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Process documentationProcess Flow of Product Change

 

The process described below is run when a product change is carried out for a contract (an account, for example). During a product change, the system checks the fields and field values of the contract with regard to the new product you want. If necessary, the system changes the fields and field values depending on the settings of the source product, the target product, and the transfer procedure, which means that the properties of the contract can be fundamentally changed. The system makes these changes by comparing the fields and field values with the settings of the corresponding attributes and attribute values of the source and target product.

For a product change, not all attribute categories of the Product Configurator are taken into account. The following table provides an overview:

Attribute Category

Attribute category always included for product change

0010 (grouping)

No

0020 (field)

Yes

0030 (feature)

Yes

0040 (list)

No

0041 (matrix)

Yes

However, decisive for whether a certain attribute and its corresponding field in the contract participates in the product change is not the attribute category to which it belongs, but the assignment of this attribute to an attribute group in the system Customizing settings for product changes. Along with the transfer procedure and the product transition, the attribute group is one of the central units of all product change Customizing settings. The following list shows you which attributes and corresponding fields in the contract participate in the product change for each attribute category:

  • Feature attribute

    In the system Customizing settings for product changes, every feature attribute is assigned to its own attribute group and BDT application. Apart from the feature attribute, this attribute group contains no other attributes (field attributes, for example)

    Note Note

    All feature attributes in the product and the table of features in the contract participate in the product change.

    End of the note.

  • Matrix attribute

    In system Customizing for the product change, every matrix attribute is assigned to its own attribute group with BDT application. Apart from the feature attribute, this attribute group contains no other attributes (field attributes, for example)

    Note Note

    All matrix attributes in the product and the table of matrix elements in the contract participate in the product change.

    End of the note.

  • Field attribute

    • In system Customizing for the product change, some of the field attributes are assigned to attribute groups with the BDT application. These attribute groups can contain multiple field attributes.

      Note Note

      These field attributes in the product and their corresponding fields in the contract participate in the product change.

      End of the note.

    • In the system Customizing settings for product changes, some of the field attributes are assigned to attribute groups with dummy application.

      Caution Caution

      These field attributes in the product and their corresponding fields in the contract do not participate in the product change.

      End of the caution.

Process

The process flow of a product change described below is considerably simplified. For detailed information, see the thorough documentation for the Main Application Programming Interfaces (MAPIs).

  1. The product change order opens a contract.

  2. The relevant contract elements of the contract check the fields and change them depending on the rules described in the following sections:

  3. The system makes consistency and plausibility checks for the contract.

  4. The system saves the contract in its status changed by the product change on the database.