The most common Company Types are custom types that correspond to an organization's Company Membership Types. Once the organization's membership structure has been defined, a Super Admin adds a set of Company Types and a set of Company Membership Types that reflect this structure. Each Company Membership Type is associated with one or more Company Types so that the Company Types are automatically assigned to a company when it acquires a certain type of membership. To make it easy to search for companies by membership type, most organizations create a Company Type for each Company Membership Type and assign the same name (or similar names) to both. For example, a 'Board' Company Membership Type and a 'Board' Company Type.

Depending on the membership structure, there may be a one-to-one correspondence between these types (so that every Company Membership Type has a single corresponding Company Type), or a single Company Type may correspond to multiple Company Membership Types or several Company Types may be assigned through a single Company Membership Type. Whatever the ratio of correspondence, it is important that at least one of the Company Types has a name that is instantly recognizable when searching for companies with a given Membership Type in searches.

Company Types assigned through Company Membership Types are usually associated with roles that confer access privileges, such as the default 'member' role that grants access to Member areas of the site. When a company is assigned a Company Type with roles, its users inherit the roles and access privileges. In organizations that offer memberships to companies, most users acquire their basic access privileges through a Company Type assigned to their company.

These Company Types are assigned to people who represent the organization or belong to staff companies rather than member companies. These Company Types usually confer the 'member' role so users who belong to this company can log into Member areas of the site. They may confer higher level editorial or administrative access, although this is a riskier way to assign high level access than User Types, which can be assigned to individuals selectively. If there are people who work directly for the organization (as opposed to a staffing company), a "company" will have been added to manage these users. A privileged Company Type may be created and assigned to this "company" to grant the organization staff the roles and access permissions they require.

The third kind of Company Type is created to classify and manage subgroups within and without the organization. These types generally do not confer roles. These types may classify users by geographic region, area of interest, or as potential members, etc.

The only default Company Type in Kavi Members is 'Members Area Access', which is associated with the 'member' role. This type is not required by the system but it is installed so that Members Area access can be granted to initial users out-of-the-box, particularly on sites that are launched without membership enabled. These include sites that belong to associations that have no formal memberships as well as nascent organizations still in the process of developing a membership structure that fits their goals and constituency. In the absence of a formal membership structure, this type can be assigned to grant access to Member areas of the site to any company that needs it, including founding member companies, staff and nonmember companies.

Even though this is a default type and cannot be deleted, it is usually renamed so that it seldom appears in the list of available Company Types once the site goes live. To edit this default Company Type, use the Edit a Company Type tool.

Custom types can be added as required and deleted if no longer needed. To add a custom Company Type, use the Add a Company Type tool. Examples of custom Company Types include types that mirror Company Membership Types (e.g., 'Founding', 'Sponsor'), types assigned to nonmembers to indicate which sector of the community they fall into (e.g., 'Adopter', 'Academic'), and general types that may be assigned to members and nonmembers alike to classify them according to geographic area or area of interest (e.g., 'Asia-Pacific Region', 'Electronics').

The most common set of Company Types are types that correspond 1-to-1 with each of the Membership Types and used to classify companies by their membership type. These types must be named after the membership type they represent so they can be instantly recognized in pull-down lists. These types may be used just for classification, or they may confer roles such as the 'member' role that provide access to areas of the site used by members, or they may be used merely to classify and group these members for easy retrieval.

Some organizations assign multiple types through a single membership. These may include types that are created more for the purpose of conferring roles and granting access than for classification. The names of these types usually indicate the kind of access they provide. Unlike types created to classify companies by membership type, which are usually designed to be assigned only through a single membership type, a type created to provide access may be assigned through multiple membership types.

Although it is uncommon, some organizations assign the same classification type through multiple membership types. This is used when the organization offers a series of membership types that are all at the same membership level. For example, the organization might offer different types of 'Affiliate' memberships depending on whether the member is in the business, academic or government sector. The organization might create an 'Affiliate' Company Type to allow these members to be retrieved as a group. Most likely it would also create 'Business Sector', 'Academic Sector' and 'Government Sector' Company Types to allow it to distinguish between these sectors when desired. When you add the 'Affiliate-Business' Company Membership Type, you would select the 'Affiliate' Company Type, plus the 'Business Sector' Company Type. When a company acquired the 'Affiliate-Business' Company Membership Type, they would be assigned both the 'Affiliate' and 'Business Sector' Company Types.

Company Types used to classify companies by their membership type should be named after the membership type they represent so they can be instantly recognized in pull-down lists. For example, a Company Type assigned through a Sponsor Membership should be named 'Sponsor'.

If your organization has multiple membership types at the same general level of membership, such as different types of 'Affiliate' memberships, you may need an 'Affiliate' Company Type to allow these members to be retrieved as a group. You may also need to add Company Types to distinguish the different membership types under the 'Affiliate' umbrella, such as 'Business Sector', 'Academic Sector' and 'Government Sector'.

If your organization has types that confer access that are assigned through more than one membership type, the name and description of the type should focus on what access is provided through the type. For example, the Company Type might be named 'Members Access', and the description say 'Provides access to the Members Area and tools.'

However many Company Types are assigned through a single Company Membership Type, one of these types must confer the 'member' role to grant access to the Members area and tools. Company Types assigned through higher-level memberships may need to convey custom roles that provide access to custom areas developed exclusively for the use of members at this level, such as 'sponsor'.

The most common Company Types for staff are associated with the 'member' role. If the organization is small, there may only be one of these types defined to provide access to the organization's staff and administrators. As the organization grows, more types may be added.

The name may be kept generic if the organization is small or doesn't have specialized areas to which it wants to provide access through Company Type. Staff and administrators will acquire most of their access privileges by being assigned User Types on an individual basis. The principal exception to this will be areas created for use by a specific type of staff. If your organization had an area created for use by legal staff, it might create a 'Legal Staff' Company Type. Access to the 'Legal Area' would be implied by the name, but should be mentioned explicitly in the description.

Types assigned to staff companies don't necessarily confer roles, but they can. The 'member' role is required by everyone who needs a Kavi Members account. Staff may also need roles that grant access to custom areas created for this purpose, such as 'legal'.

Although it's possible to confer highly privileged roles through Company Type, especially when the type is assigned to a single company with a relatively small number of users, it's best to confer only the access required by every member of this company, then provide additional access to specific individuals by assigning User Types as needed.

The organization may classify companies independently of membership, even if it doesn't track nonmember companies. Since companies generally acquire basic Members Area access through Company Types assigned through membership, these types probably don't confer roles. The most common use cases for this kind of classification include geographic region and designations that indicate whether the company is a potential member or adopter, etc.

Organizations that allow nonmember companies to sign up and acquire login privileges for their representatives require at least one Company Type that confers the 'member' role. This Company Type can be assigned to every nonmember company when the company's application is approved.

The name should be succinct and follow the organization's classification system. Since access is rarely provided through these types, the type description should explicitly mention any access provided by these types.

If a Company Type is to be assigned to nonmembers who need Members Area access, it must be associated with the 'member' role and any other custom roles required to provide basic access to the site. Otherwise types used for classification seldom need associated roles.