Contact Roles Overview
Available in: All Editions except Database.com
A contact role defines the part that a contact or person account plays in a specific account, case, contract, or opportunity. For example, Tom Jones might be the Decision Maker for the opportunity, and Mary Smith might be the Evaluator. You can assign a contact role to any contact or person account that affects your account, case, contract, or opportunity. Contacts and person accounts can have different contact roles on various accounts, cases, contracts, or opportunities.
The Contact Roles related list of an account, case, contract, or opportunity displays the roles that each contact or person account plays in that record. On person account detail pages, the Opportunity Contact Roles related list displays the opportunities on which the person account is listed in the Account Name field of the opportunity.
Partners Overview
Available in: All Editions that signed up prior to Summer '09
Available in: Group, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions that signed up during or after Summer '09
Not Available in Database.com
Partners are the companies with which you collaborate to close your sales deals. For each opportunity or account you create, the Partners related list allows you to store information about your partners and the roles they play in the opportunity or account. A partner must be an existing account within Salesforce.
If your organization has been enabled for partners, you can create partner accounts. Partner accounts are business accounts that a channel manager uses to manage partner organizations, partner users, and activities. They are completely separate from account partnerships that are displayed in the Partners related list on an account. For more information about partner portals, see Partner Portal Overview.
