If you set the internet application components to status inquiry for sales orders, the following process takes place:

You offer your customer the opportunity of a status inquiry for the sales orders contained in the R/3 System due to customer purchase orders. Using this method, you wish to provide the customer with information about the delivery progress of his ordered goods.

The customer has already entered his SAP customer number when he logged on, and can display sales orders for this customer number. This means that the customer can propose the following selection data:

• Sales order data from

• Sales order data to

• Order number

• Purchase order number

• Material number

Finally, your customer will receive a list with one or several sales orders. This list provides the customer with the following information:

• the quantities of an article, which, depending on the availability check, can be delivered on the required date

• the quantites of an article which have already been assigned to deliveries

Some shipping agencies provide transportation information in the Internet. If the delivery to the customer is carried out by a shipping agency such as this, you can call up the transportation information directly from the status inquiry for sales orders, via a hyperlink. The customer then receives additional information on shipment. This enables him to find out at which loading unit or transfer unit his delivery is situated at present.

Prerequisites in your R/3 System:

• Assigning data collection routines to the necessary parameters in the TCAVAR table (example entires are maintained in the standard system)

• Entering shipping agency in the delivery

• Entering bill of lading number in the delivery (the Bill of lading field can be found in the header for the delivery, in the information relevant to shipping)

Once these prerequisites have been fulfilled, the deliveries selected in the status inquiry for sales orders appear as hyperlinks. You can then display shipping information by choosing a hyperlink. The customer automatically receives the exact shipping information relevant for his deliveries, via the parameters maintained in the aforementioned tables.