Chris,
It sounds like the client feels that the Business Mailer is simply
a customer, albeit a customer with special needs, and therefore
special fields.
In your summary, you wrote:
Aside from the average consumer, a Business Mailer(BM) can
also file a claim. The BM has a special agreement with the client and gets
special treatment when filing claims, and therefore a Business Mailer
profile is created.
... which actually sounds also like the BM is simply a customer. So
I can hear their point of view.
Then again, as you point out, the BM is not actually a customer tied to
a claim, like most customers, he's a repeat customer. And that sounds
like a whole different logical beast, a different logical entity.
So, from here, I find it's hard to tell if the BM is simply another customer
or a new beast entirely. This would seem to me to be the crux of the
problem. So they want to define their relationship with their client, the BM.
My gut then says let 'em. It's possible to accomodate a 'customer type' in
a customer table, so think of BM as an extremely limited way to handle
customer type.
(I know that's not how one would implement customer type, but they've
decided they ONLY allow two customer types, I think I can deal with that.)
What I don't know is do you feel there are already existing specific functions
or reports that their spec won't be able to handle? If there are, then I go back
leaning towards your design, otherwise I'd let them define their relationship
with the BM.
(Now my KIDS' relationship with THEIR bm, that's a whole different story!)
My2c fwiw. Good luck in general, and in getting out before their model falls
apart in particular,
Yosi
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Yosi Greenfield
Oracle Certified DBA
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Author: Yosi Greenfield
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