Activity Journals for Issuing Samples 

Use

Use this function to document samples you hand out to doctors and hospitals. Later, you will be able to call up information such as the number of samples issued so far, the date they were issued and any comments. This means you can see the quantities of samples issued for the purposes of an audit, for example. The system also supports you in complying with the legal regulations for issuing samples.

Integration

Sample issuing is a pharmaceuticals-specific feature of the activity journal. You use a special type of template that is tailor-made for pharmaceuticals-specific processes and makes activity management suitable for sample management.

SAP CRM transfers the data that you enter when documenting the issue of samples to SAP R/3. The relevant goods issues and sales orders are posted there and you can display all associated processes in SAP R/3 inventory management.

Prerequisites

·        You have made all the necessary general settings for activity management.

·        You have created a template for the pharmaceuticals-specific process of sample issuing and have assigned it to an activity type. For more information about the required settings, see Activity Journals and the SAP Solution Manager.

·        You have made all the necessary settings in Customizing for Sample Management under Customer Relationship Management ® Industry-Specific Solutions ® Pharmaceuticals ® Sample Management.

·        If you wish to transfer data to SAP R/3 inventory management, you have made all the settings stated under “Prerequisites” in Sample Management in SAP R/3 with SAP CRM Integration.

Features

Selecting a Template for Activity Journals and Documenting a Sales Call to a Doctor

You can use activity management to plan and carry out sales calls to doctors and to create activity journals. You can create templates for pharmaceuticals-specific activity journals to document sales calls to doctors. With a pharmaceuticals-specific template, you can, among other things, use the following fields on the Activity Journal tab page.

·        Product

·        Number or samples so far (sample history)

·        Number of new samples

·        Requirements

·        Returns

Enter all samples that the doctor returns.

·        Batch (for materials managed in batches)

·        Discussed

You can also use the Partners tab page to process the data for the doctor you visited. Use the Details tab page to enter details about the sales call.

For more information about the features of activity management, see Activity Management.

Issuing and Ordering Samples

You can enter the number of samples of each product that you handed out in the journal template for the activity journal in the Number of Samples field. If you do not have enough samples to give to the doctor, you can set the Requirements indicator to order additional samples for the doctor. If you have set the status of the activity to Completed, the system creates a samples order in SAP CRM in the background and replicates it in SAP R/3.

If you enter a number greater than zero in the Number of Samples field and do not set the Requirements indicator, the system automatically posts a goods issue from your consignment stores in SAP R/3.

If the product is managed in batches, you must enter the correct batch number otherwise an error will occur during posting.

When you enter a sample, the system checks whether the legal regulations for issuing samples were observed. For more information about these checks, see Pharma-Specific Checks for Business Partners and Products