--- sourceDocument: Australia Customer Relationship Management sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/customer-relationship-management Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia Customer Relationship Management ft:clusterId : - crm bundleId : - crm workflow : - CRMI --- # Data management # Data management {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Australia * * Updated April 28, 2026 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 5 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Data management The ServiceNow CRM portfolio is built on a unified data foundation that standardizes customer records, product information, user roles, and service structures across multiple CRM products such as Customer Service Management (CSM), Field Service Management (FSM), Sales CRM, and industry solutions. This shared foundation ensures consistent, synchronized data usage across teams, eliminating duplication and manual updates. Show full answer Show less The CRM data management layer models the entire customer service value chain, including companies offering products and services, their service organizations, employees, products, and customers. Each CRM data domain corresponds to one of these key entities, supporting comprehensive customer service operations. ## Customer Service Business Models The data foundation supports various CRM business models that define how customer data is structured and service is delivered: * **B2B (Business-to-Business):** Organizes data around accounts and contacts, enabling support for customer relationships and account teams. * **B2C (Business-to-Consumer):** Focuses on consumers and households as customer entities. * **B2B2C (Business-to-Business-to-Consumer):** Supports multi-level relationships where business customers serve end consumers, combining accounts, contacts, and consumers. * **B2B2E (Business-to-Business-to-Employee):** Enables companies to deliver products or services to another business, which then serves its employees. The Service Model Foundation (SMF) framework extends these models by introducing service organizations, business locations, and location-based roles to model complex, multi-tier service structures. The contributor user model facilitates collaboration by enabling internal employees outside the front-line teams to participate in case resolution with scoped access and task assignments. ## Customer Data Foundation The customer data foundation in ServiceNow CRM encompasses four critical capabilities: * **Data Models:** Support for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C customer structures, including profiles, addresses, relationships, and roles. * **Customer Access Management:** Provides granular, configurable access controls using responsibilities, the Related Party Framework, and the declarative Responsibility Framework to enable secure, collaborative interactions with customer data. * **Unified Customer Identity:** Supports users with multiple roles or personas (internal and external) through a unified user record, simplifying management of complex user scenarios. * **Customer Data Privacy and Quality:** Ensures compliance with data privacy regulations and maintains accurate, classified customer data. ## Additional Components * **Customer Data:** Management of accounts, contacts, consumers, and households used across CRM workflows. * **User Management:** Organization of internal and external users with role assignments and access controls to CRM features and case data. * **Product Data and Catalog:** Shared views of product models, sold products, install base items, and catalog items that enable self-service and order management. * **Service Model Foundation:** Framework for modeling complex service organizations and locations. * **Partner Relationship Management:** Tools to onboard, manage, and enable channel partners for sales and customer support activities. ## Benefits for ServiceNow Customers By leveraging this comprehensive data management foundation, ServiceNow customers can expect: * A unified and consistent data model that aligns all CRM products and teams, reducing data silos and errors. * Flexible configuration to match their specific business models and customer service structures. * Improved collaboration across internal and external teams through advanced access controls and contributor user participation. * Enhanced data privacy, quality, and compliance capabilities to protect customer information. * Streamlined management of customer, product, and service data to support efficient sales, service, and support operations. The ServiceNow CRM portfolio is built on a shared data foundation. The data models, customer records, product information, user roles, and service structures that underpin CRM are defined once and used across multiple products, including Customer Service Management (CSM), Field Service Management (FSM), Sales CRM, and industry solutions. ## Customer service value chain {#crm-data-management__section_t3k_gxt_y3c} This shared data foundation ensures that every team works from the same information without duplication or manual synchronization. Figure 1. Customer service value chain The CRM data management layer models the complete customer service value chain: * The company that offers products and services. * The service organizations (branches, stores, offices, hospitals) that deliver those services. * The employees and staff who work at those organizations. * The products and services themselves. * The customers who consume them. {#crm-data-management__ul_cq2_pfl_1jc}Every data domain in the CRM portfolio maps to one of these entities.{#crm-data-management__table_xvf_d5t_y3c__entry__2} | Entity | What it represents | |-|-| | Company | The organization building and offering products and services to end customers. This is the provider side of the service relationship: an enterprise, government agency, or other entity. | | Service organizations | Internal or external entities of the company that serve customers directly. Includes branches, stores, franchises, offices, hospitals, and other service locations. | | Employees and staff | People working at the internal and external service organizations: agents, technicians, fulfillers, managers, and specialists who deliver service. | | Products and services | Physical and digital products and services that the company offers. Includes product models, sold products, install base items, contracts, and entitlements. | | Customers | Individuals and organizations external to the company who consume products and services. Includes accounts, contacts, consumers, and households across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C models. | [Table 1. CRM entities] {#crm-data-management__table_xvf_d5t_y3c} ## Customer service business models {#crm-data-management__section_z3k_yng_y3c} The CRM data foundation supports several business models that determine how customer data is organized and how service is delivered. The business model defines which customer entities are used: accounts and contacts for B2B, consumers and households for B2C, or a combination of all entities for B2B2C. The business model also defines how access, relationships, and case routing are configured. Beyond the core business models, the Service Model Foundation (SMF) framework and the contributor user model extend the data foundation to support complex organizational structures and cross-functional service delivery. SMF introduces service organizations, business locations, and location-based roles that provide the flexibility to model multi-tier service structures across industries. The contributor user model enables internal employees outside the front-line service team, such as back-office specialists and middle-office workers, to participate in case resolution through scoped access and task assignment. Figure 2. Customer service business models Together, these models and frameworks give organizations the ability to configure a CRM environment that matches how they sell, service, and support their customers.