Published at: 2026-10-12
Core terms and capability map
Understand company relationships, account identities, and management responsibilities in External business.
Company connections and provisioning
Upstream company
The company that opens apps and business capabilities to partners. It typically purchases External quotas. Examples include a manufacturer offering dealer ordering and headquarters offering subsidiary collaboration.
The upstream company can create External Organizations and External Users. When partners need independent systems, it can provision downstream ShareCRM tenants and initialize members using purchased quotas. Partners with existing ShareCRM tenants can request an Interconnection using an upstream invitation code.
Downstream company (partner)
A company that does business with the upstream company and participates in its open business capabilities. Examples include dealers, agents, service providers, subsidiaries, and stores. “Downstream” describes the External business relationship, not only a purchasing or sales position in a supply chain.
A downstream company can use upstream External Apps without an independent ShareCRM tenant. Alternatively, it can operate an independent tenant while participating in upstream business. Existing tenants generally do not need to purchase connection quotas themselves. They enter the upstream invitation code and establish the relationship after upstream approval.
Invitation code
A company connection verification code supplied by a paying company. A partner with an existing ShareCRM tenant enters the code to request an Interconnection with that company.
The code establishes the connection between companies. After approval, you still create External Users and assign External Roles for authorized business access. An invitation code does not replace user accounts or app authorization.
External quota
Purchased license resources for company connections, External Users, or downstream tenant provisioning. Different quotas count different resources; they do not all represent the number of partners you can connect.
| Quota Type | Business context and counted resource |
|---|---|
| 1+N connected companies | Each External Organization with an independent downstream tenant consumes one connected-company quota |
| Channel users | Each External User accessing upstream apps without a downstream tenant consumes one channel-user quota |
| Terminal users | External business for end users, primarily ShareService end-user scenarios |
| Downstream quota package | Determines the CRM edition and user count when provisioning an independent downstream tenant; one upstream company must select the same downstream quota product |
Nonpaying companies without External quotas can also request connections using a paying company’s invitation code. If company A enters company B’s code, the connection consumes B’s quota, not A’s. Separately check applicable quotas for independent downstream tenants and account types.
Organization and accounts
External Organization
A downstream company record managed by the upstream company. It represents partners with organizations and members, such as dealers, agents, and service providers. Enterprise-type External Users generally belong to an External Organization.
An External Organization can link to upstream account or partner data and establish account relationships with associated contacts. Creating one does not necessarily provision a downstream tenant. Without a tenant, the downstream company uses upstream apps. With a tenant, it is both an upstream-managed External Organization and an independently operated ShareCRM tenant.
External User
The login account and business identity used by downstream personnel, maintained through upstream External User management. Its type determines applicable company relationships and business apps.
- Enterprise-type External User: Belongs to an External Organization and typically represents a dealer, agent, or service provider employee. Creation associates the organization and Contact and sets applicable roles.
- Personal-type External User: Does not associate with an External Organization and supports individual retailers, consumers, and other end-user business scenarios. Self-Registration creates these accounts; you do not create them manually.
Downstream companies without tenants have only External User identities. Those with tenants have both employee identities in their own tenants and external identities for upstream business, with mappings between them. Their own tenant operations and upstream External Apps represent separate business contexts.
Account maintenance for downstream tenants supports enterprise-managed and Self-Management modes. In enterprise-managed mode, the upstream company can edit External User names and roles. In Self-Management mode, the downstream company maintains its personnel; the upstream company only edits corresponding External Roles.
Primary owner
The External User with primary management responsibility in an External Organization. Each organization has only one. The primary owner has data permission for other External Users in the same organization. They can manage users and roles through enabled user-management entry points.
When you create an External Organization and provision its downstream tenant, the primary owner is usually also its system administrator. These people can differ if the downstream company appoints another system administrator. They manage the External Organization and downstream tenant respectively, and are not equivalent roles.
Manager
An External User management attribute granting data permissions for other users in the same External Organization. It can apply to downstream Business Owners. An organization can have multiple managers.
Primary owners and managers define user management scope within a company. Actual app data visibility also depends on app, object, and external data permissions.
External Organization related team
The upstream internal employees responsible for working with a downstream company. It replaces the former “Our contacts” business relationship and identifies employees who can collaborate with downstream users.
Related-team members are upstream internal employees. External Users in the organization are downstream business identities. They represent opposite sides of the collaboration, not one user group.
External Department (external Org Structure)
An object that represents the downstream company’s internal hierarchy and divides external data range. Enable External Departments for larger downstream companies that need departmental data permissions and a more detailed external Org Structure.
External Departments have three Record Types: Enterprise, Organization, and Department. Creating an External Organization automatically generates an Enterprise record; you cannot create this type manually. Organization records become available after upstream Multi-Org is enabled. Organization and Department parents must belong to the same External Organization. Enterprise records can use departments of other External Organizations as their parents.
