Territory

Territory

What is territory management?

Territory management is a system of account sharing which gives users access to accounts based on the characteristics of the latter, not on ownership. For example, their geographical location, product line or operational division.

It is put in place when the record sharing system based on ownership does not fit the business model.

This is particularly true if your organisation has a private sharing model, in which case you may have to authorise users to access accounts based on criteria such as postcodes, business sector or turnover, or a custom field that is relevant to your business.

You may also need to generate forecasts for these different account categories. Territory management addresses these business needs and is an efficient solution to organise your users and accounts, as well as related contacts, opportunities and requests.

What is a territory?

A territory is a flexible collection of accounts and users in which users have access to accounts, at least as read-only, no matter who the owner is. When users configure the settings of a territory, they are authorised to access the associated accounts as read-only, read/write or managers; in the last case, they can view, modify, transfer or delete recordings. Accounts and users may be in more than one territory at a time.

What is a territory hierarchy?

Territories belong to a hierarchy which can be configured with as many embedded levels as you wish. Territory hierarchies do not necessarily have to be based on geographical elements.

Example: It is possible to manage commercial zones so as to give users access to some Europe, Middle-East and Africa accounts of the EMEA parent territory, or to give users access to accounts in the technology and consulting business area of the tertiary sector parent territory.

Note: territory management does not replace the ownership-based sharing system: it complements it. Therefore, it can mean having one more tool to maintain.