Patent ID: 7620647

Claim:
A hierarchy global management system comprising: a set of user computers; a server computer coupled to the set of user computers over a network, comprising: a processor; and one or more computer readable media accessible by said processor and storing computer instructions executable by said processor to implement a hierarchy global manager (HGM) with a user interface for display at any one of the set of user computers having a plurality of functions for managing indexed master records, wherein said computer instructions comprise: code for searching an organization in a hierarchy based on one or more search criteria received from a user at a user computer over the network; code for returning a set of records, each of which matches said one or more search criteria to a degree of confidence, wherein said set of records represent one or more members of said hierarchy, including said organization, each of the at least one of the members having a hierarchical association to at least one other member such that the records corresponding to any one member have the same hierarchical relationship to the records corresponding to the other member and where at least one member comprises a first record and a second record and the first record was associated with the second record by: identifying a set of candidate records based on a comparison between a set of existing records and the first record, wherein the set of candidate records comprises the second record; scoring each of the set of candidate records, wherein the score of each of the candidate records corresponds to a likelihood that the first record and the candidate record comprise information on the same member; determining that the score of the second record is greater than a first threshold, wherein the second record is in the hierarchy such that the second record has a first set of hierarchical associations with a first set of related records, and associating the first record with the second record such that the first record has the first set of hierarchical associations with the first set of related records; code for loading said hierarchy or a portion thereof into a workspace of said user interface; code for providing a user at a user computer the ability for navigating among loaded members within said hierarchy; and code for providing a user at a user computer the ability for making relationship changes to said loaded members of said hierarchy.