Portfolio Assignment 
Technical name of business function |
EA_ICM_PFO_CORE_01 |
Type of business function |
Industry business function & Enterprise business function |
Available as of |
SAP Enhancement Package 3 for SAP ERP 6.0 |
ECC software component |
EA-APPL |
ECC application component |
ICM |
Business Intelligence content |
Not relevant |
SAP Enterprise Services |
Not relevant |
JAVA software component |
Not relevant |
Portal content |
Not relevant |
Additional content available in other SAP applications |
Not relevant |
Business function requiring activation in addition |
Not relevant |
The functions of portfolio assignment and reassignment help you manage the relationships, assignments and reassignments between business objects that are located in different systems.
With portfolio assignment (PFO) you can easily manage the relationships between objects of a portfolio management system and commission contracts in another system based on specific assigning criteria and to perform these assignments. Portfolio reassignment helps you to transfer free portfolio to one or more new commission recipient.
Integration
Portfolio assignment is integrated with SAP Incentive and Commission Management and SAP Policy Management, however it is a separate component. The PFO component has the following features:
It can be connected to any external system.
It manages the relationships between objects but not the objects themselves.
It provides a period and version management
It allows the enhancement of data structures for object relationships through the addition of customer attributes.
It provides an exit technology that supplements standard SAP administration methods (Implementation Guide).
Prerequisites
Activate the business function EA_ICM_PFO_CORE_01 to use the full functions of portfolio assignment.
Features
Portfolio Assignment (PFO)
You use the functions of portfolio assignment (PFO) to manage the objects of your business portfolio, to edit segments and to make assignments between objects and segments.
PFO consists of core objects, assignment objects and assignment roles.
Core Objects
Core objects in PFO: Business objects, segments and assignment objects
Assignment Objects
Assignment objects in PFO: "Business assignment objects" and "segment assignment objects" for a segment in a specific assignment role
Assignment Roles
Assignment roles in PFO: "Assignment role for business object" and "assignment role for assignment object"
By assigning objects to segments you facilitate the management of the objects in your portfolio while providing different views on your portfolio. Portfolio management incorporates all the activities directly and indirectly related to PFO. Outside of PFO, the information provided by portfolio management is used to derive activities in other systems.
Transferring Object Data
The sender system transfers the object data to PFO. Since business objects are generally managed in the upstream system, the corresponding upstream system reports the creation, change or termination of its objects to PFO.
Editing Objects
When the sender system sends a message to PFO to this effect, the system creates references to the respective object in PFO and manages these references according to the messages received from the sender system. The references are created in the form of the effective primary key of the leading system. For instance, the policy number is created in PFO for an insurance policy as the reference to your policy management system. You can also define attributes for the effective dates of the objects, in addition to the reference, and edit their contents in PFO.
Editing Segments
Group the business objects into segments that you create and manage through the dialogs of PFO.
Making Assignments
The objects of PFO are linked together through assignments. The assignments always belong to a certain type, referred to as roles, and can be defined proportionately. Manage the assignments in the dialogs of PFO. Alternatively you can make the assignments in the user interfaces of Framework for Object Assignment of ICM. You always make assignments in PFO using a segment.
Assigning Objects to Segments
The assignment of objects to a portfolio or segment is not usually fixed; it may be changed. When you edit the assignment of business objects to assignments, you can edit the portfolio from the perspective of the business objects without having to change the assignment of segments to partners.
Assigning Segments to Assignment Objects
The assignment of partners to a portfolio or segment is also not fixed and may be changed. Therefore, when you edit the assignment of assignment objects (e.g. commission recipients or commission contracts) to segments you can also edit the portfolio from the perspective of the assigned individuals without having to change the assignments of individual business objects to segments.
Evaluating Information of Portfolio Assignment
Certain follow-up activities are generally derived from the assignment of business objects to segments or individuals, usually in the form of rights or obligations.
Receiving Information of Portfolio Assignment
The follow-up activities rely on the receipt of information from PFO since PFO primarily manages the relationships between business objects and partners. PFO provides interfaces with the standard delivery that offer the level of information required for the corresponding follow-up activities to be derived in PFO. A downstream system, the receiver system (and also perhaps one of the original sender systems), receives information from portfolio assignment for any possible follow-up activities or evaluations to be made there.