Company fields on Business Application

[MEBoatman]

There are 4 OOB fields on Business Application (cmdb_ci_business_app) that reference the Company table (cmdb_ci_business_app):

1. Company [company]
2. Manufacturer [manufacturer]
3. Support vendor [support_vendor]
4. Vendor [vendor]

We worked with a vendor to implement Enterprise Architecture (well it was APM back then). Here's what I have found:

• We are using Manufacturer, Support vendor, and Vendor.
• We are not using Company at all.
• There are no conditions on Manufacturer - we can select any Company record for this field.
• There ARE conditions on Support vendor and Vendor. The "Vendor" field on the Company record must be true in order to be able to select a company for these fields.

I have a few questions related to this:

1. Are others using the Company field? If so...what for?
2. Is it "normal" to have no conditions on Manufacturer but to have conditions on Support vendor and Vendor?

[pavani_paluri]

Hi @MEBoatman ,

From my experience, the 4 fields on Business Application that point to the Company table:
Company -- usually meant for the internal company or department that owns the app. Many people don’t use it if they already track ownership elsewhere.
Manufacturer -- the maker of the app (like Microsoft, Oracle, or even an internal dev team). No restrictions here. You can pick any company record.
Support vendor -- the company that supports/maintains the app. Only companies flagged as “Vendor = true” can be chosen.
Vendor -- the company that sells/provides the app. Same restriction. Must be marked as a vendor.

Not using Company: very common. Lots of orgs ignore it or repurpose it.
Manufacturer unrestricted:  normal, because not all manufacturers are vendors.
Support vendor & Vendor restricted: also normal, because those fields imply a contractual vendor relationship.

Mark it helpful if this helps you to understand. Accept solution if this give you the answer you're looking for

Kind Regards,

Pavani P

[MEBoatman]

Thanks Pavani. This is helpful! There is a field on Company called "Manufacturer" that seems like it can/should be used to restrict what records can be selected for the Manufacturer field. I'm not sure why ServiceNow would have this field out there but not use it...