You use rules to define the scope of a territory. The scope of a territory tells you which accounts, products, and sales areas are part of a territory. Territory management uses the rule builder to create and edit rules.
Example
We have created territory T1. Now to specify which accounts, products and sales areas are part of T1, we formulate the following rule statements:
If postal code
IS BETWEEN
01821 AND
3800
AND
City
IS
Boston
AND
Country
IS
U.S.
AND
Product Category
IS
Medical Equipment
Then
Action = return territory T1
Result: All accounts that have addresses lying within zip code range 01821-3800, are located Boston, U.S., and products that belong to product category medical equipment belong to T1.
Accounts
and Products
are the condition groups.
Postal Code
, Country
, City
, and Product Category
are conditions, that is, attributes.
IS, IS BETWEEN
, and AND
are the operators.
01821, 3800, Boston, U.S., and Medical Equipment are values.
Once you have created the required rules, execute the Update Territory Relationships
report to display the latest territory relationships.
You have read and understood the concepts of the rule builder. You have made the necessary settings to set up the rule builder for territory management. For more information, see Rule Builder Setup.
You have set the rule policy type for Territory Management to TM
. You do this in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management
by choosing .
You have created a rule policy and the required number of rule sets, in the WebClient UI
. When creating rules, you have to specify the rule set and rule policy in which to create them.
You can create rule policies and rule sets only if authorization object CRM_FDT is assigned to your business role. Further, you need display authorization to CRM_FDT, to display rules.
Standard attributes are provided and active by default. Create all the additional attributes you need, in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management
by choosing .
If you have defined additional attributes, you should also complete step BAdI: Implement Business Logic for Additional Attributes
.
You have read and understood how rule validity periods and territory validity periods work. For more information, see Specifying Validity Periods.
You can use attributes from condition groups (accounts, sales areas, and products) individually or collectively.
Do it for the lowest territory in the territory hierarchy. This territory is called as a leaf node. This gives you greater flexibility when you restructure territories.
Example
A manager is responsible for four territories. Consequently, the manger's position is assigned to the territory that contains the four end nodes in the hierarchy. If the manager is also personally responsible for a business partner (that is, as a sales representative, and not in the function of manager), you can assign this business partner directly as an attribute for the manager. This avoids your having to create a fifth end node, and then assigning the manager's position to this node.
If you assign attribute values to territories higher up in the territory hierarchy, note that these attributes are valid only for that node and not inherited by the lower-level nodes.
The optimum number of relationships you want formed as a result of that rule statement. For example, a rule statement that specifies that territory T1 includes all accounts where attribute Country
is DE
would have far too many accounts under one territory, to be of any real use.
Enter a specific value
This allows you to make sure that the attribute value is unique. For example, specify that only those business partners whose zip code 01800 is where Region
is
Boston, Country
is
U.S. AND
Postal Code
is
01800 are part of a territory. Compare this to entering 01800-03800 for the attribute Postal Code
. In this case, all business partners falling under zip code range 01800-03800 belong to this territory. A zip code range is likely to be used elsewhere in the world.
Enter several values
You select attribute, Postal Code, and enter two values, for example, 01833 and 01955. In this case, all business partners that have these two zip codes belong to this territory.
Enter values ranges combined with exceptions for a single attribute
For example, maintain Territory T2 where Postal Code is between 50000 and 51000, but NOT
50001 and 50009.
Enter value ranges combined with one exception range for a single attribute.
For example, maintain Territory T3 where Postal Code is between 50000 and 51000, but NOT
between 50001 and 50009.
Enter value ranges combined with the AND
, OR
operator.
For example, maintain Territory T5 where Postal Code is between 50000 and 51000 AND
where Department is “Oncology”OR
“Radiology”.
Enter value ranges combined with exception ranges, and also the AND
/ OR
operator.
For example, maintain Territory T6 where Postal Code is between 50000 and 51000, but NOT
between 50001 and 50009, AND
where Department is “Oncology” AND/OR
“Radiology”.
Use AND/OR
operators for different attributes.
For example, maintain a Territory T7 for all accounts where department is “Oncology”AND/OR
“Radiology” AND/OR
district
is “Munich” AND/OR
“Cologne”.
Multiple attribute values for one attribute are automatically connected by OR
. For example, you want to include business partners whose addresses have the zip code ranges 01821-03800 OR 01821-03900. In this case, one attribute (Postal Code) has several values: Postal Code
IS BETWEEN
01821 and
3800 OR
01821 and
3900.
When you have several attribute values in a territory, they are not automatically connected in any sequence. For example: You want to assign products of a particular category to a sales representative who is responsible for a particular territory.
((Country
IS
U.S. AND
Region
IS
Boston)
AND
(Postal Code
IS BETWEEN
01831 and
03800 OR
Postal Code
IS BETWEEN
01831 and
03900)
AND
(Product Category
IS
45 OR
Product Category
IS
55))
Enter generic values
You can enter generic values for an attribute by adding an asterisk (*) as part of the attribute value. For example, you enter 018* for the attribute Postal Code. In this case, all business partners that have a zip code beginning with 018 belong to this territory.
When you create new rules, or changes existing ones, you have to update territory relationships. For more information, see Customizing documentation, under
.