Master Data Exchange Using Price Catalogs

Use

This business process allows you to create logical message type PRICAT and export it from an ERP system to an external system using ALE and IDocs, or to import it from an external system. The ERP system supports both EANCOM standard message type PRICAT and ANSI X12 transaction set 832.

For example, you can:

  • Send a complete or partial list of your product offering to your customers

  • Send your data to a central database in PRICAT message format where it can be accessed by authorized customers and suppliers

  • Receive automatic notification of new or updated product and pricing information from your suppliers or from a central database

Price catalog information includes the description, information about prices and pricing conditions (including taxes), and logistics information for each product. It can contain either general product information valid for all customers, or customer-specific information, such as special conditions. You can also specify a timeframe for which the price catalog is valid.

The GDSN standard facilitates a service-based exchange of master data between manufacturers and retailers beyond multiple data pools. For more information, see Optimized Master Data Exchange Using SAP Enterprise Services .

Integration

When an export is prepared, the ERP system creates IDocs (SAP intermediate document format) for all materials to be included in the price catalog. These IDocs are sent to an external converter, which converts them into EANCOM standard message category PRICAT or into ANSI X12 transaction set 832.

The reverse process is true for data import.

Prerequisites

You can only use this function if you use SAPRetail.

Recipients of your price catalog must be able to either accept PRICAT format documents directly or convert them to their own system-readable format.