Supporting Individual Customer Requirements

If the provider decides that competing demands from different clients will have to be accommodated in the Customizing settings, this can be achieved only by defining different object entries under different keys.

In extreme cases, large numbers of Customizing settings can be created for controlling identical business process steps. This can make the selection using F4 help unmanageable. To make this data more manageable, the provider can define key namespaces for each customer, if this is allowed by the key structure.

In some SAP solutions client filters are already being used to reduce the amount of Customizing functions that are visible for each client. This means that although an entry has been made available from a technical perspective, it is not initially visible on the transactional end user interface; it first has to be activated for each client. The corresponding filter tables are themselves defined as client-specific. Some objects use authorizations as filters. For example, spool transaction display only those printers for which the user has an authorization; the others are filtered out in the F4 list.

In multiclient systems, changes to cross-client Customizing settings can be made by the provider only, and not by end users. However, changes must not be made in the production environment, as in single client systems. Customizing settings control the way in which business transactions are processed; any changes to these settings can often have the same effects on transaction logic as changes to programs. This means that you must make the changes first in a development system.

The question arises of whether the multiclient structure should be replicated in the development/test, QA and production systems, or whether its complexity can be reduced in the predecessor systems. The answer to this question depends on the business scenario: An ASP scenario with standardized business processes (with practically identical Customizing) only needs a template client in both the development/test and QA systems, in which the Customizing changes are tested. A group scenario involving multiple independent clients needs as many clients in the test and QA system as there are production clients.