External Users can have Primary External Departments and Secondary External Departments. The enterprise primary owner is the Owner of its Enterprise-type department; managers are assistants. Owners and assistants have department data permissions, and parent departments can view child scopes. External Departments are generally available.
Enterprise group
A group of External Organizations organized by business dimensions such as region or product line. You can select a group of companies as a Batch for data synchronization or sharing.
The system can Auto-Generate standard groups from associated accounts’ or partners’ Record Types. You cannot maintain standard groups manually. You can add or remove External Organizations in custom groups. Group members are External Organizations, not original account or partner records.
Template company
A source company prepared by the upstream company for bulk provisioning and maintenance of independent downstream tenants, mainly for 1+N business scenarios. New downstream tenants copy its configuration, reducing individual implementation work.
New tenants require successful provisioning and configuration copying before normal use. Use external change sets from template companies to distribute configuration updates to existing downstream tenants. Template companies support tenant initialization and maintenance; they are different from portal page templates.
Management responsibilities and authorization
External Administrator
An employee role with the highest management permissions for the External Platform. You can manage partners, External Users, app management settings, and External App usage permissions.
The ShareCRM system administrator initially holds this role and can appoint other employees through permission management. The responsibilities differ: External Administrators manage cross-company connections and business; system administrators manage their own tenants. One person can hold both roles, or different people can hold them.
External App administrator
A management role responsible for a specific External App’s configuration and operations. Responsibilities depend on the app. Partner Academy administrators manage channels, materials, and courses; ordering administrators maintain ordering configuration.
Paying companies can manage administrators and configuration for provisioned External Apps. Nonpaying companies see only upstream-opened apps and can set internal app usage permissions. Appointment entry points differ by app; do not assume all appointments occur in one External administration page. For example, ShareOrder administrators default to CRM administrators and are configured in system permission management.
External Role
A business authorization role assigned to External Users. It defines available External Apps and object function and field permissions. Users assigned an ordering role can perform ordering operations within that role’s authorized scope.
Role assignment manages which users have a role. Permission settings manage available apps and functions. Enterprise users and personal users have applicable base roles. Standard business roles apply only to External Apps of the same type.
External App
An app supporting specific upstream and downstream business. SharePartner supports presales account development; ShareOrder and ShareCRM FMCG support sales; ShareService supports aftersales collaboration. External Chats and Partner Academy support communication and training.
App content can include business objects, basic data permissions, data sharing, and Web and Mobile Client views. Operations and visible data remain subject to authorization. Connecting the platform does not open all business data.
External Settings
The common configuration module for basic information, quotas, Business Plugins, security, and registration. Operation records let you trace external account management actions.
These settings support subsequent connections, account creation, and app access. Dedicated registration parameters for an app or site take priority; applicable Setup configuration provides the fallback.
Configuration capability map
| Function | Management scope | Article |
|---|---|---|
| External Settings | Basic Settings, security, registration, and operation records | External Settings |
| Companies, organization, and accounts | External Organizations, departments, users, roles, and related teams | Manage External Organizations, External Departments, External Users, and External Roles |
| External Apps | App administrators, initialization entry points, and business object and permission configuration | External App Initialization and configuration |
| Partner Portal | Homepage, login page, menus, and Web and mobile pages | Configure Partner Portals |
| Site management | Domains, materials, site pages, and publishing | Manage sites |
| WeChat ecosystem | Service accounts, Mini Programs, and business access | Configure WeChat channels |
| Data synchronization | Object data synchronization between independent upstream and downstream tenants | Standalone app; configuration procedures are outside this manual |
Apps and terminals
| External App | Business purpose | Available terminals |
|---|---|---|
| External Chats | View the external Directory and start chats | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client |
| Partner Academy | Downstream course learning and training operations | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client |
| ShareOrder | Product browsing and ordering | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client, WeChat Mini Program, WeChat Service Account |
| SharePartner | Lead and account registration and follow-up | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client, WeChat Mini Program, WeChat Service Account |
| ShareService | Partner service collaboration | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client, WeChat Mini Program, WeChat Service Account |
| ShareCRM FMCG | FMCG External business | Web, ShareCRM App, desktop client, WeChat Mini Program, WeChat Service Account |
Actual entry points depend on purchased apps, authorization, and channel configuration. Announcements and Drive are discontinued and excluded from the current app list. AI Open Platform documentation covers CLI, MCP, and robot integration.
Permission relationships
External Roles control available apps, object operations, and field permissions. Visible data also depends on object basic data permissions, external related teams, external sharing, and external organization scope. Site Applicable Scope further restricts entry to specified External Roles.
For example, a dealer who can enter an ordering app still needs corresponding object permissions and data scope to use its business capabilities. Primary ownership, manager status, or portal access does not replace all app business authorization.