Introduction > Introducing Product 360 SaaS > Key concepts
  

Key concepts

To work effectively in Product 360 SaaS, you need a basic understanding of master data management concepts of Informatica.

Business entities

A business entity is an entity of importance to your organization. Business entities can be people, places, or things.
Product 360 SaaS includes the following predefined business entities:

Source records

A source record is a record from a source system. Source records from multiple source systems can contribute data to the master records.

Patch records

MDM SaaS creates a patch record when you edit a master record through the user interface, API, or batch jobs. A patch record acts as a source record, but it contains only the master record fields that are edited.​ If the same master record is edited multiple times, the patch record contains the latest changes.
Patch records are created for each source system. For example, when you edit a master record from the user interface, a patch record is created for the default source system. However, when you edit a master record value that originated from the Salesforce source system, another patch record is created for the Salesforce source system.

Related records

Records that have relationships with the first-level nodes. Relationships describe the connection between two records. For example, if the electronics record is the first-level node, mobile phones or computers can be related to the electronics record.

Workflows and tasks

A workflow consists of a sequence of tasks and ensures approvers review and approve the data before it becomes master data. When a user creates or updates a record, the action can trigger a workflow.
A workflow consists of multiple tasks linked together. A task is an activity that must be completed, such as accepting or rejecting an edited record.

Hierarchies

A hierarchy contains hierarchy relationships between records. Create hierarchies to show how records are related to one another. A record can appear in multiple hierarchies.
The hierarchy relationships that you can create depend on your configured hierarchy models.

Extensions

An extension is a package of pre-configured assets to accelerate the implementation of a business application and extend its capabilities. An extension is available for installation on request.
Based on your requirements, you can use an extension to achieve the following goals: