Use
This release note is only relevant if upgrading from SAP CRM 5.0.
You can now create and edit provider orders (business transaction category BUS2000265). The provider order is a special sales order with which you can sell products and services within the provider industry. It supports the sale of specific products and services, in particular the way they are combined and offered in the telecommunications industry or by electricity suppliers. The provider order is closely connected with the provider contract, which is automatically created from the provider order. With every change process , for example contract extension, that can only be carried out through the provider contract, a provider order is created. When you release the provider order, the provider contract is updated with the changes. The entry of the provider order can take place by using the dealer portal as well as the
Interaction Center.
The following functions are available in the provider order: - Search for customers and provider orders
You can search for provider orders that have already been entered. You can then select these orders for further editing, as far as the order is modifiable. You can also create new customers from the search screen.
- Order entry and entry of additional technical data
As well as customer and product data, you can enter additional information in the provider order that is necessary for the sale and consequent operation of the service. You can determine the additional information with which the provider order should be entered yourself and adjust it to the requirements of your enterprise. In the telecommunications industry, technical connection data such as telephone number or SIM card number is entered in the provider order. The entry of such data in, for example, the dealer portal, enables a simple search for provider orders by telephone number. - Entry of product data - New product model using interlinkage types
In a provider order in particular, you can use products and services that are modeled for the specific sales process of provider services. The following interlinkage types are available to you for this product modeling:
- Sales components - Dependent components - Rate plan combinations
The new interlinkage types supplement the previous options for product modeling, which is based on, among other things, the relatively complex modeling of configurable products and thereby offers enhanced functions for product determination within order and contract management. The
interlinkage types are defined in the processing of the respective products and you can assign corresponding components. In this way, products such as activation charges, accessories, incentives, and so on can be combined in an enhanced product model into a service product and in every order
and contract process, automatically included in the corresponding documents.
You can thereby combine flexible packages and yet devise well-defined product sets. The simplest form of this new product model is a package, which is sold as a service and can, for example, consist of a service contract (rate plan), for which required hardware and extras are added for strategic marketing reasons. This product set is implemented by using the interlinkage type Sales Components.
The package is only relevant in the process of order entry. In a provider contract, which results from a provider order created with the package, only package components are applied. As a rule, this is only the service contract (rate plan). You can influence the explosion of the package in the order entry by means of appropriate interlinkage type attributes. The interlinkage type Dependent Components facilitates the defining of product relationships by using attributes in which you can formulate conditions that you can then use to control the explosion of the products in the provider order. The product is created in the provider order only when all conditions are fulfilled. This interlinkage type is used, for example, for charges that accrue with contract changes for products in the provider order. You can also use the interlinkage type Rate Plan Combinations, in which case you are dealing with a fixed rate plan combination without further dependencies. You can offer a special price for rate plans when they are sold combined and you want to offer additional products in a package as incentives. The individual rate plans result in the provider contract with individual document items. The solution configurator processes the relationships and dependencies that are defined with these interlinkage types between the more loosely (in comparison to the product configuration) linked products in the background. It checks the conditions and releases the package components in the provider order only when the fixed conditions are fulfilled. The loose
interlinkage of products in a package is chiefly significant for the distribution and further processing of the data contained inside and the information in the provider contract, which would not be possible in this way with product modeling using configurable products.
- Automatic creation of a provider contract
When you sign and confirm a provider order, a provider contract is automatically created by the system based on the information from the provider order, into which all contract-relevant data from the provider order is copied. The provider order is closely connected with the provider contract. Changes to the provider contract can only be carried out by means of the provider orders. Further functions that are supported through the provider order:
- Ensuring integration in all subsequent systems
- Automation and coordination of the order across different systems - Update and control of contract changes
- Basic functions that you also use in the sales order. These include: - Pricing
- Product configuration - Campaign determination
See also
Release Information:
- Provider Contracts (New)
- Status Management in Provider Order Maintenance (Enhanced)
- Automatic Creation of Provider Orders for Lock/Unlock Services (New) - Settlement of Recurring and One-Time Charges (Enhanced)