Service Contract Quotations and Inquiries 

Use

A service contract quotation is a legally binding offer to a customer for the purpose of defining the services in a service contract. A customer inquiry in regard to a contract quotation can precede the service contract quotation.

A service contract quotation can be of use to both customers and providers. On one hand, it gives customers the option of getting informed about prices and delivery conditions to enable them to make decisions, while providers can include the expected services at an early stage in their planning and get an overview of the expected costs and revenues.

Within the validity period of a service contract quotation, the customer has the option of agreeing on a service contract for specific conditions with reference to the quotation.

Inquiries about contract quotations and actual contract quotations are both service processes in service with the leading business transaction category Service Contract. They are only identified as such by the system statuses Inquiry or Quotation.

 

Integration

●     This function is available in CRM Enterprise and the Interaction Center WebClient (if it is used in the People-Centric UI).

●     Data from an inquiry or quotation is not transferred to SAP R/3 because, for example, it is not relevant for billing or controlling.

However it is possible to transfer data to SAP BW. Here you can define analyses, for example, to evaluate which quotations are accepted or rejected, and the reasons for this.

 

Prerequisites

Define Inquiry or Quotation as Transaction Types in the IMG

The inquiry for a service contract quotation and the actual service contract quotation are not individual business transaction categories, rather they possess the business transaction category of the business transaction in Service to which they should be converted. They are only identified as such by the system statuses Inquiry or Quotation.

If, for example, you want to convert a service contract quotation to the transaction type Service Contract, the transaction type that you use as service contract quotation must be assigned to the leading business transaction category Service Contract in Customizing.

Therefore if you want to use inquiries or contract quotations, you have to define the inquiry or service contract quotation as transaction types in Customizing and make the relevant settings.

To do this, choose Customer Relationship Management ®Transactions ® Basic Settings ® Define Transaction Types in the IMG.

Define Default Values in the IMG

You maintain default values for inquiries and quotations in Customizing for item categories. To do this, choose Customer Relationship Management ®Transactions ®Basic Settings ® Define Item Categories in the IMG.

Choose the required item categories and then the business transaction category Sales.

In the Customizing Item view, maintain the fields of the set type Quotation Data, particularly the following two fields:

●     Relevance for Quotation

If you set the option Initial Inquiry or Initial Quotation and create a transaction with this item category, the items of this transaction have the status Inquiry or Quotation.

●     Subsequ. Processing

Here you define how the quotation should be further processed: Quotation is copied to subsequent document or Quotation status is reset.

 

Activities

Create Quotation / Inquiry

You create quotations and inquiries on the screen for maintaining a business transaction in Service. Choose the required transaction, for example, Inquiry or Service Contract Quotation.

Convert Inquiry to Quotation

An inquiry can lead to a quotation in two different ways: Creation of follow-up document or status change.

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       1.      You create a service contract quotation as a follow-up document with reference to the inquiry. At this time the items from the inquiry are copied to the items of the new document.

With this option, there are ultimately two transaction documents: Inquiry and service contract quotation.

       2.      You convert an inquiry into a service contract quotation by canceling the Inquiry status in the items and changing it to Quotation.

With this option, there is only one transaction document since the inquiry is not kept as a separate transaction document.

Accept Quotation

A service contract quotation can also be accepted, that is lead to a service quotation, in the same way as mentioned above – through the creation of a follow-up document or status change:

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       1.      You create a service contract as a follow-up document with reference to the service contract quotation. At this time, the quotation items accepted by the customer are copied to the items of the new document.

With this option, there are ultimately two transaction documents: Service contract quotation and service contract.

       2.      You convert a service contract quotation to a service contract by resetting the status Quotation in the quotation items and changing the status of at least one item to Quotation Accepted. The quotation items accepted by the customer are thus converted in the document into service contract items.

With this option, there is only one transaction document since the service contract quotation is not kept as a separate transaction document.

Complete Quotation

A quotation is completed:

●     After it has been copied to a service contract

●     Following a customer rejection