Companies

Definition

A company is an attribute in a user’s profile. Every user belongs to one company only.

A company is not the same thing as a user group. However, for each company, UME automatically generates a corresponding company group.

Use

Companies enable collaboration scenarios where users from more than one company work together or access a common portal. They can also be used to define sets of users, thus providing a form of delegated administration. Companies also allow for self-registration with an approval workflow.

See also:

·        Companies and Self-Registration with Approval

·        Delegated User Administration Using Companies

Integration

By default, companies are not activated. You activate them by setting UME Properties. When you activate companies, a group is automatically created for each company.

There are two options for defining which companies are available for users:

·        You can retrieve the company information from a backend system using a custom implementation of the Trading Partner Directory interface. For more information, see Using a Trading Partner Directory Implementation for Companies.

·        For scenarios with a small number of companies, you can configure none, one or more companies in the property ume.tpd.companies in UME properties. Using this option, you have the following scenarios:

¡        No companies: All users do not belong to any company. Self registration is available, but there is no approval process. Used for compatibility with SAP Enterprise Portal 5.0. (ume.tpd.companies=0)

¡        One company and guest users: Allows for self registration and approval process. All approved users belong to the same company. Guest users are users who do not belong to the company or are awaiting approval. (ume.tpd.companies=1)

¡        Two or more companies and guest users: Allows for self registration and approval process. All approved users belong to a company. Guest users are users who do not belong to a company or are awaiting approval. This scenario can be used to allow external users, such as suppliers, limited access. (ume.tpd.companies=2or ume.tpd.companies=<list_of_companies>)

For more information on the UME properties required for companies, see UME Properties ® Companies.