Request-Based Correspondence  

Purpose

Request- and role-based correspondence in SAP Learning Solution enables you to send users timely information about current business processes.  Correspondence in SAP Learning Solution supports:

·        Automatically: request-based correspondence

When a business process runs for which correspondence is planned, the SAP system automatically triggers the intended correspondence. You assign business processes and notifications using notification groups, which you edit in Customizing for SAP Learning Solution.

The learner searches for a course in the learning portal, selects the required course and makes a booking for it.

The SAP system automatically generates a message for the learner’s supervisor to notify him or her of the booking.  The supervisor approves the booking, and the learner receives a booking confirmation including information about the course schedule.

Correspondence request with errors can be edited in the correspondence worklist before being sent.

·        Manually: request-based correspondence

There is no business process for launching manual correspondence. Manual correspondence is triggered by the training administrator. There is no trigger defined for this in the SAP system. Manual correspondence is a purely administrative process started by the training administrator when he or she wants to edit correspondence requests manually.

The training administrator wants to change the address of the recipient of a booking confirmation, since there are a number of addresses stored for the recipient in the system. The administrator does this by manually editing and then sending the correspondence request for the learner in question.

You can use the stopmark manager in both manual and automatic correspondence to halt the correspondence creation process.

Prerequisites

You have made the required settings for request-based correspondence (automatic and manual) in Customizing for SAP Learning Solution. You access these settings by choosing Training Management ® Day-to-Day Activities ® Correspondence ® Request-Based Correspondence.

 

Settings and Process Flow

You make the settings required for request- and role-based correspondence in Customizing:

Notification group

Notification groups combine a set of individual correspondence-related activities. In Customizing for correspondence, you can define the following for each notification group by delivery method or by course type or by course:

Functions to be mapped for each notification group

Question	Function for Notification Group
By what means	Business process (request-based)
To whom	Recipient role (role-based)
What	Correspondence type from correspondence tool
How	Output medium
When	Automatic output

Business process

The business processes that can trigger correspondence include:

·        Booking, rebooking, and participation cancellation

·        Course follow-up or course cancellation

·        Appraisal of course or instructor

Recipient role

Recipient roles are entered in Customizing. You can define customer roles in addition to the roles defined by SAP (learner, manager, training administrator, instructor, and training provider). A role resolution is assigned in the system to each recipient role, which determines the recipient per role and per booking / resource reservation.

Output medium

Output media are predefined in the SAP system:

·        PDF-based form

·        E-Mail

·        SMS

·        Fax

·        Printer

Use of SAP tools in request-based correspondence

Request-based correspondence uses the SAP tools Print Workbench and Correspondence Tool for form layout and for outputting documents.  Integration of the print workbench is done by means of correspondence types, which are assigned form classes and application forms. Form classes handle access to application data by using the text variables of SAP Learning Solution. Application forms are based on form classes. They display this data.

If you want to create customer forms, or if you want to adjust forms in the standard system to suit your requirements (for example, change the layout or integrate a company logo), you must modify the relevant application forms using the print workbench. On the other hand, if you want to display new data in an application form, you must first set up access to the new data by means of text variables in the relevant form class of the application form before you can adjust the application form.

For information about the technical handling and features of this tool, see the documentation for the print workbench

For detailed information about using text variables, see Text Variables in Request-Based Correspondence

Correspondence type in the correspondence tool; text variables for business data in form classes and application forms for form technology data in the print workbench

The correspondence type defines the document to be output (for example, confirmation of participation for learners). It is edited using the SAP Correspondence Tool. Correspondence types group form classes and application forms of the print workbench.

Halting automatic correspondence using the automatic output function: correspondence is usually output immediately when the relevant process is triggered.  However, it might be necessary to check the correspondence request, append comments, or change the request before output.  The correspondence request contains the required data and, as such, defines the context for the correspondence.  It contains, for example:

·        Output status

·        Participant’s name

·        Instructor’s name

·        Correspondence type

·        Language

·        Output medium

·        Course

·        Resource

·        Role of recipient

·        Recipient’s name

You can halt the automatic sending of correspondence via the automatic output settings. Correspondence requests are located in the correspondence worklist. There you can use the following functions for correspondence requests:

·        Change

The following change options exist:

¡        Recipient’s address, for example, if there are multiple addresses stored for a recipient.

¡        Form: You select a different correspondence type and thus a different form to be sent.

¡        Automatic output

If this indicator is not selected, you can change the request in the correspondence worklist.

¡        Language

¡        Output medium

·        Delete

·        Copy

·        Send

The system can generate multiple correspondence requests for one process. For example, when a learner books a course, if the manager and the instructor should also be notified, the system creates a separate correspondence request for each recipient.  The system uses the correspondence request to exchange data between the different components (correspondence worklist, print workbench, correspondence tool, output log), to change data, or to reuse the data later.

The correspondence worklist contains the worklist for correspondence. The system transfers correspondence requests to the worklist, for example, if:

·        Automatic output is not active

·        There were errors during document creation

·        There were errors when sending the documents

With the help of the correspondence worklist, the training administrator can:

·        Re-send correspondence requests

·        Delete the send request for a correspondence request

·        Change individual attributes of the correspondence request (for example, switch output media)

The system logs requests from the worklist that are sent successfully in the output log.  You can display correspondence requests in the output log that have already been sent and send them again.  When sending a correspondence request, the system generates a new request based on the request in the output log and outputs it.

The correspondence tool handles the dispatch, administration, and logging of correspondence requests. The print workbench handles the actual output of correspondence. The correspondence tool uses the print workbench to help generate and output correspondence. The workbench defines standardized access to the data of SAP Learning Solution. Text variables are used in correspondence to exchange business data (such as, recipient’s address, mail addresses). The text variables are combined into form classes in the print workbench. A form class contains the business data provided by SAP Learning Solution for document creation. Form classes depend upon the form technology used, for example, SAP Smart Forms, PDF-based forms or SAPscript. The print workbench uses application forms to display the data. The workbench uses the application forms and the assigned form classes to access the text variables of SAP Learning Solution, and thus read the business data.

Import of application forms

Application forms, which are defined in the print workbench, are client-dependent objects.  These client-dependent objects are delivered in SAP delivery client 000. If you want to be able to use the application forms in clients other than delivery client 000, you must either copy client 000 to the current client or import the application forms into the current client.