{#crm-data-management__table_a15_5xt_jnf__entry__2} | Business model | Description | |-|-| | B2B | In the business-to-business (B2B) model, the company provides products and services to other businesses. Customer data is organized around accounts (organizations) and contacts (employees of those accounts). The B2B model also supports customer relationships and account teams. | | B2C | In the business-to-consumer (B2C) model, the company provides products and services directly to individual consumers. Customer data is organized around consumers and households. | | B2B2C | In the business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model, the company supports business customers who, in turn, serve end consumers. Customer data spans accounts, contacts, and account consumers supporting multi-level relationships where a business customer's individual customers also need access to service. | | B2B2E | In the business-to-business-to-employee (B2B2E) model, the company delivers products or services to another business, which then extends these offerings to its employees. The intermediary organization may be involved in procurement, customization, implementation, support, and training for its corporate employees. | | SMF | The SMF framework expands the B2B and B2C models by introducing service organizations, internal and external business locations, households, and the relationships between these entities. SMF provides the core framework, security, and role-based access needed to model complex service structures across industry verticals. | | Contributor users | The contributor user model provides unified customer support for internal and external customers. With this model, organizations can engage middle-office teams to resolve customer issues and requests, enabling employees to request support for themselves and for external customers, enabling service organizations to serve one another, and enabling middle-office agents to work on specific tasks required to resolve a case. | [Table 2. CRM business models] {#crm-data-management__table_a15_5xt_jnf} ## Customer data foundation {#crm-data-management__section_jzm_cyt_y3c} The customer data foundation provides the capabilities for modeling, managing, and maintaining customer data across the CRM portfolio. It covers four areas: the core data model for customers and their relationships, access management that controls who can see and act on customer data, unified identity for users who hold multiple roles, and data privacy and quality tools.{#crm-data-management__table_b5k_2yt_4uf__entry__2} | Capability | What it provides | |-|-| | Data models | Models external customers and their relationships. Supports B2B (accounts and contacts), B2C (consumers and households), and B2B2C (account consumers) structures, along with customer profiles, addresses, relationships, and roles. | | Customer access management | Provides configurable, granular access to CRM data through relationships and related parties, including: * Responsibilities: Named access levels (such as Authorized Representative or Account Manager) that determine what a related party can see and do. * Related Party Framework: Links contacts, consumers or accounts to records (such as cases, sold products, or install base items) as related parties with assigned responsibilities so multiple users can collaborate on the same record with different access levels. * Declarative Responsibility Framework: A low-code/no-code framework for defining responsibility access configurations, reducing the need to write custom ACL scripts. | | Unified customer identity | Models a CRM user with multiple functions or personas, both internal and external. Supports scenarios such as an employee who is also a consumer, or a contact who is also a consumer, through a unified user record. | | Customer data privacy and quality | Manages data privacy compliance and maintains clean, accurate customer data including data classification. | [Table 3. Customer data foundation] {#crm-data-management__table_b5k_2yt_4uf} ## In this section {#crm-data-management__section_qjl_h4g_y3c} [Data models](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/VMSGVHNsRVV7MROg9uz0Ow "The CRM portfolio is built on a layered data architecture where each tier inherits from the one below it. This topic explains the four layers, Now Platform, CRM Foundation, Customer Workflows, and Industry Workflows, and the objects that connect them. Understanding this architecture is essential for configuring, extending, and troubleshooting CRM implementations.") : Understand the layered data architecture underpinning the CRM portfolio, including how the Now Platform, CRM Foundation, Customer Workflows (Sales CRM, CSM, FSM), and Industry Workflows relate to each other. [Customer data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/6o9POGuoYRUaaB0xS~YLvw "Configure and manage the core customer records, accounts, contacts, consumers, households, and billing accounts, that agents, sales teams, and technicians rely on across the CRM portfolio. Because customer data is shared across all CRM products, a record created in one context is immediately available in another without duplication or manual transfer.") : Configure and manage accounts, contacts, consumers, and households, the core customer records that agents, sales teams, and technicians rely on across the CRM portfolio. [User management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/G7iDRhqxi5sDbywSwWuvCA "Configure internal and external users, assign roles and group memberships, and control access to CRM features and case data. Establish the user structures that support case routing, team collaboration, and portal access across the CRM portfolio.") : Define and organize internal and external users, assign roles and group memberships, and control access to CRM features and case data [Product data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/b5bzN_San5g1pD24Ed3dpw "Product data in the CRM portfolio gives agents, customers, and sales teams a shared view of what has been sold, how it has been deployed, and what service coverage applies.") : Understand how product models, sold products, install base items, and installed products give agents and customers a shared view of what has been purchased and how it is deployed. [Product catalog](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/fi5LPUHVvkYr3hb9F4ftKA "A product catalog defines the products and services that your organization sells and supports.") : Understand how products and services are defined in the catalog and how catalog items connect to product models to enable self-service requests and order management. [Service Model Foundation](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/AHmR4D1RrS2GYaSj6zsGvg "The Service Model Foundation (SMF) framework enables you to model your business organization structure, customer organizations, and the relationships between them.") : Understand the framework that models service organizations, internal and external business locations, and the relationships between them. [Partner relationship management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/0Msc1vVgIMEG_KY_3bx4Sw "Partner Relationship Management (PRM) enables enterprises to onboard channel partners, manage ongoing partner relationships, and collaborate with partners on sales opportunities, orders, and quotes.") : Understand how channel partners are onboarded, managed, and enabled to sell and support customers through partner programs, deal registration, and the partner workspace.