the Competition tab in the Opportunities area does not include any vendors, to match the corresponding lookup in Vision.

Workflows

If you set up a workflow in Vision that is initiated when you edit a client, that workflow is also initiated when you edit a client in Business Development. The same is true for workflows initiated by editing vendor records. If you want the same workflow to be initiated for both clients and vendors when you edit them in Business Development, you must set up two identical workflows, one for clients and one for vendors.

User-Defined Components

If user-defined fields, grids, and tabs are not implemented the same in the Vendor Info Center and Client Info Center, that could result in corresponding differences in Business Development, depending on whether the company is a client or vendor.

Drop-Down Lists

Drop-down lists related to companies, such as those for Role on the Team tab in the Opportunities area could contain different values depending on whether the company is a client or vendor.

Companies Report

If a vendor record is linked to a client record in Vision, the assumption is that they are the same company, and only the client displays on the report and in report filter lists. Vendor records that have no associated client record do appear on the report.

If you select the Mine filter for the report, the report only displays companies with which you are associated as a team member. In that case, the report includes only clients because you cannot associate employees with vendors in either Vision or iAccess.

When you apply a custom filter to the report, you have the option to select one or more company types that you want to include. If you select Client, Competitor, or Government Agency, the report includes clients for which the corresponding check box is selected on the Add/Edit Company form. If you select Vendor, the report includes both clients for which that check box is selected and vendors that have no associated client record.

The columns available for the report include both standard fields and user-defined fields that are used in the corresponding Business Development area. Note, however, that user-defined fields set up for the Vendor Info Center in Vision are not currently available for this report.

Fields that exist in both the Vendor Info Center and the Client Info Center only appear once in the column selection list. Fields that exist in one of those Info Centers but not the other are also available for selection. Be aware, however, that those columns on the report will always be blank for companies from the Info Center in which the field does not exist.

Security

Access to vendors and clients is controlled by security role access established in Vision. If a user's access rights for these two types of records are not the same, their ability to work with companies in Business Development can vary from company to company.

Screen Designer Settings

If Screen Designer labels and the Required, Locked, and Hidden settings are not implemented the same in the Vendor Info Center and Client Info Center, that could result in corresponding differences in Business Development, depending on whether the company is a client or vendor.

Also, the Companies grid on the Team tab in the Opportunities area of Business Development can contain both clients and vendors, but those are separate grids in Vision. Because of that, iAccess ignores Screen Designer properties for the Subconsultants grid in Vision and applies only the properties from the Clients grid to the Companies grid in Business Development.

Features Not Available for Vendors

When you display or edit a vendor company in Business Development, the following are not available because they are not supported in the Vendor Info Center in Vision:

• Description field
• Relationship field
• Companies grid on the Associations tab
• Team tab

In addition, if you are using version 7.4 of Vision and you assign an image to a company in Business Development that is set up as a vendor in Vision, the image does not display if you view the company in the Vendor Info Center in Vision.

Contacts

Both client and vendor contacts are available in the Contacts area of Business Development.