Organizations, Partners, and Cohorts are often confused, because all three group responses together. They solve different problems, and they are not alternatives to one another. Most setups use more than one of them at the same time.
| Feature | What it groups | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | Responses, respondents, and managers, by client, business unit, or department | You need to control who can see which responses, apply client-specific branding or text, or allocate and sell responses to a client. Supports up to five hierarchical levels. |
| Partner | An external party who accesses the platform through the Partner Portal | Your client needs to log in and manage their own responses, reports, and settings, rather than you doing it on their behalf. A partner is given access to an organization. |
| Cohort | A defined group of respondents, set up in advance and managed together | You want to group respondents formally before inviting them, have the cohort subject or contact person invite the respondents, or have the cohort report sent to the subject or contact automatically. Required for 360 and group or team assessments. |
The distinction in practice
Organization is about access and identity. It answers the question "who does this response belong to, and who is allowed to see it".
Partner is about self-service. A partner is an organization whose people log in to the Partner Portal themselves. If your client does not need to log in, an organization on its own is sufficient.
Cohort is about managing a group through its lifecycle. A cohort is set up before the respondents are invited. Once it exists, the cohort has a subject and a contact person, either of whom can invite the respondents, and the completed cohort report can be sent to them automatically. This is a more formal way of working than tagging responses as they arrive.
You do not need a cohort in order to report on a group
This is the most common misunderstanding. A cohort report can be run on demand at any time, and filtered to include exactly the responses you want, including by Organization, by classifier, or by date range.
So if you simply need a combined report for a client, a department, or a business unit, you can run a cohort report on demand and filter by that Organization. The respondents do not need to have been placed in a cohort beforehand.
Use a cohort when you want the grouping itself to be managed: pre-defined membership, cohort-driven invitations, and automatic distribution of the report to the subject or contact.
A common scenario
If a client needs to see the responses and reports of a group of other people, use an Organization to establish which responses belong to that client, and give the client Partner Portal access so that they can view them. You can then run a cohort report on demand, filtered to that Organization, whenever a combined report is required.
If that client also wants to run structured groups, for example a 360 for each of their managers, set those up as Cohorts within the same Organization. The two work together.
If you are not sure which combination to use
There are several valid ways to set this up, and the right one depends on how your responses are created, who needs to see them, and whether anyone outside your team needs to log in. If you would like a recommendation for your specific situation, email support@brilliantassessments.com and describe what you are trying to achieve. We are happy to work it through with you.
For full details, see Managing Organizations, Configuring the Partner Portal, and Cohorts Overview & Setup.
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