When a company or user is added to Kavi® Members, they are assigned a "Purpose" based on their relationship to the organization, which they may participate in as members or staff. Purpose is used by Kavi Members to determine how to manage the company or user, including what kinds of data to collect, what business logic to apply and influences the process of granting basic access permissions, depending on the configuration of the individual site.

For instance, signup procedures vary by Purpose. A person who is applying for an individual membership in an organization needs to be presented with a different online application form than a person who is applying as a representative of a member company. When these applications are approved, the first person needs to be assigned a Purpose of 'Individual Member' and the second needs to be assigned a Purpose of 'Company Representative'.

The data requirements are different for users with different Purposes and this would be reflected in signup forms. The most obvious example is company affiliation. It's critical that a user with the Purpose of 'Company Representative' be assigned to the right company. This user may be added through the company membership application form, or may use a company representative signup form and be matched with their company based on the domain of their company-issued email addresss. An 'Individual Member' may be automatically assigned to a "Company" that was added to the Kavi Members database solely to group individual members because company affiliation isn't as important for individual members.

Kavi Members comes with a complete set of predefined company and user Purposes. Unlike other kinds of classifications such as types and roles, these sets of default Purposes can't be edited or expanded upon.

Company Purposes

Member Company

A company with full membership privileges as defined by the organization bylaws. Member companies have memberships with the organization that expire and must be renewed.

Nonmember

A company without formal membership privileges or a membership expiration date. Nonmember companies may one day become member companies.

Company for Individuals

This is an abstract construct defined solely for the purpose of grouping individuals such as individual members or individual nonmembers.

Staff or Administration

A company working on behalf of the organization to support its administrative needs. Staff companies are not members of the organization.

Figure 3.1. Examples of each company purpose

User Purposes

Company Representative

A person who gains access through their company, is a contact for the company, and acts on behalf of the company to secure a return on the company's investment in the organization.

Individual Member

An individual with full membership privileges as defined by the organization bylaws. An 'Individual Member' has a membership with the organization that expires and must be renewed.

Nonmember

An individual without formal membership privileges or an expiration date and who is independent of any member companies. A 'Nonmember' may one day become an 'individual Member'.

Staff or Administration

A person working on behalf of the organization to support its administrative needs.Staff may include Organization Admins, etc.

Figure 3.2. Examples of each user purpose

Each user must belong to a company with a corresponding purpose: a 'Staff' person works for a 'Staff Company', a 'Company Representative' represents a 'Member Company'. Kavi Members uses this information to identify which record is the "master record" (i.e., whether it is the company or the user that has the membership).

Figure 3.3. Matching user with company purposes

The arrows in the diagram above show that members can be switched to nonmembers and back again as needed. Once added, a company or user that has been assigned to any of the other purposes can only be switched by a super administrator.