Enhancements to the MDG for IS-U / CRM Integration 

Use

The replication of business partner and business agreement is carried out by the CRM standard. For the replication of the other data from SAP CRM in SAP IS-U, the IS-U master data generator  plays an important role:

·        Technical objects such as points of delivery must be replicated from SAP CRM into SAP IS-U. Master data templates with the template category CRMTECHOBJ are used for this purpose.

·        During the replication of the CRM contract items, contracts must be created in SAP IS-U, among other things. These data changes are made in SAP IS-U with master data templates of the category CRMNEWCONTRACT.

You maintain master data templates in Customizing for SAP for Utilities, under Customer Service ® Master DataGenerator ® Define Master Data Templates.

CRMNEWCONTRACT is currently the only template category to which you can assign a CRM product. When you create a master data template with this category, you must enter a CRM supply product, suited for contract items, in the header data. When you create a contract item in SAP CRM, the master data template that carries out the respective master data changes in SAP IS-U is identified by means of the CRM supply product. This means, there is a close relationship between the CRM product and the respective master data template, which you must consider when creating the master data template.

Example

You create the supply product FAMILY in CRM. IS-U contracts belonging to this product must be billed with the rate 1000.
Therefore, you create a master data template in SAP IS-U with the category CRMNEWCONTRACT, to which you allocate the CRM product FAMILY. In the installation node (INSTALLATION) of the master data template, you enter the constant value R1000 for the rate category. Then this rate category is used for the utility installation in SAP IS-U and ensures that the customer is billed with rate 1000.

External Parameters

·         CANCELLATION_REASON

·         CONTRACT_END_DATE

·         CONTRACT_SIGN_DATE

·         CONTRACT_START_DATE

·         CONTRACT_TERM

·         CONTRACT_TERM_UNIT

These parameter names are provided by the input help. Currently, you should not use these parameter names except for CONTRACT_SIGN_DATE. CONTRACT_SIGN_DATE has an importance only in connection with deregulation. It contains the date of the contract signature and can be used in the contract node (template category CONTRACT) for the attributes VABSCHLEVU or VABSCHLKND.

Parameter for Key Fields

The master data template contains, among other things, a node for the connection object. This node contains the HOUSE attribute for the key of the connection object. With this key, you must select the supply parameters. The HOUSE attribute name is proposed as parameter name. You can maintain this parameter name or select another name. With the contract replication, the parameter is automatically populated with the key of the connection object, the name of the parameter is irrelevant. This is possible since the contract replication assumes that the technical objects such as connection object, and so on, have already been created. For this reason, the nodes connection object, premise and point of delivery only contain attributes for the key fields. In total, the parameters for the following attributes are automatically supplied during the contract replication:

Node	Attribute
Connection object	HOUT
Premise	PREMISE
Point of delivery	INT_UI
Utilities Installation	ANLAGE
Billing-related device installation	MATNR, SERNR, ZWNUMMER
Move-In	M/IN DATE, VKONT

 

Parameter of the Configuration

After a product has been assigned to the template, the input help (F4) is accordingly available in the processing mode of the template. When assigning a parameter to an attribute, the name of the parameter can be requested from the input help.

If the CRM supply product is configurable, the values are additionally available from the configuration in the respective master data template. When you maintain the parameter names, you can use the input help in the configuration to find the names.

You must define, to which node and to which attribute a value is supposed to be transferred from the configuration.

You are defining a configurable attribute with a discount factor. You activate an installation fact node of the operand category FACTOR in the master data template. In this node, you select the supply as a parameter for the attribute FACTOR and specify the name from the configuration of the attribute as parameter name. Use the input help for the selection.

Additional Parameters

You can use other parameters in addition to the above-mentioned ones. However, these are not automatically populated with values. To assign values to these attributes, you must use the BAPIs ECRM_CRM_UPLOAD or ECRM_CRM_DOWNLOAD.

Status of a Master Data Template

The status of the master data template is displayed in the header data tab page of the template. The possible instances depend on the category of the master data template. The statuses are maintained from the menu bar, Master Data Template ® Change Status, or by choosing the  pushbutton. The templates can run through the statuses only in a defined sequence (Active ® Released ® Obsolete).

Undefined (blank):

The template is in an undefined status and can be deleted without any problems.

Active (A):

The template is in process. No productive use is possible.

Released (R):

The template is in productive use. The CRM product of the template cannot be used in another template.

Obsolete (O):

The template is only needed for the documentation. An active use is not possible anymore. The CRM product can be assigned to another template again.

CRM Product in the Master Data Template

When you process a template, a field is displayed in accordance with the template category in the header of the template, in which the input help provides the respective CRM / IS-U product. The products are automatically retrieved and provided with the input help from the CRM system assigned in Customizing. In this case, only the IS-U products are provided, which have not yet been assigned to a master data template. Products that are in obsolete templates are, however, provided again (see the section Status of a Master Data Template). During the assignment of the product to the template, the parameters of the product are entered in the header of the template and provided for later configuration. If you have already maintained a parameter in the template, the system uses the same name to assign the internal parameters to the product parameters. Basically the processing of the template is easier if the product is entered first, since from then on the product parameters can be assigned to the template by means of the input help.

Category Changes With Master Data Templates

If required, we can extend our master data template categories, add attributes, or delete or change the attributes of nodes for the template category. The system automatically compares the category and template to ensure that the changes are taken into account in all the templates to be processed.

As soon as a master data template is called in the processing mode (can only occur in the status undefined or in process), the master data template is automatically compared with the master data template category and changed. This ensures that changes to the master data template categories delivered by SAP are incorporated in all templates that are not in production yet. However, this change must still be saved. As soon as you call up the master data template in the change mode, the comparison takes place. You are then requested to save the changes, although you might not have made any changes to the template. If this happens, the category of the template changed. You should accept these changes. Otherwise, it could result in incompatibilities and the template might become inapplicable.

You can find further information on master data templates in the Help Portal, at http://help.sap.com ® Documentation ® SAP for Industries ®SAP for Utilities ® Customer Service ® Master Data Templates in SAP IS‑U.