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 Structured Products in the Business Transaction

Use

In CRM Enterprise, when you enter an item containing a structured productin a business transaction, you can decide whether the system should carry out pricing, availability check (ATP check), and transfer of requirements for the header product or for the component products. This depends on whether the structured product is assembled or not assembled.

The system can automatically explode the structured product in the business transaction, allowing pricing, availability check and transfer of requirements to production or purchasing to be carried out for the

  • Header product if the structured product is assembled

  • Component products if the structured product is not assembled

Prerequisites

You create the structured products in CRM Enterprise.

You can copy structured products to the SAP ERP system where they are stored as bills of material(BOMs). This is necessary if you need to create a sales order in the SAP ERP system (for example, if a sales order is transferred to the SAP ERP system via Electronic Data Interchange). To copy a structured product to the SAP ERP system, you use product maintenance. Define the usage 5 for Sales Bill of Material and specify the location (plant). For more information, see Uploading Structured Products to OLTP Systems .

Structured products can be copied automatically from CRM Enterprise to CRM Mobile via CRM Middleware. You can find more information under Structured Products .

Features

When a structured product is exploded in the business transaction, the main itemcontains the header product, and subitemsare automatically created for the component products. The subitems each have the value 08 in the Usage of HL Item field to denote that they are component products.

Relevant information such as partners, delivery data and payment terms are automatically copied from the main item to the subitems.

Availability Check and Pricing

Whether the availability check and pricing are carried out for the header product or the component products depends on the item category groupin the product master of the relevant products. The item category group is linked to the item categorythat specifies whether availability check and pricing should take place.

Structured Product is Assembled

In Figure 1, the structured product is assembled. Availability check and pricing take place for the main item, the subitems are explanation items that can be printed out, for example, as information on an order confirmation.

Structured Product is not Assembled

In Figure 2, the structured product is not assembled. The availability check and pricing take place for the subitems.

Transferring Sales Transactions with Structured Products to CRM Enterprise

When sales transactions with structured products are replicated from SAP ERP to CRM Enterprise, the structured products are not exploded in CRM Enterprise, since bill of material explosion has already taken place in SAP ERP. The field Usage UEPOS in the subordinate items has the value blank .

If sales transactions are created via an external or internal interface (such as XML, BAPI, API), subitems can be transferred to CRM Enterprise as BOM subitems or manual subitems. For BOM subitems, the Usage of HL Item field for the subitems has the value 08 . In this case, the product master data for the structured product must be available in CRM Enterprise. If manual subitems are transferred (or if you create subitems manually in CRM Enterprise), no quantity or delivery date correlation takes place for the subitems.

Making Changes in the Main items and Subitems

You cannot change the quantities, quantity units or dates in the subitems for the component products in CRM Enterprise. However, if necessary, you can make changes in the main item for the header product, such as

  • Change the requested date and/or quantities

    The requested date is automatically changed for the component products in the subitems. The quantities are automatically correlated in the subitems.

    See Example 1 and Example 2 .

  • Change data such as partners, incoterms or payment terms

    If this data is identical in the main item and the subitem, then any changes in the main item will be copied automatically to the subitem.

  • Create new schedule lines

    When you enter an item in CRM Mobile, the system creates only one schedule line for this item. If necessary, you can create new schedule lines for this item in CRM Enterprise. The system automatically creates new schedule lines for the component products in the subitems and correlates the quantities accordingly.

    See Example 3 .

  • Delete existing schedule lines

    You can change or delete several request schedule lines in one step. The system automatically deletes the corresponding schedule lines for the component products in the subitems.

    Caution Caution

    If the main item has only one schedule line and you delete it or set the quantity to 0, the subitems remain in the business transaction, also without a quantity. If you create a new schedule line for the main item, quantity correlation automatically takes place in the subitems.

    End of the caution.

  • Create new subitems for the main item

    You can add another component product for the header product (that is, create a new subitem and link it to the main item). However, this is regarded as a manual subitem, so in this case quantity or delivery date correlation is not carried out.

Copying a Business Transaction that has a Structured Product

If you copy a business transaction that has a structured product, you can control whether

  • Only the main item is copied; in the new business transaction the structured product is exploded

  • The main item and the subitems are copied to the new business transaction

  • You select in the source business transaction which subitems are to be copied to the new business transaction. This is useful for complaints processing. If, for example the mouse of a computer does not work, the customer sends back only the mouse, and not the monitor, keyboard, or CPU.

Restrictions

The following constraints apply:

  • It is only possible to create single-level structured products in CRM Enterprise, that is to say component products cannot be header products for other component products.

  • The basic quantity of the header product must be 1. The quantity of the component products must be a multiple of the header product.

    Note Note

    If you enter a structured product without a quantity, and explosion has taken place, the component products do not have a quantity, either. If you enter a quantity later for the structured product, quantity correlation automatically takes place for the component products.

    End of the note.

  • Due to the fact that structured products apply to the whole company in CRM Enterprise, bills-of-material in the ERP system, which are plant-specific, (for example, sales bills-of-material), cannot be represented in CRM Enterprise. This means that you cannot copy existing bills-of-material from an ERP system but must create them in CRM Enterprise. However, you can copy structured products from CRM Enterprise to the ERP system (see the section Prerequisites ).

  • It is possible to transfer sales transactions with structured products between CRM Mobile and the ERP system. However, sales transactions that are created in the ERP system can be changed only in the ERP system, and sales transactions that are created in CRM Enterprise can be changed only in CRM Enterprise. This is because sales bills of material cannot be copied from the ERP system to CRM Enterprise, and structured products that are created in CRM Enterprise are not necessarily copied to the ERP system.

Customizing

You control in the item category of the header product whether the structured product is exploded in the business transaction. You make these settings in Customizing under Start of the navigation path Customer Relationship Management Next navigation step Transactions Next navigation step Basic Settings Next navigation step Define Item Categories End of the navigation path in the Structure section. In the Structure Scope field choose Single-level explosion of structured product .

You also control in the item category of the header or component products whether an availability check and pricing take place.