Manual creation of service requests from an ERP system

Service requests are used for quick reporting and resolution of problems and errors. Consequently, you can create a service request in the transactions for Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO) direct, for example in the Change Vendor (FK02) or Display General Ledger Documents (FV53) transactions. When you create a service request, the system opens it in the SAP CRM Interaction Center direct. It transfers contextual data, and gives you the option of enclosing a screenshot. Moreover, you can link various ERP objects, for example, the vendor master record or the document.

The AIC agent in turn can later call up the linked objects by navigating direct from the service request to the ERP system.

Search for service requests from an ERP system

In addition to the option of creating service requests direct from an ERP system, you can search for services requests. You can check their status and update the service requests, without an AIC employee having to be active. You can choose whether you want to see only those service requests that have been created in the ERP system in the UI of SAP CRM, or whether you want to see all of the service requests irrespective of where they were created.

Support for launching ERP transactions from the AIC

When you start an FI or CO transaction from the AIC, the ERP system calls a search screen, making it easier for the AIC agents to access the required data records. The search screen already contains the data that is known from the account identification in the AIC (customer/vendor and company code).

Enhanced Generic Object Services for linking ERP objects with service requests.

In many FI and CO transactions in the ERP system you can link individual business objects with a service request in the AIC, for example, the master data of a customer or vendor, using Generic Object Services (GOS). AIC agents can use this link to start the transaction with the ERP object in the ERP system from a service request.

Generic Object Services for linking ERP objects with service requests in the AIC are only available if an AIC agent has started the ERP transaction from the AIC, and the account in the AIC has been identified and confirmed. If at the point when the ERP transaction was started from the AIC a service request had been opened in the AIC, the system inserts the link in the business context of the service request. If no service request had been opened in the AIC, the system inserts the link in the interaction records of the accounts currently confirmed in the AIC.

Fact Sheet for Customer and Vendor

The Accounting Interaction Center contains the account fact sheet that is used in financial scenarios as a support tool for communication with partners. It provides context-related information about the communication partner, where the partner can be a customer or a vendor.

The fact sheet for the customer contains information about the special business context that ranges from purchasing volumes to the latest dispute cases for the customer. The AIC agent is therefore able to access a complete picture of the current and past relationship with the communication partner in his daily work.

The fact sheet for the vendor contains data such as open invoices, payments, and master data. It assists the AIC agent in giving informed replies to inquiries from the vendor.

Search for External Documents

The Accounting Interaction Center employee must be in a position to access information about the communication with the customer to date that is as complete as possible. This includes documents that are stored in the optical archive.

The Find Document function of the CRM user interface gives the AIC agent the option of searching from one place for documents relevant to a business partner in a series of back-end systems, and of displaying them if necessary.

Roles

Both accounting clerks from various SAP ERP applications and agents from the SAP CRM Interaction Center are involved in the Shared Services Framework processes. All of those involved have to navigate between various SAP systems. Such navigation is supported by the following new roles:

Connection of non-SAP systems and various SAP systems to SAP Collections Management

This function increases the range of accounting systems the data of which you can access with SAP Collections Management. You set up the connection with the help of a substitute system that you connect to SAP Collections Management, and to which you transfer the required master and transaction data. In this way you can centralize and standardize the processes for collecting open receivables, irrespective of the system architecture used in your company. In the standard system, the sample loading procedure SAP_46C is available for an SAP system with Release SAP R/3 4.6C.

Without this business function you can only connect SAP systems where Accounts Receivable Accounting (FI-AR) has at least the status SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.70.