# Understanding the Ultimate Parent Analysis
## Overview
The **Ultimate Parent** process in Delpha is composed of **two main steps**:
1. **Identification** — Delpha determines the Ultimate Parent of a given account using insights from its [**trusted sources**](https://help.delpha.io/delpha-for-salesforce/how-to-faq/delpha-ultimate-parent/delpha-trusted-sources-for-ultimate-parent).
2. **Matching** — Delpha searches within **your Salesforce org** to find the existing account that best matches this Ultimate Parent.
The result of this process is what you see in the **Score Meter** on the record page.
## The technical output of the analysis
The information displayed in the Score Meter comes from the technical output of the Ultimate analysis stored in the field:\
**D Ultimate Parent Comments** (`delpha__DDQ_QualityUltimateComments__c`).
This field contains a **JSON** structure summarizing the complete analysis.\
It can be divided into three sections:
* **Comment and Score:** A human-readable explanation of the recommendation and its confidence score.
* **Ultimate Client (`ultimate_client`):** Details about the best-matching account found in your org.
* **Ultimate Lake (`ultimate_lake`):** Details about the Ultimate Parent detected by Delpha AI-Agent from [trusted sources](https://help.delpha.io/delpha-for-salesforce/how-to-faq/delpha-ultimate-parent/delpha-trusted-sources-for-ultimate-parent).
Example:
{% code overflow="wrap" fullWidth="false" %}
```json
{"comment":"Ultimate parent: Salesforce, Inc. (Id 651e86c72d884a768aa905668563eb02 | Confidence 1.00). Evidence: Slack shares the domain slack.com with Slack Technologies, LLC (5686638c2f274eecb2fcc493d33352a7). In July 2021, Salesforce, Inc. completed its acquisition of Slack Technologies, Inc. for approximately $27.7 billion. Slack now operates as a subsidiary of Salesforce. Salesforce, Inc. is a publicly traded company and the ultimate parent entity (source: https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/salesforce-completes-acquisition-of-slack/). Best match is Salesforce (Id 001fo000009a6rSAAQ | Confidence 0.67)",
"score":0.67,
"ultimate_client":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":2,
"source":"client",
"score":0.67,
"name":"Salesforce",
"id":"001fo000009a6rSAAQ"
},
"ultimate_lake":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":1,
"source":"delpha",
"score":1.0,
"name":"Salesforce, Inc.",
"id":"651e86c72d884a768aa905668563eb02"
}
}
```
{% endcode %}
## Step 1 — Identify the Ultimate (Reference)
Determine the real-world ultimate parent entity for each account, independent of what exists in your CRM.
The section **`ultimate_lake`** corresponds to the Ultimate Parent identified by Delpha from its [**trusted sources**](https://help.delpha.io/delpha-for-salesforce/how-to-faq/delpha-ultimate-parent/delpha-trusted-sources-for-ultimate-parent).
Example:
```json
"ultimate_lake":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":1,
"source":"delpha",
"score":1.0,
"name":"Salesforce, Inc.",
"id":"651e86c72d884a768aa905668563eb02"
```
This means Delpha recommends **Salesforce, Inc.** (website: `https://salesforce.com/`) as the Ultimate Parent, with a **confidence score of 1.0 (100%).**
{% hint style="warning" %}
[Delpha’s Ultimate Parent model is designed to reflect how companies actually operate and present themselves in the market](https://help.delpha.io/delpha-for-salesforce/how-to-faq/delpha-ultimate-parent/ultimate-delpha-focuses-on-brands-and-operating-structures) — not how they’re legally registered. By focusing on the **brand and operating structure**, Delpha captures real commercial relationships, group affiliations, and brand hierarchies that drive sales, marketing, and territory management.
This approach ensures more relevant and actionable insights, especially for **franchise and multi-brand organizations**, where legal ownership often differs from day-to-day operational reality.
{% endhint %}
## Step 2 — Link to Parent in CRM (Match)
Find and link the best-matching record in your CRM that represents that reference parent (names may differ; we match on evidence).
The next step is to identify whether this Ultimate Parent already exists in your Salesforce org.
```json
"ultimate_client":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":2,
"source":"client",
"score":0.67,
"name":"Salesforce",
"id":"001fo000009a6rSAAQ"
```
In this example, Delpha finds that the closest match in your org is **Salesforce** (001fo000009a6rSAAQ) with a **matching score of 0.67 (67%).**
## How Matching Works
**Candidate Shortlist**
Delpha first creates a shortlist of accounts that share the same domain as the recommended Ultimate Parent.
**Support Fields**
Two data quality fields are used to evaluate each candidate:
* **`Account.DDQ_QualityAccountContactCount__c`** — Number of related contacts (`Contact.AccountId`).
* **`Account.DDQ_QualityAccountHierarchyCount__c`** — Number of accounts in the hierarchy (`Account.ParentId`).
**Scoring**
Each candidate is evaluated using:
* **Hierarchy Score:** Determines which account sits higher in the hierarchy.
* **Name Similarity Score:** Measures similarity between normalized account names.
The **Matching Score** is calculated as:
```
Matching Score = Hierarchy Score × Name Similarity Score
```
**Selection Criteria**
* The **highest Matching Score** wins.
* If multiple candidates have the same score, Delpha selects the one with **more contacts** or **a shorter name**.
* If no candidate qualifies, Delpha recommends **creating a new Ultimate Parent**.
***
#### Final Confidence Score
The final confidence displayed in Salesforce is the product of:
```
Final Score = Original Confidence × Matching Score
```
{% hint style="warning" %}
#### Recommendation
Since the Ultimate matching relies on the two support fields mentioned above. For better match, it is **highly recommended** to run a **Data Quality Assessment** before launching an Ultimate Parent analysis.
{% endhint %}
## Example
Let’s look at a practical example.
**Delpha Reference Ultimate**
```json
"ultimate_lake":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":1,
"source":"delpha",
"score":1.0,
"name":"Salesforce, Inc.",
"id":"651e86c72d884a768aa905668563eb02"
}
```
Delpha identifies **Salesforce, Inc.** as the Reference Ultimate Parent, with a confidence score of **1.0 (100%)**.
**Customer Org Candidates**
In the customer’s Salesforce org, two accounts share a matching domain (`salesforce.com`):
| Account | Website | Contact Count | Hierarchy Count |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------- | --------------- |
| Salesforce France | | 0 | 1 |
| Salesforce | | 0 | 2 |
**Matching Score Calculation**
**Item 1 — Salesforce France.**
* Hierarchy Score = 1 / (1 + 2) = **0.33**
* Name Similarity Score = **0.5**
* **Matching Score = 0.33 × 0.5 = 0.165**
**Item 2 — Salesforce**
* Hierarchy Score = 2 / (1 + 2) = **0.67**
* Name Similarity Score = **1**
* **Matching Score = 0.67 × 1 = 0.67**
✅ **Best match:** Salesforce (Matching Score = 0.67)
**Final Confidence Score**
The final confidence is the product of:\
**Reference Confidence × Matching Score = 1.0 × 0.67 = 0.67**
This matches the final result stored in:
```json
"ultimate_client":
{"website":"https://salesforce.com/",
"number_of_contacts":0,
"size":2,
"source":"client",
"score":0.67,
"name":"Salesforce",
"id":"001fo000009a6rSAAQ"
```
Delpha therefore recommends **Salesforce** as the Ultimate Parent in the customer’s org, with a final confidence score of **0.67 (67%)**.