So, last two data types that we have seen in plan and storage locations are largely responsible for the storage and movement of goods. In order for fulfillment process to be executed, we would also need data types to record the entities and also the transactions related to sales. At the very top, we have the sales organization to which companies could be using that to summarize sales data. At the very broad level, sales organization is responsible for the sales and distribution of goods for specific geographical areas. The more specific detail, sales organizations are responsible for the negotiation of terms and conditions of a sale. At the same time, they're responsible in handling customer requests in times recourses when there are cases of dispute. So, as you could see from this picture over here, the US company has broken itself into two separate sales organizations, East and West, whereas on the German side, there is a slit between Northern and Southern parts of Germany. So, a question here to you, why is there a need to have different regions in which the sales organization operates? Do SAP allows a company to have one single sales organization? Why is it beneficial sometimes to have two or even more than two? So, reason behind that is because there are regional differences in the way how businesses operates and how there are regional customs as well. For instance, in the US, there could be very different sales tax related to the East Coast and the West Coast. At the same time, customers could have very different preferences in terms of shipping. So, by splitting these sales organizations into the East and West, the company would be able to better serve its customers by detailing what are the specific conditions in which certain sales have to be executed. Moving on, we have the concept of distribution channel. Distribution channels are nothing more than the way in which companies delivers its goods to the customers. Although there are various types of ways in which companies could distribute goods to their clients and customers, there are three main ways that we see very often in SAP. First, being the wholesale way of distributing, second is retail, and then finally is Internet. So, what we know in the wholesale side of things is that companies that distribute goods in a wholesale fashion tend to do it in bulk and these goods are usually priced at a lower level. Retail has sort of smaller constraints to which how much goods can be stored. As a result, they usually have lower quantities compared to wholesale. Also, to make the business of selling in a retail setting more efficient, they have to have higher mark-ups. As a result of that, retail side would have a higher prices. On the Internet side of distributing goods to customers, we have to consider the fact that customers are not constrained to a specific geographical location, they can be placing orders from all over the world, and as a result, the Internet distribution channel has to take care of the fact of delivery times to different parts of the world and at the same time, shipping costs. So, users in defining the distribution channel gets to define things like, what is the minimum order quantity, and also the pricing that is associated with each of these distribution channel. Let me give you a quick example of how this plays out in actual enterprise. Using the same example that we see in Apple and the sales of iPhones, we could easily see how each of these three different distribution channels span out in this example. So, Apple was known to partner with third-party partners such as Best Buy, telco companies such as AT&T to sell their phones, and that is categorized as the wholesale distribution channel. At the same time, because Apple wants to enhance customers' experience with their products, they have also bought locations and set up Apple Stores in different cities. So, that will be falling under the retail side of distribution for Apple, and finally, the Apple iPhone is available for purchase online on the very website, and that belongs to the Internet channel of distribution. Division is simply these product line that is sold by the company. In the case of Apple, we see that they have three or more different kinds of products that they sell to customers. Product Line one could be iPhones, Product Line two could be iPads, and then Product Line three could be the Macintosh computers that they sell. The final concept that I would like you to learn in organizational data is that of the sales area. The sales area is a unique combination of the sales organization, distribution channel, and division. So, on this chart over here, I've highlighted in yellow on the left side a unique sales area, which represents a sales for tables made by the US Eastern's sales organization through the wholesale distribution channel. Another example that we could look at is on this next slide where I've highlighted on the right side of the picture in yellow. This is another unique sales area that indicates the sales were bed, made by the US Western sales organization through the Internet distribution channel. So, here's a question to you that you'll be considering for your assignment for this session. Why is it that companies want to have different sales area, and why is it that SAP made it such a way that companies could do this? So, the answer is very similar to what we have talked about before with regards to the benefits of having different geographical areas for sales organization, and I'll leave you to think about that in more depth. The final thing that I want to mention related to different data types is the interrelationships that different data could have. Based on what we have seen earlier on sales organization, distribution channel, and division, we need to note that multiple sales organizations can be using the sand distribution channel. At the same time, multiple channels can be selling the same material from a division. So, because of that, we see two distinct relationships that operates in SAP. A quick way to remember this is to think about first, going from top to bottom, we would always have a one to many relationship, and if we were to go from bottom to up, we would always have a one-to-one relationship between these different data.
