A hierarchy is a collection of parties associated with a particular hierarchical relationship type at a given point in time. The hierarchy is a tree structure that shows relationships by organizing parties in hierarchical levels. For example, you can get a visual representation of a corporate structure. See: Relationships Overview.
In Oracle Customers Online, you can view and manage hierarchies for existing organizations and persons. To start, you search for the hierarchies you want to manage, or to make sure that the hierarchy you want to create does not already exist. You can search by:
Party Name or Registry ID: The organization or person in any level of the hierarchy.
Hierarchy Type: The hierarchical relationship type of the hierarchy.
The search results display hierarchies that include the party you searched for. You can:
Create a hierarchy after you verify that it does not already exist. See: Creating Hierarchies.
View and manage a specific hierarchy, including relationships within the hierarchy. See: Viewing and Updating Hierarchies.
The Hierarchies page also provides the same Recent Items bin from the Home page. See: Recent Items.
The relationships in hierarchies are the same as ones in the contact and Other relationships features. To create relationships with new persons or organizations, you must use those features. Hierarchies involve only existing parties. See: Contact Relationships and Other Relationships.
If D&B data was batch loaded or the Enterprise Management GDP acquired through online purchase, you can also access the corporate hierarchy that D&B provides. Use the D&B Hierarchy relationship type. See: D&B Hierarchy.
All OCO hierarchy features also apply to the D&B Hierarchy. You should make a copy of the original D&B Hierarchy as provided by D&B. See: Copying Hierarchies. The copied hierarchy would have a different relationship type, and you can make changes to it without modifying the original.