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 Dynamic Product Proposal

Use

A product proposal is a list of products for a specific customer that is automatically proposed during sales document processing. You can determine yourself which materials should be displayed as product proposals in the sales document. You can also specify the sequence in which the materials are to be displayed in the product proposal.

During sales document processing, the system displays a product proposal in the item overview, according to the customer and business transaction. It displays the material number, material description and the historical order quantities in the sales unit last used. To use them again, you can just copy them.

The system does not run the standard checks (pricing, availability, incompleteness, material determination, free goods determination, and so on) until you enter the order quantities.

The product proposal acts both as an entry aid and also an aid to sales support and promotions. It is particularly useful tool in the telephone sales area. During sales document processing the materials, that are particularly relevant for a particular customer, are displayed to the processor. This enables them to provide appropriate advice to the customer quickly and easily. You can use the sales document history to analyze the customer's purchasing habits and recognize straightaway if their behavior changes, for when instance when they suddenly stop ordering a product.

The product proposal differs from cross selling in that it is dependent on the customer and sales area, and is therefore displayed in the sales document as soon as you have entered a customer. Cross selling, on the other hand, is triggered by the material. In other words, the system proposes cross-selling materials according to the material or a characteristic of the material you have entered.

Prerequisites

You must make the following settings in Customizing:

  • Define the customer pricing procedure for the product proposal

  • Define the document pricing procedure for the product proposal

  • Assign the document pricing procedure for the product proposal to sales document types

  • Maintain the table of origin for the product proposal

  • Define the procedure for the product proposal and specify the access sequences

  • Maintain procedure determination (in background) for the product proposal

  • Maintain procedure determination (online) for the product proposal

You can find these settings in Customizing for Sales and Distribution under Basic Functions . For more detailed information about these settings, see the Implementation Guide for the Product Proposal.

Features

You can determine the product proposal from different data sources:

  • Order history

  • Listed materials

  • Excluded materials

  • Item proposal

  • Customer/material info records

  • Customer-specific data sources

For the product proposal you can combine materials from other data sources: For example, you could combine the total of all materials in the last n-sales orders with all materials listed for the customer, plus all materials in certain item proposals, but not including those specified in the exclusion. You can then determine the sequence in which they appear yourself.

You can access the data sources either online, in background processing, or using a combination of both. It is also possible to have a combination of both access techniques. If you want to access various different data sources, we recommend that you use background processing, in order to keep the system load as low as possible while working online.

Working with the Product Proposal in the Sales Document

As soon as you have entered a sold-to party in the sales document, the system calls up the function module for determining the product proposal and runs the accesses according to the online product proposal procedure.

All materials that it finds for the product proposal are automatically displayed as proposal items in the sales document.

Note Note

None of the normal checks at item level, such as the availability check and pricing, are carried out for the materials included as product proposals. These checks are only carried out when you have given the material an order quantity and an item number is assigned.

End of the note.

If you have entered the order history as a data source in Customizing, the system also displays the historic quantities for each material.

Note Note

In standard system the fields with historic quantities are displayed at the end of the table. When working with the product proposal, SAP recommends placing the field with historic quantities, for example behind the field Order quantity.

End of the note.

The checks are only carried out (for example, pricing, availability check) when you enter the order quantities for a material from the product proposal. The item then receives an item number.

The Source field shows which data source was used to determine the product proposal for each item (for example, O = order history). If a material is determined from several sources (such as the listing and order history), the system displays the first data source used to determine the material, according to the access sequence defined in Customizing.

You can use Product proposal active <-> inactive pushbutton to hide or display materials from the product proposal. This only applies to items where no quantities have been entered.

When the order history is the source of the product proposal, you can use the Copy IP quantity pushbutton to copy the quantities from the first column with the most up-to-date information (usually the last order) as an order quantity.

Constraints

The system does not generate a product proposal when you use:

  • Batch input

  • Incoming IDocs

  • BAPIs

  • Change/display sales document

  • Create sales document with reference