Partner Determination Procedures 

Definition

Partner determination procedures are sets of rules for how the system works with business partners during transaction processing. They bring together partner functions and access sequences, and include additional information.

Use

You define a procedure and assign it to a transaction type or item category. Then, when you create transactions of that type or containing items of that category, the system works with the partners involved according to the rules you specified in the procedure. Therefore, the system can automatically handle partners for an Internet sales transaction differently than it does for an Activity, for example, without end users concerning themselves with these differences. The settings in the procedure apply to both partners determined automatically and to those entered manually.

To define partner determination procedures in Customizing, choose Customer Relationship Management ® Basic Functions ® Partner Processing ® Define Partner Determination Procedure.

The settings include:

·        Which partner functions are mandatory and which suggested, which are entered automatically and which manually, and how many partners can be entered for each function

·        Which access sequence applies to each partner function that is determined automatically by the system

·        At what point the system starts partner determination for each function. This could be as soon as you enter data, when you enter a product, or when you save the transaction.

·        Whether the system enters an Activity in the calendars of the partners involved (relevant to Activities only). For more information, see Working with Activities.

·        Whether you can change a partner's address in transactions, and, when a partner has more than one address, which address is used.

·        Which partner functions are available in a business transaction and which are not.

Structure

The procedure consists of three levels:

·        Procedure User identifies the transaction categories and item object types to which the procedure applies.

·        Partner Functions in Procedure lists the partner functions involved and specific settings for each function.

·        User Interface Settings list which partner functions are shown in the transaction header, and specifies how partners' addresses are displayed.

Integration

For a procedure to be available for a particular transaction type, both it and the transaction type must be assigned to the same transaction category.

For a procedure to be available for a particular item category, both it and the item category must be assigned to the same item object type.

For more information, see Define Partner Determination Procedure in Customizing.

To define transaction types and item categories in Customizing, choose Customer Relationship Management ® Transactions ® Basic Settings ®Define Transaction Types and Define Item Categories.

Example

Background

Your company sells televisions the store Hifidelity, and your sales people often visit the store and talk to the store manager on the telephone. To enter these visits and calls in the system, they create Activity transactions.

You have defined the partner functions electronics retailer and retail site manager for transactions with companies like Hifidelity, (for more information, see Partner Functions) and have certain requirements for Activities with them. Therefore, you define a partner determination procedure for these Activity transactions.

System Settings

You define a new partner determination procedure, and:

...

       1.      Assign it to the transaction category CRM Activity.

       2.      Enter the two new partner functions you have just defined, electronics retailer and retail manager, plus the existing partner function employee responsible. You specify that they are mandatory, and that the transaction should only include one partner as the retail manager.

       3.      Assign access sequences, specify that partner determination should start as soon as data is entered, and that activities should be entered in the partners' calendars.

This table resembles your Customizing settings:

Partner function	Minimum	Maximum	Calendar Maintenance	Access Sequence	Ac Point of determination
Electronics retailer	1	1
Retail manager	1	1		BP BP Relationships by sales organization -> BP Relationships	co   Continuously
Employee responsible	1	5	X	Organizational model -> Business partner assigned to the user	Continuously

 

       4.      You assign this procedure to the transaction type Sales Activity.

       5.      You select the field Allowed Functions on the Partner Determination Procedures screen

       6.      and choose one of the two menu options Only Functions defined in Determination Procedure or All Defined Partner Functions to determine which partner functions should be displayed and available for use in a business transaction.

 

 

 

Result for the End User

...

       1.      An end user creates a Sales Activity in the form of a planned visit to this customer.

       2.      He enters Hifidelity as the electronics retailer.

       3.      The system looks in Hifidelity’s master data and enters the name of the store manager as the retail manager.

       4.      The user tries to enter the assistant manager as a second retail manager, but the system displays a message saying only one partner is possible for this function.

       5.      Through orgaizational determination, the system automatically finds the sales group responsible for Hifidelity’s region. It enters this group on the Organizational Data tab page.

       6.      Based on the organizational model to which this group belongs, the system determines the employee responsible and enters his name.

       7.      The system enters this visit in the employee's calendar.

This illustration shows how the settings in a partner determination procedure affect partner processing in transactions.